Recent Appearances...

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Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Arabia

Al-Qaeda’s Yemen chief threatens Trump, Musk over Gaza war: ‘There are no red lines’

2025-06-08

[IsraelTimes] Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki, who has $6 million US bounty on head, calls for lone-wolf assassinations of Egyptian, Jordanian, and Gulf leaders due to war

The leader of al-Qaeda’s Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
branch has threatened both US President Donald Trump
...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!...
and billionaire Elon Musk over the Israel-Hamas
Hamas

..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
war in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip, in his first video message since taking over the group last year.

The half-hour video message by Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki, which spread online early Saturday via supporters of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...>
, also included calls for lone-wolf bully boyz to assassinate leaders in Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf Arab states over the war, which has decimated Gaza.

Interesting. They must be particularly upset in Egypt, where they’ve tried so hard to balance their brotherly Moslem duty to Hamas with their dislike of Jewish Israel despite the billions of lovely American dollars the ostensible peace brings in.

The video of al-Awlaki’s speech showed images of Trump and Musk, as well as US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
, and Secretary of State Pete Hegseth. It also included images of logos of Musk’s businesses, including the electric carmaker Tesla.

"There are no red lines after what happened and is happening to our people in Gaza," al-Awlaki said. "Reciprocity is legitimate."

BRANCH LONG THOUGHT MOST DANGEROUS
Though believed to have been weakened in recent years due to infighting and suspected US dronezaps killing its leaders, the group known by the acronym AQAP had been considered the most dangerous branch of al-Qaeda still operating after the 2011 killing by US Navy SEALs of founder the late Osama bin Laden
...... who is now beyond all cares and woe......
, who criminal masterminded the September 11, 2001, attacks.

In 2022, a US dronezap in Afghanistan killed bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri
...Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodox al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra...>
, who also helped plot 9/11. The September 11 attacks began decades of war by the US in Afghanistan and Iraq, and fomented the rise of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group.

Al-Awlaki already has a $6 million US bounty on his head, as Washington says he "has publicly called for attacks against the United States and its allies." He replaced AQAP leader Khalid al-Batarfi, whose death was announced by the group in 2024.

A FOCUS OF THE HOUTHIS AS WELL
AQAP seizing onto the Israel-Hamas war follows the efforts of Yemen’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
rebels to do the same. The Iranian-backed group has launched missile attacks on Israel and targeted commercial vessels moving through the Red Sea corridor, as well as American warships.

The Trump administration launched an intense campaign of strikes on the Houthis, which only ended before the president’s recent trip to the Middle East.

The Houthis’ international profile rose as the group remains mired in Yemen’s long-stalemated war. al-Awlaki may be betting on the same for his group, which UN experts have estimated has between 3,000 and 4,000 active fighters and passive members. The group raises money by robbing banks and money exchange shops, as well as smuggling weapons, counterfeiting currencies, and ransom operations, according to the UN.

The Shiite Zaydi Houthis have previously denied working with AQAP, a Sunni Death Eater group. However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
AQAP targeting of the Houthis has dropped in recent years, while the bully boyz keep attacking Saudi-led coalition forces, who have battled the Houthis.

"As the Houthis gain popularity as leaders of the ’Arab and Moslem world’s resistance’ against Israel, al-Awlaki seeks to challenge their dominance by presenting himself as equally concerned about the situation in Gaza," said Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemeni expert at the Basha Report risk advisory firm.

"For a national security and foreign policy community increasingly disengaged from Yemen, this video is a clear reminder: Yemen still matters."

Link

Caribbean-Latin America

Third Navy destroyer heads to southern waters as administration strengthens maritime border security

2025-06-07

[FoxNews] USS Cole joins ongoing maritime operations that recently seized $13.6M worth of cocaine

The Navy on Friday announced a third destroyer is being sent to the southern border to aid in the ongoing efforts to patrol the U.S.-Mexico boundary in an effort to curb illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

Navy officials said the USS Cole, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, has departed Mayport, Florida, to support southern border operations.

Earlier this year, the USS Spurance deployed from its homeport of San Diego, and the USS Gravely deployed from its homeport of Norfolk, Virginia.

Both vessels are currently sailing in waters on either side of Mexico, with a Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) team on board. Together, the crews will work closely with the Coast Guard to intercept drug trafficking operations.

