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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

-Short Attention Span Theater-
Shaddup, Already! The Air Force One 'Gift' Is Having Its Intended Effect
2025-05-14
[PJMedia] In 1974, President Richard Nixon gifted Egyptian President Anwar Sadat a Sikorsky VH-3A Sea King helicopter similar to Marine One. After chain-smoking first lady Pat Nixon asked Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai for a cigarette and commented on how cute the pandas were in his special pack, Zhou gifted them two giant pandas. The Nixons also received a set of crown jewels. Azerbaijan gifted Hillary and Bill Clinton
...former Democratic president of the U.S. Bill was the second U.S. president to be impeached, the first to deny that oral sex was sex, the first to have difficulty with the definition of the word is...
 a priceless handmade rug with their images on it. President Reagan received a white horse from Mexico. And on and on it goes.

Now, everyone is having a conniption fit over President Trump possibly receiving a 747 jetliner that Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
 currently uses as a charter jet.

Calm down, everyone.

Unless you're Crooked Hillary Clinton
...former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away. Politix is not one of her talents, but it's something she keeps trying to do...
 and order staff to pack up all the good stuff out of the White House and send it to your new home, presidents can't keep gifts like that. In fact, they can't keep anything worth more than about $500. Even Hillary couldn't. She had to return $190,000 worth of furniture, dishes, rugs, TVs, and other items. They were given a chance to purchase other items and paid out $28,000 to keep them.

Aside from concerns I have about the Qatari plane being a security fiasco because Qatar is not our friend and hasn't met a jihadi they don't love and want to fund, all of those spendy gifts go to the woke National Archives or other government entity and are doled out for loaning to museums and presidential libraries after the administration has used them.

The two presidential Air Force One jets now in use have been flying since 1990 and have been used by every president since George H.W. Bush. The old ones were mothballed. This is the reason why former President Reagan was able to park one of those out-of-commission bad boys at the Reagan Library.

But the discussion about the Boeing jetliner being gifted to the Trump administration has lit a fire under Boeing's CEO to speed up the delivery of the Air Force Ones.

The Boeing jets have been on order since 2015, when Trump 45 complained that the time and materials contract was a disaster and demanded a renegotiation for an all-inclusive deal for one price and not a penny more in 2018. Trump saved the Air Force $1.4 billion over the previous deal.

Initially, Boeing said it would get them out the door in 2024, but Trump said he wanted the craft delivered by 2021. But Trump left office, and nobody seemed to ride herd on Boeing. Recently, delivery dates were pushed back to some time in 2029.

Trump 47 has been complaining about the slow production since his first days in office.

But labor problems at Boeing and the defense contracting giant's difficulty in finding parts and components, along with other supply chain issues, have made it difficult to finish the two jetliners.

Ortburg now says he hopes to have them done by 2027, before Trump leaves his second term of office.

Qatar made the offer of the plane in February, and President Trump toured the craft when it was parked in Palm Beach, Fla., near the Summer White House at Mar-a-Lago.

Let's recap: Boeing's late and probably over budget. Qatar offered a plane a couple of months ago. Trump toured said plane, noting that it will cost millions to retrofit it to minimum Air Force One standards. And Boeing is left sputtering about speeding up production.

The mediacrats are shilling the fake news that Trump only wants the Qatari 747 for himself because they can't expand their minds to consider that what Trump really wants is for Boeing to get off their backsides and get these done. That's applying pressure on Boeing.

Trump just did Boeing a solid in the recent deal with the UK.

The company is a defense and national security asset, and now the man in the Oval Office wants them to get their production lines moving.

Trump to Boeing: Help me help you, or I may buy a new plane and ask another company to kit it out. It's up to you, Boeing.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon's New President: An American Wedge into a Weakened 'Axis of Resistance'
2025-01-10
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] After several years of political vacuum, Lebanon's parliament has elected a new president. The post was taken by former Lebanese army commander Joseph Aoun. He replaced his namesake, General Michel Aoun, who left the post in October 2022.

“Aoun the Second,” as some regional publications jokingly call him, is considered a creature of Washington and a “living instrument” with which the White House plans to unravel the protracted crisis in the Middle East.

ATTEMPT NUMBER 13
For more than two years, Lebanon has been in a state of crisis, both economic and political. Since General Aoun's retirement, members of the Lebanese parliament have met more than a dozen times to approve a successor, but behind-the-scenes disagreements have prevented the government vacuum from being overcome each time.

Some complications were added by the fact that, according to the National Pact adopted in 1943, the president is elected from among the Maronite Christians. The position of prime minister is invariably occupied by a Sunni, and the speaker of parliament by a Shiite.

This is done in order to balance Lebanon's motley ethno-confessional palette and keep the country from sliding into another period of fragmentation. Although Muslims have served as president at least five times since the pact was adopted, no one has dared to completely upset the balance of power.

By February 2023, the "final list" of candidates for the presidential post had been formed. In addition to Commander-in-Chief Aoun, it included the director of the International Monetary Fund's branch in the Middle East and Central Asia, Jihad Azour, and former MP Salah Hannin.