The Cole will take over duties from the Gravely and commence similar operations in support of U.S. Northern Command’s (NORTHCOM) border security objectives, the Navy said.

The Gravely entered the Gulf of America on March 15, and since then has received support from P-8 aircraft assigned to Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida, allowing for enhanced and increased identification of illicit activity by the Coast Guard.

"USS Gravely remains at the forefront of maritime operations, ready to take on any challenge," USS Gravely Cmdr. Gregory Piorun said. "We will continue to stand strong, protect vital waters, and ensure that justice prevails. True to our motto, we remain always, ‘First to Conquer.’"

Gravely helped seize an estimated 860 pounds of illegal drugs from a vessel in the Caribbean Sea on May 25. The interdiction by Gravely was conducted by the ship’s Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) team alongside a LEDET assigned to the ship.

The VBSS team boarded the vessel and discovered and seized 19 bales of cocaine, with an approximate weight of 860 pounds, estimated to be valued at more than $13.6 million, according to the Navy.

"This operation supports the administration’s focus on integrated homeland defense and maritime border security," Capt. Raymond Jackson, commanding officer of Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Team South, said. "By uniting Coast Guard law enforcement expertise with Navy reach and surveillance, we’re enhancing deterrence, increasing domain awareness and reinforcing our commitment to protecting the homeland."

Link

Arabia

Houthis Reportedly Train Al-Shabaab Members in Yemen, Raising Threat to Red Sea Shipping

2025-05-31

[Garowe] Growing evidence suggests a strengthening alliance between Somalia-based al-Shabaab
... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
snuffies and Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets

...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
rebels, significantly escalating threats to maritime traffic and regional stability in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and western Indian Ocean.

A detailed report published by the Africa Center stated that the collaboration has enhanced both groups' capacity to disrupt international shipping and challenge security across critical waterways.

The United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
has confirmed that al-Shabaab received advanced weapons and technical training from the Houthis between June and September 2024. The arms were reportedly used in attacks on African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
forces in Somalia during September and November last year.

According to U.N. intelligence, more than a dozen al-Shabaab operatives were also sent to Yemen for drone warfare training by members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...>
(AQAP), further expanding the group’s tactical capabilities.

"This growing collaboration in weapons, technology, and training poses a serious concern for the security of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait," the report stated. Analysts also warned that the alliance complicates surveillance along a vulnerable 1,800-mile stretch of coastline spanning the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and western Indian Ocean.

A former U.S. State Department official cautioned that continued American disengagement from Somalia could create opportunities for al-Shabaab to expand its operations into neighboring Kenya and Æthiopia, while further solidifying its ties with the Houthis.

"This isn’t just a regional threat—it could eventually impact global trade and maritime security if left unchecked," the official said.

Shabelle Media adds:

According to a report cited by The Washington Post, the Houthis have dispatched bomb-making experts to Jilib, a stronghold of Al-Shabaab in Somalia’s Middle Juba region, signaling a new and dangerous phase in regional militancy.

The report suggests that the two groups have strengthened their ties, coordinating the movement of weapons and fighters via the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean—routes increasingly monitored by U.S. naval forces deployed to counter Houthi expansionism.

“This kind of cooperation opens the door to the exchange of highly lethal technologies,” a former senior U.S. State Department official told The Washington Post, adding that Washington’s reduced presence in Somalia may have created a security vacuum that the militants are now exploiting.

There are growing fears that Al-Shabaab, emboldened by this new support, could stage attacks beyond Somalia’s borders, particularly in Kenya and Ethiopia, using weapons and explosives supplied by the Houthis.

Intelligence sources have warned that a potential withdrawal of U.S. troops from Somalia could seriously undermine years of progress in stabilizing the country and combating Al-Shabaab, which has waged an insurgency for more than 16 years.

Link

Arabia

US aggressors bomb telecommunications in Ma'rib

2025-04-24

[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] US warplanes bombed the telecommunications network in the district of Majzar in Ma'rib Governorate.

According to a local source, two US ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
<del>Arclight</del> airstrike

...KABOOM!...
s hit the telecommunications network and its guard room, destroying completely.

The attack caused a total communication blackout in the area, the source said.

The source added that the targeting of civilian infrastructure by the US is a criminal attempt to deepen the suffering of the population.

He condemned the continued American attacks on civilians and civilian facilities, denouncing the shameful silence of the international community, the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
, and the Arab and Islamic worlds.

Link

Arabia

Prominent al-Qaeda leader killed in occupied Ma'rib

2025-02-09

[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] A prominent leader in the terrorist organization al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...>
(AQAP) was killed east of the city of Ma'rib, which is under the control of Islah Party

…the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen…

mercenaries loyal to the Saudi-led aggression coalition.

According to media sources, Abu Yusuf al-Muhammadi al-Hadrami, a prominent member and a military commander of al-Qaeda in was killed when a cycle of violence packed with explosives went off in the al-Samdah area, located in the al-Wadi district, east of Ma'rib.

The sources suggested that the liquidation of al-Hadrami via a booby-trapped cycle of violence could mark the beginning of a conflict between al-Qaeda leaders, who use several areas controlled by Islah in Ma'rib and some southern regions as training camps for their operatives.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

The West's status quo strategy is collapsing

2024-10-04

Scathing.

[Ynet] Given the rapid acceleration of military events, the date of 16 September has now receded into the distant background, even though barely two weeks have passed. Yet, that day remains vitally important for understanding the nature of contemporary Western strategy, and marks the beginning of its collapse.

THE STRATEGY OF DOING NOTHING
On that mid-September day, the Biden administration’s envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel to reiterate some simple, and rather tired, ideas. Specifically, hitting Hezbollah harder would not help Israel, and it would increase the danger of a large war, so the administration sought a diplomatic solution. All of that was declared on what was then the 345 day since Hezbollah began firing on Israel on 8 October last year.

What Hochstein conveyed to Israel is the essence of what passes for the West’s strategy in autumn 2024. A strategy of not rocking the boat, not making the situation worse than it already is, by doing very little, preferably nothing at all. The goal is to preserve the status quo, the still fairly comfortable and safe present enjoyed by the West, if not by Israel, Ukraine and other countries.

The concomitant, unavoidable, obsession is that with diplomacy. If the task at hand is to maintain safety in the immediate term by eliminating almost all risk, it inevitably becomes grossly inappropriate to contemplate war. After all, even a fool knows that wars are not risk-free. Therefore, the fool reaches for that magic wand, diplomacy.

DIPLOMACY AS A DELUSION
What the fool knows not, being a fool, is that the achievements of Western diplomacy over the past many decades are prominent by their absence. In my previous article on this sad topic, I discussed the catastrophe that has overtaken the Korean peninsula as a result of decades of American-led diplomacy. The Stalinist Kim regime is in power, equipped with intercontinental missiles and nuclear weapons, and under no effective pressure.

Everywhere else in the world, diplomacy has been similarly distant from triumph. Take the case of Iran. More than 22 years ago, on 14 August 2002, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an opposition group, accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons in secret, including by building a uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. It was later suggested that U.S. intelligence had discovered this some months earlier, but in either case it took another 16 months for the first of several failed diplomatic arrangements with Iran.

On 21 October 2003, not by coincidence a mere six months after the fall of Baghdad to coalition forces, Iran agreed with Britain, France and Germany that it would answer outstanding questions about its nuclear program and suspend uranium enrichment. This supposed diplomatic achievement lasted slightly longer than two years, after which Iran resumed enrichment at Natanz in January 2006.

This is the general pattern of Western diplomacy with hostile states. Even to initiate diplomacy, a combination of difficult intelligence work and military pressure, at least of the indirect kind, is needed. Then, once negotiations begin, the hostile state eventually agrees to unenforceable concessions, in order to renege on them at the appropriate time. The West, determined to avoid that unpleasant outcome, war, sidles gradually towards the worst possible outcome, a larger war at a later date.

In substance, the West’s diplomacy only gives its enemies the time and peace of mind needed to become more dangerous. So it has been with Iran. After wasting another eight years, the West was led by the utterly irresponsible Obama administration into a vile nuclear agreement with Iran. This was the Joint Plan of Action of 24 November 2013, which enabled Iran to continue to enrich uranium, and to test more advanced centrifuges for enriching uranium in the future.

President Obama and his Secretary of State, John Kerry, possessed the necessary combination of immorality and stupidity to persist until, on 20 July 2015, they turned the awful 2013 deal into the catastrophic Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). This formally permitted Iran to operate 5,060 enrichment centrifuges, and conduct research with uranium on more advanced centrifuges. On the day when the deal was signed, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter shamelessly promised Israel that "we will be watching Iran very closely."