However, Aoun quickly became the unofficial leader, especially after his candidacy was publicly supported by the heavyweight of Lebanese politics, the leader of the Christian center-right Marada party, Suleiman Frangieh. By giving up his presidential aspirations in favor of Aoun, he gave him a serious advantage in the race.

At the same time, Aoun, even being the only real candidate for the presidential seat and the absolute leader of the "final list", was able to win only on the second attempt. In the first round, he collected only 71 parliamentary votes out of the 86 required. The remaining parliamentarians either submitted blank ballots (which symbolizes a public expression of no confidence in the candidate) or spoiled them.

Only the thirteenth session put an end to the protracted presidential race, but this did not reduce the political differences.

A FRAGILE BALANCE OF INTERESTS
Since Aoun is considered a Western-oriented figure, his appointment to the presidency is expectedly not to the liking of pro-Iranian forces. The Shiite parties Hezbollah and Amal demonstratively submitted blank ballots, thus emphasizing their contempt for the “pro-American figure.”

The Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), led by Aoun the First (Michel Aoun), acted in a similar manner. However, in the case of the FPM, the hostility towards the commander-in-chief is connected with his excessive focus on cooperation with Saudi Arabia. The Lebanese, not without reason, consider the Saudis their regional competitors and are suspicious of Riyadh's "excessive involvement" in the country's affairs. In this sense, the FPM and the Shiite parties acted as tactical allies.

However, Washington managed to overcome the resistance of Aoun's opponents rather quickly. Especially since big stakes were placed on the figure of the commander-in-chief.

The US hopes to use Aoun’s hands not only to weaken Iran’s influence in a single Arab country, but also to push Lebanon toward a gradual “détente” with Israel according to a scenario that is advantageous to Washington; to try to drive a wedge into the weakened “Axis of Resistance.”

Considering that Aoun bases his rhetoric on the theses “Lebanon is for the Lebanese” and “the army is the country’s support,” ending the confrontation with Tel Aviv could well be presented as a contribution to national security and a step toward fully normalizing relations. Even considering that Lebanon’s status as a “hostile state” is enshrined in Israeli law.

In a sense, the new Lebanese president may repeat the trajectory of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who was the first to decide to normalize relations with the Jewish state, even against public opinion. In exchange for such steps, Washington is ready to multiply investments in Lebanese state institutions and the economy.

Aoun's appearance on the political map of Lebanon is partly to Israel's advantage.

Moreover, the former commander-in-chief had previously, willy-nilly, played along with Tel Aviv by slowing down the deployment of government troops in the south of the country during the escalation between Hezbollah and Israel. Israeli forces, in turn, took advantage of Beirut's delay and strengthened their positions, which subsequently forced Hezbollah units to retreat deeper into Lebanese territory.

Now Aoun is ready to move forward and seek the disarmament of Shiite militias. In his first statement, he hinted at an intention to seek “the exclusive right of the state to bear arms,” indicating a desire to limit the military activity of Hezbollah and its allies.

The ambitious plans of the former commander-in-chief have already met with the support of high-ranking Israeli officials, in particular, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.

On the other hand, given the strong polarization of Lebanese society, Aoun's initiatives could have the opposite effect. Limiting the freedom of action of Shiite forces, coupled with rapprochement with Israel and the United States, could provoke a deepening of the domestic political crisis, which would push forces "offended" by the results of the last elections to change the balance of power in their favor.
Related:
Joseph Aoun 12/24/2024 Lebanese PM, UNIFIL call for Israel to withdraw troops faster than ceasefire demands
Joseph Aoun 12/13/2024 Gen. Michael Kurilla traveled to Beirut, Lebanon and met with Gen. Joseph Aoun, Commander of the Lebanon Armed Forces
Joseph Aoun 12/12/2024 IDF confirms withdrawal from southern Lebanon’s Khiam in accordance with ceasefire

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
A look at Israel’s decades-long covert intelligence ties with Morocco
2020-12-14
[IsraelTimes] Jerusalem secured weapons for Morocco and allegedly helped it kill an opposition leader, while Rabat has been credited with helping Jewish state win Six Day War.

Israel and Morocco, who announced Thursday that they are normalizing their relations, have had more than 60 years of covert cooperation on intelligence, security and diplomatic issues.

That collaboration has included the Jewish state helping Morocco acquire advanced military gear and weapons as well as the know-how to use it. It also allegedly helped Rabat assassinate an opposition leader.

Meanwhile,
...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard...
 the northern African country enabled the mass emigration of Moroccan Jews to Israel, purportedly helped Israel win the 1967 Six Day War, aided the Israel-Egypt grinding of the peace processor and reportedly tried, unsuccessfully, to help the Mossad kill the late Osama bin Laden
...... who is now among the dear departed, though not among the dearest......
 before the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Some of the details of these secret ties have been known for decades, while others have only come to light in recent years.

Below are a few major events, or alleged events, in the ties between the countries:

1961 — After Morocco barred Jews from emigrating in 1959, the accession to the throne of King Hassan II enables a deal between him and Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion for Israel to pay Morocco for every Jew Rabat allows to leave the country and come to Israel, marking the beginning of Operation Yachin.

In return, Israel reportedly provides Morocco with weapons and training for its security forces and intelligence operations.

1965 — Hassan II allows the Mossad to bug the meeting and private rooms of visiting Arab leaders, resulting in Jerusalem receiving crucial information that allegedly helps it stave off a simultaneous attack by three Arab armies two years later and defeat them in just six days. The recordings reveal not only that Arab ranks are split — heated arguments broke out, for example, between Egypt’s president Gamal Abdel-Nasser and Jordan’s King Hussein — but that the Arab nations are ill-prepared for war. These details were exposed in 2016 by former IDF military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Shlomo Gazit in an interview with the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

According to Ronen Bergman, an investigative journalist and military analyst for Yedioth Ahronoth and The New York Times

...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
, only a month later Morocco demands that Israel pay back the favor and help Rabat locate Mehdi Ben Barka, a political dissident in La Belle France who was regarded as an opposition leader. Israel had previously told Hassan II of a plot by Ben Barka to overthrow him, a plan in which the latter had asked the Mossad to take part. Instead, the Mossad helps the king locate Ben Barka and lures him to Gay Paree, where Moroccan agents torture and kill him. According to some versions, Mossad agents then dispose of the body, which has never been found.

Bergman revealed these details in a 2018 book, "Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations". (More on the book here.) On Thursday, Bergman published a New York Times piece summarizing covert Israeli-Moroccan ties.

1977 — Morocco’s government serves as a key backchannel in peace talks between Israel and Egypt, with Rabat hosting secret meetings between advisers of Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Those talks end with Israel’s first peace deal with an Arab state, leading Israel to persuade the US to provide military aid to Morocco, according to Bergman.

1995 — Morocco’s intelligence tries unsuccessfully to help the Mossad assassinate Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader who would go on to direct the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, Bergman reports. Mossad tries to recruit bin Laden’s Moroccan secretary to locate him, but that doesn’t work out. Some details of the operation were published by Yedioth Ahronoth in 2006.
Link


Terror Networks
Hamza bin Laden married daughter of another al-Qaeda leader, not 9/11 hijacker
2018-08-08
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] In an article published on Sunday, British newspaper The Guardian reported that Hamza Bin Laden, the son of the late al-Qaeda leader, married the daughter of Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker in the 9/11 terror attacks.

Research undergone by Al Arabiya English has found this to be false.

Hamza bin Laden is, however, confirmed to have married the daughter of al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Abdullah Ahmad Abdullah, who is deputy to current leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

Abdullah is nicknamed "Abu Mohammed al-Masri," as mentioned in a report by Al Arabiya English in January.

This information was obtained from al-Qaeda archives that were confiscated from the hiding place of the late Osama bin Laden
... who used to be alive but now he's not...
 in Abottabad.

Earlier this year, in January, Al Arabiya English received footage and details surrounding Hamza’s wedding. The ceremony took place in Iran when he was 17 years old.

The man who married the couple was Mohammed Shawki al-Islambouli, the brother of Khalid al-Islambouli, assassinator of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

The video shows Hamza sitting next to Mohammed al-Islambouli, while on his other side sits Abu Mohammed al-Masri.

Bin Laden’s three other sons also attended the wedding with a number of his grandsons.

During the wedding, Islambouli carried out the ceremony, in which the identity of Hamza’s wife was revealed as Maryam Abdullah Ahmad Abdullah.
Link


Arabia
Institutionalizing ‘fatwas’ and controlling them
2018-07-10
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Fundamentalist groups have often had a field day in interpreting and adapting religious texts to suit their own purposes, review them outside their temporal and objective meanings and employ them in inapplicable contexts ‐ be they events, subjects and eras ‐ as well as use them as weapons against others.

Exploiting religious texts to issue fatwas has been essential for Islamist movements. The liquidation of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the attempted murder of novelist Naguib Mahfouz, the massacres committed by the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria, as well as the suicide operations carried out by al-Qaeda and ISIS are all based on fatwas used by terrorists.

This approach of arbitrarily issuing fatwas seeks to find a textual reference that justifies partisan action. It contradicts the foundations of ’ijtihad,’ the origins of jurisprudential deductive reasoning among Moslem scholars and the concept of the modern state and its civism. This state is based on the principle of institutionalizing work and organizing it according to laws imposed on everyone and that are the state’s supreme reference.

As such, many countries are now working on controlling the sway of ’fatwas’ and trying to institutionalize them, so that violent groups and those that lack religious competency are not able to exploit them.

Avoiding exploitation of fatwas
Last June, the UAE Council of Ministers ratified the formation of the Emirates Fatwa Council under the chairmanship of Sheikh Abdallah bin Bayyah along with a number of experts that include women.

In addition to his religious expertise, Bin Bayyah is known for his strong conscience regarding the importance of the development of Fiqh, and a deep understanding that change in time and place directly impacts judgments. In addition, he is far from extremism and believes in a more tolerant and open-minded religious discourse. He is also the president of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Moslem Societies which focuses on overcoming sectarian divisions and mitigating sectarian tensions.