All the interminable years of diplomacy, all the long-winded promises were shown to be worth nothing in April 2018. Then, Israel, and not the United States or any other signatory of the repugnant Iran deal, made public that its intelligence service had extracted from a secret archive in Tehran the plans of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Project Amad. The administration of President Trump explicitly referred to the concealment of these plans by Iran as proof of Iran’s bad faith in signing the deal and failure to keep its terms, and so the U.S. withdrew from the deal on 8 May 2018.

Neither Trump, nor his successor President Biden, nor any other leader of any other Western signatory of the catastrophic 2015 agreement, ever found the strength to draw the conclusion that must be drawn. Diplomacy with hostile states in general, and with Iran in particular, is a road to disaster.

If Iran’s nuclear program is to be dismantled, war is the only way. Yet, since the very purpose of Western strategy is to preserve the status quo and avoid war, futile and repulsive attempts to pursue diplomacy with Iran continue to this day. As they go on, Donald Trump nonsensically compares Iran’s attack on Israel to "two kids fighting in the schoolyard," while his election opponent Kamala Harris speaks of continuing to "work with our allies... to disrupt Iran’s aggressive behavior." Neither of the two non-entities understands how irrelevant their talk has become.

THE WEST HAS LOST CONTROL OF EVENTS
Western rhetoric became inconsequential in February 2022, when Russia, one of the two non-Western signatories of the deal with Iran along with China, invaded all of Ukraine. Russia has been openly engaging in nuclear blackmail of the West ever since.

Already in June of that year, China and Russia jointly opposed the West’s feeble criticism of Iran’s insufficient cooperation with nuclear inspectors. Almost 20 years after the diplomacy around Iran’s nuclear program began, it publicly imploded. Over those two decades, the West had comprehensively lost control of events, while Iran came within reach of nuclear warheads.

Meanwhile, the catastrophic 2015 agreement continues to bear poisoned fruit. On 18 October 2023, eleven days after Hamas massacred Israeli civilians, United Nations restrictions on Iran’s missile and drone programs expired. Iran, which was already supplying drones to Russia in breach of those restrictions, can now do so in the knowledge that there are few if any restraints on its actions, and that it is free to use the proceeds of its sales to Russia to further develop its own arsenal.

The only virtue of the 2015 deal, the West’s ability to ’snapback’ all sanctions previously imposed on Iran, has naturally proved a hollow one. Busy attempting to ’de-escalate tensions,’ a miserable euphemism for pretending that the collapsing status quo can still be upheld, Western European states remain parties to the deal and refuse to contemplate ’snapping back’ sanctions. Nothing remains of Western diplomacy but desperation.

SIXTEEN DAYS OF DESPERATION
Desperation, mixed with complete moral bankruptcy, was the guiding star of what passed for Western diplomacy between Hochstein’s visit on 16 September, and Iran’s missile attack on Israel on 1 October.

Hochstein’s predictably worthless visit to Israel was rapidly followed by various successful Israeli offensive actions against Hezbollah, up to and including the killing of the commander of its rocket branch, Ibrahim Qubaisi, on the afternoon of 24 September. Instead of prompting some sobriety in Western thought and action, this led to a grotesque demonstration of desperation, faintly disguised as diplomacy.

The joint statement of 25 September issued by 38 countries, including the 27 members of the European Union and also the United States, is one of the most obscene documents in the many centuries of international diplomacy. As Israel was inflicting substantial damage on Hezbollah, this statement called for "an immediate 21 day ceasefire," which would have given the terrorists in Lebanon vital relief from Israeli pressure.

This same text did not even mention the word ’terrorism,’ or any derivative thereof. It also omitted all mention of Hezbollah. It did call for a "diplomatic settlement" in Lebanon, and also a ceasefire in Gaza. It was nothing less than an attempt to force Israel to capitulate, to allow the terrorists on its borders to survive, to reorganize, and to prepare to murder Israelis more effectively on an even greater scale.

Precisely.

The Biden administration was sufficiently desperate to force this on America’s closest ally that it anonymously briefed multiple members of the press that "we’re expecting the deal in the coming hours." Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet deserve the utmost credit for treating these histrionics with contempt, and standing up to a form of diplomatic extortion which is not less than criminal, because of the threat that it poses to Israel’s survival.