Before this council was formed, the Moslem Council of Elders, chaired by al-Azhar Sheikh Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb was established. All these institutions aim to transfer Fiqh and religious discourse that was in accordance with the circumstances of earlier times to a level suited for the transition of Arab societies into modern civil states.

Rescuing Islam from the hands of Lions of Islam is not an easy task. As such, it necessitates extensive political and diplomatic work.

The UAE’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed visited the Vatican and met with Pope Francis where they emphasized the importance of dialogue between religions and the promotion of the values of tolerance and coexistence among peoples. This comes within the UAE’s work to restore the status of an Islam that is open to others, a humanistic Islam that does not distrust those with different doctrines but seeks to create common space for different religions and communities, to undermine the threat of conflict and wars in the world.

In the past decades, the Arab Gulf has been a harmonious place for co-existence among its various components, while ensuring its durability, thus preventing the exploitation of fatwas and their use for creating civil strife and accusing the society of infidelity and immorality. It is a responsibility that necessitates constant action and joint civil and government efforts.

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel shocked by Obama's "betrayal" of Mubarak
2011-02-01
You can be many things, Benji, but 'shocked' isn't one of them. You knew Bambi could sell out anyone given your own dealings with the man. But the events in Egypt the past week have more to do with ordinary people finally becoming tired of being scared and less to do with Bambi, no matter how important he thinks he is.
If Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is toppled, Israel will lose one of its very few friends in a hostile neighborhood and President Barack Obama will bear a large share of the blame, Israeli pundits said on Monday.
Not Bibi, but Israeli op-ed writers, many of whom take a New York Times view of the universe.
Political commentators expressed shock at how the United States as well as its major European allies appeared to be ready to dump a staunch strategic ally of three decades, simply to conform to the current ideology of political correctness.
Or maybe we realize it's Hosni's time. He had a good run, helped us out, but the average Egyptian man and woman on the streets got tired of being oppressed. Wonder why? So they're rioting and Hosni's going to go. That evil men like ElBaradei and the Muslim Brotherhood wait in the wings hasn't occurred to these people, and by the time it does it will be too late.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told ministers of the Jewish state to make no comment on the political cliffhanger in Cairo, to avoid inflaming an already explosive situation. But Israel's President Shimon Peres is not a minister.

"We always have had and still have great respect for President Mubarak," he said on Monday. He then switched to the past tense. "I don't say everything that he did was right, but he did one thing which all of us are thankful to him for: he kept the peace in the Middle East."

Newspaper columnists were far more blunt.

One comment by Aviad Pohoryles in the daily Maariv was entitled "A Bullet in the Back from Uncle Sam." It accused Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of pursuing a naive, smug, and insular diplomacy heedless of the risks. Who is advising them, he asked, "to fuel the mob raging in the streets of Egypt and to demand the head of the person who five minutes ago was the bold ally of the president ... an almost lone voice of sanity in a Middle East?"

"The politically correct diplomacy of American presidents throughout the generations ... is painfully naive."
They don't seem to like President Obama or Secretary of State Clinton. So much for the world loving us once President Obama became America's public face.
Netanyahu instructed Israeli ambassadors in a dozen key capitals over the weekend to impress on host governments that Egypt's stability is paramount, official sources said.

"Jordan and Saudi Arabia see the reactions in the West, how everyone is abandoning Mubarak, and this will have very serious implications," Haaretz daily quoted one official as saying.

Egypt, Israel's most powerful neighbor, was the first Arab country to make peace with the Jewish state, in 1979. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who signed the treaty, was assassinated two years later by an Egyptian fanatic.

It took another 13 years before King Hussein of Jordan broke Arab ranks to made a second peace with the Israelis. That treaty was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated one year later, in 1995, by an Israeli fanatic.

There have been no peace treaties since. Lebanon and Syria are still technically at war with Israel. Conservative Gulf Arab regimes have failed to advance their peace ideas. A hostile Iran has greatly increased its influence in the Middle East conflict.

"The question is, do we think Obama is reliable or not," said an Israeli official, who declined to be named. "Right now it doesn't look so. That is a question resonating across the region not just in Israel."
You didn't really need Egypt to see that Bambi hasn't a clue, did you?
Writing in Haaretz, Ari Shavit said Obama had betrayed "a moderate Egyptian president who remained loyal to the United States, promoted stability and encouraged moderation."
Again, Bambi may not have done very much to incite this. Hosni's at least as good as any thug in pushing Obama off. The difference here is that people reached a tipping point. It's peculiar how it happens sometimes. Discontent and unhappiness can bubble under the surface for years, even decades, and then something sets it off. Like police officers shooting a young man in a provincial town in Tunisia. All of a sudden, kaboom.
To win popular Arab opinion, Obama was risking America's status as a superpower and reliable ally.