Two days after the statement, on Friday 27 September, State Department Counselor Tom Sullivan was still attempting to press on with a ’diplomatic solution,’ and insistently failing to acknowledge that no such solution is in fact possible now, or was possible in the past. It was most appropriate that Israel closed out that day by killing Hassan Nasrallah.

Nasrallah’s killing was not only an important success against terrorism, it also forced the Biden administration further into a self-created corner. On 29 September, National Security Spokesman John Kirby had to concede that the deaths of Nasrallah and others were "good for the region, good for the world." Kirby did not elaborate that this meant that the administration had desperately attempted to prevent these good developments by imposing a ceasefire on Israel.

The administration is not alone in its desperation. The spokesman of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called "on all sides to show restraint, to step back from the brink and avoid any further escalation" the day after Kirby’s television appearance. Even after Iran’s missile attack on 1 October, the same spokesman was still calling for ’de-escalation’, while issuing a routine condemnation of Iran. Israel is meant to stop fighting for its survival, simply because Britain does not know, and does not want to know, how to stop Iran.

The West’s practical response to Iran’s attack has been of very limited value. Two U.S. Navy destroyers, the USS Bulkeley (DDG-84) and USS Cole (DDG-67), did fire a dozen interceptors, but this was a fraction of the overall effort needed to defeat an attack in which approximately 200 Iranian missiles were launched. A Navy which has 237 combat ships in service, including dozens of destroyers, could have done much more, but was neither organized nor ordered to do so.

The rest of the West did not intercept a single ballistic missile, and Britain contributed nothing more than two Typhoon fighters which are ludicrously claimed to have provided deterrence, without attacking any targets. British and other Allied aircraft cannot in fact attack any ballistic targets, because what was called the Air-Launched Hit-to-Kill (ALHTK) initiative, involving the launch of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles from aircraft against ballistic missiles, which was advertised in 2007, never came to anything. A natural consequence of the West’s inability to seriously contemplate, and to prepare for, war.

With their direct military contribution to Israel’s defense minimal, the leading nations of the West are stuck in a loop, in which they continue to highlight their own irrelevance and impotence. On 24 September, the G7 called "for a stop to the current destructive cycle." On 2 October, it was still insisting, with no evidence and no attempt at original thought, that a non-specific "diplomatic solution is still possible." The message is clear. Israel’s survival is Israel’s problem, and the West has no answer to anything, no desire other than to keep rolling forward in neutral gear. This cannot and will not continue for long.

Link

Arabia

Two US naval destroyers hit by Yemeni drone and missile strikes, Houthis claim

2024-08-08

[HodhodYemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
News] Yemeni armed forces have carried out three military operations against a container ship and two US destroyers in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, in support of the oppressed Paleostinian people and its fighters and in response to the American-British aggression against the country,

"By the grace of Allah, the missile force, the drone force, and the naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces conducted a joint military operation targeting the ship "Contship Ono" in the Red Sea with a number of ballistic missiles and drones. The strike was accurate, by the grace of Allah," Yemen’s military front man Brigadier General Yahya Sare’e said in a statement this evening.

Brigadier General Yahya Sare’e confirmed that the targeting of the ship came due to its owner’s violation of the decision to ban entry to the ports of occupied Paleostine.

Sare’e added, "The drone force executed a specialized military operation targeting the American destroyer "Cole" in the Gulf of Aden with a number of drones. The operation successfully achieved its objective, by the grace of Allah. The naval forces executed a qualitative military operation targeting the American destroyer "Lassen" with a number of ballistic missiles."

The targeting of the two American destroyers occurred while they were crossing the Yemeni Armed Forces’ area of operations towards the northern Red Sea, as part of the American military protection provided to the Israeli enemy, he explained.

He noted that the results of the operations included the failure of the destroyers to completely intercept the missiles and drones, with several drones and missiles successfully achieving their objectives, by the grace of Allah.

"The operations of the Yemeni Armed Forces in the battle of Promised Conquest and Sacred Jihad will continue until the aggression stops and the siege on the Paleostinian people in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
is lifted," the brigadier general stressed.