"Throughout Asia, Africa and South America, leaders are now looking at what is going on between Washington and Cairo. Everyone grasps the message: "America's word is worthless ... America has lost it."
Link


India-Pakistan
Abu al-Masri reported dronezapped
2009-10-22
[Dawn] In the first drone strikes since the Pakistan military began its operation in South Waziristan a top al-Qaeda operative Abu Al-Masri is reported to have been killed in a strike from a US unmanned aircraft. However, conflicting reports earlier suggested that Al-Masri may have been killed preparing suicide jackets in the village of Spalga.
"You can't kill me, I'm already dead!"
Known as Mustafa Al-Yazid, he was urported to have links with Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi, whom US authorities arrested in an alleged plot to use homemade backpack bombs, he served three years in an Egyptian prison, in the 1980s, for supposed links to the group responsible for the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. After his release, he was also known as Sheik Said and Abu Saeed al-Masri and became a founding member of the terrorist group.

Abu Masri went into hiding after the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, but resurfaced in May 2007 during a 45-minute interview posted on the web by Al-Sabah.

In August 2008, Pakistani military officials claimed Abu Masri had been killed in fighting in the Bajaur tribal area along the Afghan border. However, he turned up in subsequent al-Qaida videos, all of which had clearly been made after the Bajaur fighting. Abu Masri appeared on an al-Qaida video posted this month, vowing to avenge the death of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a CIA missile strike Aug, 6.
Link


Terror Networks
Little-Known Egyptian is Key Al-Qaeda Figure
2009-10-16
He's a heavyweight in al-Qaeda but little known outside jihadi and intelligence circles even though he runs the terrorist movement's operations in a key front -- Afghanistan -- and may be linked to a plot in New York.

Mustafa al-Yazid makes no secret of his contempt for the United States, once calling it "the evil empire leading crusades against the Muslims."

"We have reached the point where we see no difference between the state and the American people," al-Yazid told Pakistan's Geo TV in a June 2008 interview. "The United States is a non-Muslim state bent on the destruction of Muslims."

Al-Yazid may also have links to Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi, whom U.S. authorities have arrested in an alleged plot to use homemade backpack bombs, perhaps on New York City's mass transit system.

Two U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the case remains under investigation, told The Associated Press that the bespectacled, Egyptian-born al-Yazid used a middleman to contact Zazi, indicating that the al-Qaeda leadership took a keen interest in what U.S. officials call one of the most serious terrorism threats crafted on U.S. soil since the 9/11 attacks.

Despite his relative obscurity in the West, the shadowy, 55-year-old al-Yazid, who barely stands 5-foot-5 inches tall, has been involved with Islamic extremist movements for nearly 30 years since he joined radical student groups led by fellow Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri, now the No. 2 figure in al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden.

In the early 1980s, al-Yazid served three years in an Egyptian prison for purported links to the group responsible for the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. After his release, al-Yazid, also known as Sheik Said and Abu Saeed al-Masri, turned up in Afghanistan, where, according to al-Qaeda's propaganda wing Al-Sabah, he became a founding member of the terrorist group.

He later followed bin Laden to Sudan and back to Afghanistan, where he served as al-Qaeda's chief financial officer, managing secret bank accounts in the Persian Gulf that were used to help finance the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington.

After the U.S. and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001, al-Yazid went into hiding for years. He surfaced in May 2007 during a 45-minute interview posted on the Web by Al-Sabah, in which he was introduced as the "official in charge" of the terrorist movement's operations in Afghanistan.

Some security analysts believe the choice of al-Yazid as the Afghan chief may have signaled a new approach for al-Qaeda in the country where it once reigned supreme.

Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA unit that tracked bin Laden, believes that bin Laden and al-Zawahri wanted a trusted figure to handle Afghanistan "while they turn to other aspects of the jihad outside" the country.

Al-Yazid had little background in leading combat operations. But terrorism experts say his advantage was that he was close to Taliban leader Mullah Omar. As a fluent Pashto speaker known for impeccable manners, al-Yazid enjoyed better relations with the Afghans than many of the al-Qaeda Arabs, whom the Afghans found arrogant and abrasive.

That suggested a conscious decision by al-Qaeda to embed within the Taliban organization, helping the Afghan allies with expertise and training while at the same time putting an Afghan face on the war.

Al-Yazid himself alluded to such an approach in an interview this year with Al-Jazeera television's Islamabad correspondent Ahmad Zaidan. Al-Yazid said al-Qaeda fighters were involved at every level with the Taliban.

"We participate with our brothers in the Islamic Emirate in all fields," al-Yazid said. "This had a big positive effect on the (Taliban) self-esteem in Afghanistan."

A September 2007 al-Qaida video sought to promote the notion of close Taliban-al-Qaeda ties at a time when the Afghan insurgents were launching their comeback six years after their ouster from power in Kabul.

The video showed al-Yazid sitting with a senior Taliban commander in a field surrounded by trees as a jihad anthem played -- rather than in a bleak desert hideout. The Taliban commander vowed to "target the infidels in Afghanistan and outside Afghanistan" and to "focus our attacks, Allah willing, on the coalition forces in Afghanistan."

There is also evidence that al-Yazid has promoted ties with Islamic extremist groups in Central Asia and Pakistan, where other top al-Qaeda figures are believed to be hiding.

"He definitely seems to have significant influence among the Pakistani Taliban and the Central Asian groups," terrorism expert Evan Kohlman said. "They regularly post and share his videos on the Web, just as they would with bin Laden or al-Zawahri."