[X]

🚨⚡️ Yemen targeted 2 American warships : USS Cole (DDG-67) by Drones & USS Laboon (DG-58) by ASBMs (no hit claimed)

And the container ship Contship Ono that was heading to Jeddah, switched off AIS 3 days ago in the Gulf of Aden.(confirm hit) pic.twitter.com/838vwkX4Xw
— MenchOsint (@MenchOsint) August 7, 2024

Link

-Obits-

AQAP announces the death of its emir Khalid Batarfi

2024-03-11

[Twitter]

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) announces the death of its emir Khalid Batarfi. pic.twitter.com/yvzlcAiWg2
— FJ (@Natsecjeff) March 10, 2024

Le Monde adds:

Batarfi had appointed his successor back in February 2020, following the death of his predecessor, Qassim al-Rimi, in a US dronezap or Yemen.

Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
has announced the death of its leader Khalid Batarfi and named a successor, SITE Intelligence Group reported Sunday, March 10. The monitoring service said Batarfi's body was shown in footage released by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...
(AQAP) in a burial shroud and wrapped in a flag bearing the jihadist group's name.

"God took his soul while he patiently sought his reward and stood firm, immigrated, garrisoned, and waged jihad," SITE quoted an AQAP veteran as saying of Batarfi in the nearly 15-minute video. There were no immediate details of the time or cause of Batarfi's death. He was believed to be in his 40s.

The United States considers al-Qaeda's Yemen branch the most dangerous faction of the global jihadist network, and the State Department designated Batarfi in 2018 a "global terrorist". SITE said the group had named its new chief Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki, who last appeared in a video released in February 2023 urging Sunni rustics to join AQAP.

The Sunni bad boy group thrived in the chaos of years of war since 2014 between Yemen's Saudi-backed government and Iran-backed Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
s. AQAP has carried out operations in Yemen against both the Huthis and government forces.

It has also carried out sporadic attacks abroad, including on the offices of the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo
...Pix/Hebdo2.pngA lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
in 2015 and a 2019 mass shooting at a US naval base in Florida, in which a Saudi Air Force officer killed three American sailors.

Update from the Times of Israel at 2:15 p.m. ET:

Khalid al-Batarfi had a $5 million bounty on his head from the US government over leading the group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula over years that saw him imprisoned, freed in a jailbreak, and governing forces in Yemen amid that country’s grinding war.

Though believed to be weakened in recent years due to infighting and suspected US drone strikes killing its leaders, the group known by the acronym AQAP has long been considered the most dangerous branch of the extremist group still operating after the killing of founder Osama bin Laden.

Al-Qaeda released a video showing al-Batarfi wrapped in a white funeral shroud and al-Qaeda’s black-and-white flag. Terrorists offered no details on the cause of his death and there was no clear sign of trauma visible on his face. Al-Batarfi was believed to be in his early 40s.

In the announcement, the group said Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki would take over as its leader. The US has a $6 million bounty on him, saying al-Awlaki “has publicly called for attacks against the United States and its allies.”

Why is the new guy worth 20% more than the dead one was?

Estimates provided to the UN put AQAP’s total forces as numbering between 3,000 and 4,000 active fighters and passive members. The group raises money by robbing banks and money exchange shops,

…how very tawdry and commonplace…

as well as smuggling weapons, counterfeiting currencies, and ransom operations, according to the UN.

…smuggling weapons and ransom operations being the usual occupations of Yemeni lads when they’re feeling feisty. Currency counterfeiting is a bit more technical than they usually get up to, but every group contains at least a few eager to learn and better themselves…

Under al-Batarfi, AQAP fell further under the influence of al-Qaeda fighter Saif al-Adel, now believed to lead the terror group after the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri in a US drone strike in Afghanistan in 2022. That came as Yemen has been locked in a war between the Houthi rebels, who hold the capital, Sanaa, and a Saudi-led coalition backing the country’s exiled government based in Aden.

“Since 2020, Saif al-Adel has been able to convince al-Batarfi of his strategic approach, focused on confronting Western states and their allies in Yemen — the Saudi-led coalition, the Aden-based government, the United Arab Emirates and its allies — rather than confronting the Iranian-backed Houthi movement,” a 2023 report by the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies said.

Al-Adel is believed to be in Iran, part of a longtime al-Qaeda presence in the Islamic Republic. That’s long been denied by Tehran but backed up by documents seized in the 2011 US raid in Pakistan that killed bin Laden, who orchestrated the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US.

Good to know.