In August 2008, Pakistani military officials claimed al-Yazid had been killed in fighting in the Bajaur tribal area along the Afghan border. However, he turned up in subsequent al-Qaeda videos, all of which had clearly been made after the Bajaur fighting.

Al-Yazid appeared on an al-Qaeda video posted this month, vowing to avenge the death of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a CIA missile strike Aug, 6.

"I say to the Islamic nation that even if we have lost Baitullah Mehsud, there are thousands of tribesmen who are like him and who will take revenge on the Americans and their allies," al-Yazid said.
Link


Terror Networks
Sheikh Said: Al Qaeda's financier
2008-08-29
Mustafa Abu Al Yazid, or Mustafa Ahmed Mohamed Osman Abu Al Yazid, also known as “Sheikh Said”, commander of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization in Afghanistan, was a familiar face in Egypt in the 1980s. He fled to Afghanistan after security operations against the Egyptian Islamic Jihad movement, to which he belonged, intensified. He may still be remembered in Egypt but not nearly as well as he is known today in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

There have been recent reports claiming that Al Yazid had been killed during raids against fundamentalist strongholds along the Pakistani-Afghan frontier. But who is Al Yazid? And what role has he played within the Al Qaeda organization?

Al Yazid could be described as ‘Al Qaeda’s financier’. He was chosen for this role due to his intellect and his theological knowledge of Islam but he lacked knowledge and interest in the military aspects of the Al Qaeda organization.

Like many other members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, al Yazid made a fresh start in Afghanistan. They destroyed their old passports and forged new ones and changed their names so that they could not be traced even by the countries they were born in.

Yasser Al Sirri, Director of the Islamic Observation Centre in London told Asharq Al-Awsat that he was certain that “Mustafa Abu Al Yazid otherwise known as Sheikh Said, Al Qaeda’s third man, survived the rocket attacks on the Pakistani-Afghan border last month.” He added, “Since Al Qaeda has not made a statement or announced his death, it is obvious that Al Yazid is still alive.” There are strong indications that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had knowledge of al Yazid’s whereabouts.

Sheikh Said is Al Qaeda’s current Commander of Operations in Afghanistan; he is an Egyptian national who was imprisoned for a while with Ayman al Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s second man, following the assassination of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981. Sheikh Said is currently referred to as the third most important member of Al Qaeda, after Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, since the five men who have held this position since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 have been killed or detained.

Yasser Al Sirri revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that al Yazid and Sheikh Said were in fact the same person; the man who was responsible for the finances of one of Osama Bin Laden’s Khartoum-based companies and who is now Al Qaeda’s Commander of Operations in Afghanistan.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, al Yazid was mentioned as part of the US investigation of Osama Bin Laden but the Americans have only recently come to know the importance of this man. Initially, the US government believed that al Yazid was of Saudi nationality but he is from the Egyptian region of Ash Sharqiyah. An accountant by training, he fled Egypt for Afghanistan in 1988. At present, Sheikh Said is not wanted in Egypt on any charges but he is sought by the USA on charges of sponsoring terrorism. He ranks fifteenth on the most wanted list signed by the US President George W. Bush in 2002. Al Sirri told Asharq Al Awsat that upon his arrival to Afghanistan, Sheikh Said joined Al Qaeda in 1988 and became a member of its Shura Council along with Abu Hafs al Masri and Abu Obeida. Sheikh Said is said to be popular within the Council and able to reconcile conflicting trends of Islamic fundamentalist thought. He is fluent in Pashto and has strong ties with the Afghans, not to mention with other members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad group who also fled Egypt for Afghanistan.

The news that Sheikh Said is a pseudonym for Mustafa Abu Al Yazid is important because Sheikh Said is reportedly responsible for financing the 9/11 attacks in the United States. His pseudonym is included in the US congress investigation into the attack as the man responsible for funding the operation via accounts based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Sheikh Said travelled to Qatar then to the UAE as part of his role in financing the 9/11 attacks. Mohamed Atta, who led the 9/11 hijackers, returned a surplus amount of US $26,000 to Sheikh Said two days before the attacks took place.

It is interesting that Sheikh Said agreed to help finance the 9/11 attacks since he and a number of other high ranking Al Qaeda members, including Mullah Omar, opposed the attacks. Despite his objection the Sheikh acceded to the wishes of Osama Bin Laden, and transferred the funds. Sheikh Said was named Commander of Operations for Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in June 2007, taking over the role of Abdel Hadi al Iraqi who was arrested in Turkey and handed over to the US forces in Iraq. He was then transferred to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

But what of Sheikh Said? Islamists in Britain claim that he is a spiritual figure, rather than a military commander. Sayyed Imam al Sharif, known as Dr Fadl, the founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad movement to which Sheikh Said belonged, objected to his appointment as a military commander. Dr Fadl, who is currently imprisoned in Tora Prison in Egypt and who recently recanted the theological basis for Jihad and renounced violence, says Sheikh Said’s appointment as Commander of Operations for Al Qaeda in Afghanistan signals an end to Al Qaeda’s cadres due to imprisonment or death. Sources close to Dr Fadl in Europe attribute his opposition to Sheikh Said’s new position to the latter’s lack of experience in military command.