Al-Batarfi’s ties to al-Adel had strained relations in AQAP, experts say. However, it has seen the terrorists become armed with bomb-carrying drones — something the Houthis now use to target shipping in the Red Sea amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Very interesting — a hint that not only is Iran sheltering Al Qaeda’s top leaders, but supplying at least one of its key franchises as well.

AQAP “developed unmanned aerial systems capabilities, establishing a specialized drone unit, with operational training from the Houthis,” a UN report from January says.

That goes well beyond hinting. And the Houthis would only help their enemy on direct orders from Tehran.

“It prioritizes liberating its prisoners to replenish ranks; in September, the Houthis released several AQAP members and explosives experts.”

The Shiite Zaydi Houthis have previously denied working with AQAP, a Sunni extremist group. However, AQAP targeting of the Houthis has dropped in recent years while the terrorists continue to attack Saudi-led coalition forces.

Me and my brother against my cousin. Me and my cousin against the outside world.

Yemen’s history and tribal structure long has seen alliances rapidly shift, something its late strongman President Ali Abdullah Saleh referred to as “dancing on the heads of snakes.”

Al-Batarfi, born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, traveled to Afghanistan in 1999 and fought alongside the Taliban during the US-led invasion. He joined AQAP in 2010 and led forces in taking over Yemen’s Abyan province, according to the US.

In 2015, he was freed after an AQAP raid that saw the terrorists capture Mukalla, the capital of Yemen’s largest province, Hadramawt, amid the chaos of the war. A photo at the time showed al-Awlaki with a Kalashnikov rifle, posing inside a government palace there.

AQAP was later pushed out of Mukalla but has continued attacks and been the target of a US drone strike campaign since the administration of then-president George W. Bush.

In 2020, there had been claims that al-Bartafi had been detained, which later were denied. In 2021, he appeared in a video by the terror group and referred to the January 6 riot at the US Capitol as “only the tip of the iceberg of what will come to them, God willing.”

Link

Government Corruption

Sam Faddis - 'Why the CIA No Longer Works‐and How to Fix It'

2023-11-30

[Imprimis] The following is adapted from a talk delivered at Hillsdale College on October 3, 2023, during a conference on "U.S. Intelligence: History and Controversies."

We need the CIA, but we also need to recognize the uncomfortable reality that the CIA is not performing at the level we require. It is not keeping us safe. It must be repaired, and it must be repaired quickly.

The CIA was created after World War II with one overriding primary mission—to prevent a reoccurrence of what happened at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. We were never going to allow an enemy to surprise us on that scale again. We were never going to find ourselves blind regarding a threat of that magnitude and immediacy. We would be forewarned and forearmed.

Then came 9/11. Members of Al Qaeda hijacked four airliners. They crashed three of them into their targets. They were prevented from succeeding with the fourth only by the heroism of the brave American passengers.

Al Qaeda was not some unknown entity. It had been around for years. Osama Bin Laden had threatened to attack us on our own soil for years. Al Qaeda had blown up two of our embassies in East Africa. Al Qaeda had almost sunk the USS Cole in Yemen. Al Qaeda had tried once before to take down the World Trade Center.

Yet we had not a single source inside that organization capable of warning us of the 9/11 attacks that would kill almost 3,000 Americans.

On May 2, 2011, U.S. special operations personnel attacked a compound in Pakistan and killed the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. That operation in and of itself was clearly a success. But the fact that it took us almost ten years after 9/11 to find and kill Bin Laden should give us pause.

Bin Laden fully understood the technical capabilities of American intelligence. After his escape from Afghanistan, he established himself in a compound with no internet service. He had no cell phone. He communicated with his organization via a courier system and dealt with those couriers face to face. There were no emails, text messages, or phone calls for us to intercept.

Finding Bin Laden meant getting a source inside Al Qaeda at a level high enough to know his physical location. It took almost a decade for the CIA, with all its resources, to acquire such a source, even though this was probably the CIA’s single highest priority.

Link

Terror Networks

ISKP Goes Global: External Operations from Afghanistan

2023-09-17

[WashingtonInstitute] Two decades after the 9/11 attacks, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan is once again becoming a haven for terrorist activities abroad—but this time by a local Islamic State branch.