Muntassir al Zayat, an Islamist lawyer, told Asharq Al-Awsat that he personally met Sheikh Said on more than one occasion in Egypt and knew him personally as a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad movement. He described him as a ‘popular figure, a spiritual leader and a theologian, but he does not have military expertise or command. Therefore we can understand Dr Fadl’s objection to him being given the position of a military commander in Al Qaeda.’

In his last public appearance Sheikh Said appeared in a rare television interview with journalist Najeeb Ahmed from a secret location in Afghanistan that was broadcast on the Pakistani Geo TV channel in July 2008. Sheikh Said revealed in this interview that he was angered by the publication of the Danish cartoons that depicted Prophet Mohammed in 2005. He confessed that the 9/11 attacks were indeed carried out by Al Qaeda, and criticized former Pakistani President Musharraf’s pledge to stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States. He also expressed his confidence that Al Qaeda would triumph in Afghanistan.

This interview preceded the broadcast of a video by Al Qaeda’s production house, As Sahab, and only a few days before Sheikh Said appeared in a video in which he elegized the Al Qaeda commander Abu Hussein Al Saidi and commended him for his courage. Abu Hussein Al Saidi was also a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad movement and fled to Afghanistan to join Al Qaeda. In the video, Sheikh Said also spoke about the merits of suicide bombing operations as a military tactic.

The US Congressional 9/11 Report revealed that Bin Laden’s main objective was to attack the USA, but others within the Al Qaeda organization held different viewpoints. The Taliban command was focusing military attacks on the Northern Alliance. The Taliban believed that any attack on America would result in a negative reaction and would drag the Americans into war just when the Taliban was within reach of a decisive victory over Ahmed Shah Massoud’s forces.

There is evidence that Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, objected to any Al Qaeda operations against the USA in 2001. There were disputes between the leaders of Al Qaeda who wanted the attack on the USA to go ahead and others who supported Mullah Omar’s position opposing an attack on the USA at that time. Mullah Omar attributed his objection to ideological reasons, rather than due to fear of America’s response; he wanted Al Qaeda to attack “Jews”. Mullah Omar was also facing increasing amounts of pressure from the Pakistani government to prevent Al Qaeda from carrying out operations on foreign land.

Despite helping to finance the operation, Al Qaeda’s banker, Sheikh Said also adopted the same opinion as Mullah Omar due to his apprehension of America’s response to any attack. Abu Hafs al Mauritani, one of the more prominent members of Al Qaeda also opposed the attacks, which he outlined in a letter to Osama Bin Laden. Even after the Al Qaeda Shura Council had convened to discuss the matter, and the majority of its members objected to any planned attacks, Bin Laden remained insistent that the 9/11 attacks would go ahead as planned.

The full story about the disputes within the Al Qaeda organization regarding the 9/11 attacks is unknown and perhaps will never be fully discovered as the sources from which information can be derived are far from reliable. Yet there is no doubt that Sheikh Said played a part in preparation for the attacks.
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Home Front: WoT
Official: Senior Al Qaeda Commander Killed in Pakistan
2008-08-12
Senior Al Qaeda commander Abu Saeed al-Masri has been killed in recent clashes with Pakistani forces in a Pakistani region near the Afghan border, a security official told Reuters on Tuesday. "He was believed to be among the top leadership of Al Qaeda," the senior security official told the news agency on condition of anonymity.

Al-Masri, which means Egyptian, was the senior most Al Qaeda operative to have been killed in Pakistan's tribal belt since the death of his compatriot, Abu Khabab al-Masri, an Al Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert, last month.

Pakistani television identified the man as Mustafa Abu al-Yazid and said he was also known as Abu Saeed al-Masri. Al-Masri was reportedly the commander of Al Qaeda's Afghanistan operations, and was described by the September 11 Commission as the network's "chief financial manager."

He served time in jail with Al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri after the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981, Reuters reported.

Since the deaths of other senior Al Qaeda figures beginning in 2001, al-Masri has moved up the chain to become Al Qaeda's third most senior figure.
Another opening for a number three. They never learn ...
A former security chief of Pakistan's northwestern ethnic Pastun tribal areas, told Reuters that the death of al-Masri, aka. Yazid, would have an impact on insurgencies in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. "It's one more important person gone. It will have an impact," Mahmood Shah told Reuters. "Al Qaeda is the main machine behind the insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Taliban, the Chechens and the Uzbeks, are used as foot soldiers as cannon fodder but the actual machine is Al Qaeda."
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Africa North
Al Qaeda Faction Alters Course
2007-11-21
I really don't believe this. Imam is in jug, and I'm guessing that an Egyptian prison has characteristics similar to that of a Turkish prison, except not as nice. When the gaolers finish using their number 7 truncheons on him he'll write pretty much whatever they want just so he can get out. Then he'll vamoose somewhere and renounce all this writing as mere taqiyya.
CAIRO, Nov 20 (IPS) - The ideology al Qaeda rests on to justify its activities suffered a major blow this week. The Al-Jihad Group, partly responsible for killing former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981, and the nest for some of most aggressive smaller violent groups, has begun publishing a "review of its positions" in two Arabic language newspapers.

The leading al Qaeda faction -- once led by al Qaeda's number two man, Ayman al-Zawahri -- has altered its traditional course by publishing this series of critiques of the religious justifications long relied on in calling for followers to take up arms against ruling regimes and foreign powers.

In the new "document", al-Jihad Group's founder and leading ideologue, Sayed Imam, supposedly renounces violent activities and calls for ceasing all armed operations in Egypt and in other Arab or Muslim countries. Imam -- al-Zawahri's teacher and long time friend -- is currently in custody at a high-security Egyptian prison.
Must want out pretty bad. Then again, he's in an Egyptian prison. I'd want out pretty bad.
Analysts here say that the Imam's initiative -- not directed at Egyptians, Arabs or even Muslims alone, but directed specifically at al Qaeda -- derives its strength from the weight of its author.

"This al-Jihad initiative is very important, it is directed mostly to the outside world and more explicitly to the leaders of al-Jihad Group and al Qaeda because the author of those reviews is Sayed Imamal-Sharief, the very same person whose former writings are the point of reference for the al-Jihad members," said Diaa Rashwan, an expert on Islamic groups at al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo.

Imam was the first Amir, or leader, for the al-Jihad Group in 1968 and the first leader of an armed cell who ever decided to fight fellow Muslims. Imam also authored, "The Principle Book for Preparations", a reference book that al Qaeda uses to justify its operations and win new recruits on religious grounds.
That's pretty much what he thinks right there, and the latest writing will be seen by the hard-boyz as either revisionism or duress.
Al-Jihad Group is responsible for one of the bloodiest campaigns against the authoritarian regime of President Hosni Mubarak in the1980's and 1990's that drew in hundreds of young recruits and cost dozens of lives. For decades, Imam's writings have also formed the backbone for the philosophical arguments touted by several other armed groups to validate their attacks.

But in the new review he now says his group "erred enormously from an Islamic point of view" by allowing "killing based on nationality, color of skin and hair or based on religious doctrine". "Those are actually the methods of secular revolutionaries and not the methods of Islam. There's no such a thing as the goal justifies the means in Islam, even when the goals are noble are legitimate. Muslims worship God by using legitimate methods too," he wrote.

Imam contends that those who target innocent people are working outside the parameters of the Islamic Sharia, or law. "They place their own desires and will before that of Allah's," he argues in this new milestone study.

Imam says the Islamic rules for war stipulate that if Muslims are not certain about the true nature and make-up of the enemy "then it's compulsory under the rules of Islam not to take up arms against them" for fear that innocent people might be included and harmed. The review calls for an end to targeting of "all civilians", and "tourists of all races".

The al-Jihad Group and its offshoots have in the past targeted local police and military officers, foreign tourists and other Muslims who disagree with their philosophy.

Imam says he was prompted to write the review after noticing persistent "violations" by members of the al-Jihad Group in its decades-long fight with authorities that has included excessive bloodshed, random killings and targeting of civilians. Al-Jihad Group has traditionally been the most militant of the Islamic groups, refusing for the past ten years to follow in the foot-steps of al-Gamaa al-Islamia (Islamci Group), another militant group that renounced violence ten years ago.
Splitters!
This change is a severe blow to al Qaeda, whose deputy chief Ayman al-Zawahri headed al-Jihad group in Afghanistan after his teacher, Imam, was arrested in Egypt. Al-Zawahri is widely expected to come out strongly against the plan known as "the non-violent initiative".

The documents that are being serialized simultaneously in a local newspaper and a Kuwait newspaper are also important because they are expected to rekindle a debate in the Muslim world that is likely to include academic scholars, religious scholars and political activists over the methods employed by some of the militant groups and the true meaning of armed Jihad in Islam. "A huge debate will happen after those documents are finished," said Kamal Habib, an independent expert on Islamic groups who was formerly a member of Islamic militant groups.

A member of al-Gamaa al-Islamia, Essam Derbala, said the initiative was welcome news for all active Islamic groups, especially those who took up arms in the past, because it helps Muslim groups "work peacefully to strengthen their societies" against what he called Western "attempts to dissolve the Islamic nation" and against "the state of occupation we are experiencing" -- referring to the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Israeli occupation of Arab land.
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Africa North
Sadat's Assassin Released From Prison
2007-04-03
The person convicted of the assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Nabil Bakr, was released from prison recently, local Egyptian newspapers reported. Bakr, a member of Islamic Jihad, was sentenced to life in prison by a military tribunal in 1982 for his participation in planning the attack on Sadat. Under Egyptian law, a life prison term is 15 years, but Bakr was kept in jail ten years longer because the Egyptian government said he was too dangerous to be released.

The group's leader, Aboud El Zomor, who is also a former ex-intelligence officer, over and over contested the legality of keeping Bakr in prison. El Zomor is believed to be the mastermind behind the Sadat assassination, according to the Egyptian security authorities. According to reports, Bakr and four other members of the Jihad group were released.
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