Over the past three decades, successive jihadist organizations have sought to conduct external operations beyond their local battlefields, often from safe havens abroad. The long list includes actors such as the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (when it hijacked Air La Belle France Flight 8969 in 1994), al-Qaeda (most infamously via the 9/11 attacks, but also through plots by local branches al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...
, al-Shabaab

Link

Home Front: WoT

Guantanamo judge rejects torture-derived confession

2023-08-20

[Dawn] A US military judge ruled for the first time Friday that an al-Qaeda bombing suspect’s confession cannot be used as evidence because it was derived from torture, potentially setting a new hurdle for September 11 prosecutions.

The judge in the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba US military tribunals said that a confession by Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri,

...the quietly polite, little middle-aged man who two decades ago was an Al Qaeda bigshot and friend of formerly not-dead Osama bin Laden. He has been in American prisons and GITMO since 2002, far from the pleasures of jihad and female companionship, which is some compensation for the fact that he is still among the living...

the alleged criminal mastermind of the 2000 attack against the USS Cole in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
that left 17 dead, was tainted by years of abuse at the hands of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

"Exclusion of such evidence is not without societal costs," wrote the judge, Col. Lanny Acosta.

"However,
a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all...
permitting the admission of evidence obtained by or derived from torture by the same government that seeks to prosecute and execute the accused may have even greater societal costs."

Still, he’s been imprisoned in GITMO for two decades, kept from practicing jihad and reduced to getting fat and flinging horded feces and urine at his jailers, which is some consolation.

Nashiri’s attorney Anthony Natale said the judge threw out the key evidence military prosecutors hoped to use to convict Nashiri.

The ruling left the long-running death penalty

case mired in the pretrial phase, with no sign of when a full trial could begin.

Attorneys for both Nashiri and the five men accused of the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda attack on the United States have battled for more than a decade in the Guantanamo military court to exclude evidence against them derived from torture.

The six were captured separately after the 2001 attacks and shuttled through CIA-run "black sites" in countries such as Thailand and Poland where they were put through extreme interrogation techniques including waterboarding and physical beatings.

After they arrived at Guantanamo — an isolated US naval base — some like Nashiri were again mistreated, including in early 2007, when the FBI interrogated him.

While prosecutors had argued that Nashiri was no longer affected by the impact of earlier torture sessions, the judge ruled that continued rough treatment up to that interrogation simply extended "years of physical and psychological torment".

"The evidence supports a conclusion that the accused did what he was trained to do: comply," the ruling said.

Nashiri, 58, is charged with engineering the deadly attack on the USS Cole on October 12, 2000. He is also accused of the bombing of the crude carrier Limburg two years later in the same area, which left one person dead.

Natale stressed that the ruling only applies to Nashiri’s case, and is not binding on any of the other judges overseeing cases in the Guantanamo military court. But he said it creates "a template that others could try to replicate".

Alka Pradhan, an attorney for one of the five accused in the September 11 case, said it would impact the entire military court.

"The Nashiri ruling today is fundamentally destabilising to the whole military commission system," she said in a social media post.

In both the 9/11 and Nashiri cases, she said, the bulk of prosecutors’ evidence "was derived from torture at the CIA black sites whose effects were deliberately maintained through FBI interrogations at Guantanamo".

Link

Arabia

Bangladeshi UN worker in Yemen freed by Al Qaeda branch

2023-08-11

[Dawn] A Bangladeshi citizen working for the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
has been sprung after a year and a half abduction by Al Qaeda in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
, the prime minister’s office said on Thursday.

"I never thought I would return home," Akam Sofyol Anam told reporters in Dhaka, following his return a day earlier on Wednesday, calling the last 18 months "horrifying".

"I thought the bully boyz might kill me anytime", added Anam, a former army lieutenant colonel. "My days were miserable. There was a fear of death every day; it cannot be expressed in words — it is seen in films only."

In February 2022, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...
(AQAP) kidnapped Anam and four others as they returned to Yemen’s southern port city of Aden after a field mission while working for UN Department of Safety and Security.

Anam said that he was not physically tortured, but had often been kept blindfolded.

"I couldn’t see the sky for months," he said, adding that he was moved repeatedly from place to place.

He said that he had "no idea how much money they wanted or what was their demand", adding that he thought he had been "targeted as I was an UN official." Anam "expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister ~~the loathesome~~ Sheikh Hasina
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums...
for her role in rescuing him", the premier’s office said, releasing a picture of the two meeting.

Link

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