Category: al-Qā’idah

Articles of the Week – 6/26-7/2

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

Saturday June 26:
“The Muslim Past- Book Review of “Faith and Power” & “Muhammad and the Believers”” – Max Rodenbeck, The New York Times: https://nyti.ms/blRwDG
Sunday June 27:
“Endless war, a recipe for four-star arrogance” – Andrew J. Bacevich, The Washington Post: https://bit.ly/cFmDcd
Monday June 28:
“Prisons and Terrorism: Radicalisation and De-radicalisation in 15 Countries” – Peter R. Neumann, et. al,  The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence: https://bit.ly/9Rt4a2
“Counterinsurgency Under the Microscope” – Andrew Exum, Abu Muqawama Blog: https://bit.ly/bfzrgr
“From Sayyid Qutb To Hamas: The Middle East Conflict and Islamization of Antisemitism – Bassam Tibi, Yale University Working Paper Series: https://bit.ly/ctPYMF
Tuesday June 29:
“Abu Yahya al-Libi’s Long, Lonely Journey” – Jarret Brachman: https://bit.ly/9Hfmv9
“How Tribal Are the Taleban? Afghanistan’s Largest Insurgent Movement between its Tribal Roots and Islamist Ideology” – Thomas Ruttig, The Afghanistan Analysts Network: https://bit.ly/aR36Hl
“Estimates for Hezbollah’s Arsenal” – David Schapiro & Katherine Zimmerman, IranTracker: https://bit.ly/cWCC3S
“Islamist Radicalism in Yemen” (Updated) – Deborah Jerome, Council on Foreign Relations: https://bit.ly/aFe361
“Views of Pakistani Religious Leader Dr. Israr Ahmed (1932-2010) Regarding the Structure of an Islamic Caliphate” – The Middle East Media Research Institute: https://bit.ly/bG8mQF
“An Al-Shabaab Narco-Terrorism Connection?” – Investigative Project on Terrorism: https://bit.ly/cRXkoG
Wednesday June 30:
“The Haqqanis and al-Qaeda” – Anand Gopal, Mansur Khan Mahsud and Brian Fishman, The AfPak Channel: https://bit.ly/9NdXYM
The reason why the new al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula magazine “Inspire” was corrupted & then taken down from the forums – Internet Haganah: https://bit.ly/alZhaR
“Pakistani Terror Group Lashkar-e Tayyiba Extends Tentacles in United States” – The Investigative Project on Terrorism: https://bit.ly/dtNEvn
Thursday July 1:
“Al-Qaeda in Iraq: Eliminating Leaders Will Not Necessarily Cut Lifelines” – Omar Ashour, Arab Reform Bulletin: https://bit.ly/avX3u1
“Tariq Ramadan: Exposing the Irrelevance of His Defenders in America” – Dr. Robert D. Crane, The American Muslim: https://bit.ly/aS5SZs
“Four Questions for Yemen Scholar Gregory Johnsen” – The Atlantic: https://bit.ly/a8ApNC
“Counting al-Qaeda” – Brian Fishman, The AfPak Channel: https://bit.ly/aYVvqN
“Top Twenty Plots to Know since 9/11” – The Center on Law and Security: https://bit.ly/9QfVz2
Friday July 2:
“Ruminations on the AQAP magazine and its ridiculous coverage” – J.M. Berger, IntelWire: https://bit.ly/akv4Rz
“Hiding In Plain Sight- Terrorists in Punjab Province” – Ahmad Majidyar, Foreign Policy: https://bit.ly/9lW9f6

al-Qā’idah in the Arabian Peninsula releases its first English language magazine “Inspire”

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

UPDATE 7: Inspire Magazine has been translated into Arabic as an ‘Īd al-Fiṭr gift to the Muslim ummah (community) by the Arabic Anṣār al-Mujāhidīn Forum.

Click here: Inspire Magazine Arabic
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UPDATE 6: The Investigative Project on Terrorism weighs in on “Inspire Magazine” and its potential negative effects on radicalization.
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UPDATE 5: Katherine Zimmerman of the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project explains the implications of AQAP’s “Inspire Magazine”.
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UPDATE 4: Aaron Weisburd of the Internet Haganah provides his take on the full release of AQAP’s “Inspire Magazine”.
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UPDATE 3: After 12 days,AQAP releases the full version of “Inspire Magazine” without corruption. Also, checkout Jarret Brachman’s quick take analysis of the new magazine.
Click here: AQAP – Inspire Magazine Volume 1 – UNCORRUPTED
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UPDATE 2: J.M. Berger of IntelWire along with Thomas Hegghammer of Jihadica posted new blog entries detailing past English language magazines by jihādī and the continued lack of understanding by the mainstream media when reporting on the “Inspire” magazine.
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UPDATE: After the forums released the new English language magazine “Inspire” within an hour or so they took it down since the pdf file was corrupted. The first three pages — the table of contents — was fine, but afterwards the text was gibberish. I am still keeping this corrupted file up so people can see what it looked like. For more on why the file was corrupted and taken down check out the Internet Haganah’s analysis. Also, it is worthwhile to read J.M. Berger of IntelWire’s critique of the US media coverage of the “Inspire” magazine release.
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NOTE: al-Malāḥim Media, al-Qā’idah in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) media outfit, released a new English language magazine called “Inspire”, which features interviews with the amīr (leader) of AQAP Abū Basīr (Nāṣir al-Wūḥayshī) and Anwar al-‘Awlakī.
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Original corrupted file (won’t harm your computer, gibberish after a few pages): AQAP – Inspire Magazine Volume 1

Al-Katāayb Foundation for Media Productions presents: "The African Crusaders"

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

NOTE: Al-Katāayb Foundation for Media Productions is the media center used by al-Qā’idah-linked Ḥarakat al-Shabāb al-Mujāhidīn based in Somalia. Ibn Siqilli on this video:

Harakat al-Shabab’s media outlet, the Al-Kata’ib (Brigades) Media Foundation, released a video entitled “The African Crusaders” yesterday in which the AU’s forces are labeled agents of the United States, which seeks to persecute Muslims in Somalia and across the globe. Battle footage shows fierce fighting between Harakat al-Shabab militiamen and AU forces, particularly Uganda Army soldiers. Ugandan “crusaders” were discussed in Harakat al-Shabab’s groundbreaking September 2009 video “Labbayk Ya Usama” (We Heed Your Call, O’ Usama), which I wrote about at some length HERE.
Citizens of the African nations contributing soldiers to the AU mission in Somalia, namely Uganda and Burundi, are asked to consider whether they wish to sacrifice their sons to a failed mission in Somalia to support a weak, failing government, that led by PresidentShaykh Sharif Ahmed. The video’s narrator asks Ugandans to consider whether their soldiers would have been better employed defending them from the insurgents of the Lord’s Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony in northern Uganda.
In one part, audio of the late Harakat al-Shabab leader Aden (Adan, Adam) Hashi Ayro (he was killed in a U.S. missile strike in March 2008) is used and a current commander, Husayn Fidow, is shown speaking. The group also recently released photographs of its fighters burning captured AU vehicles.

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Articles of the Week – 6/19-6/25

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

Sunday June 20:
“Legitimate Demands [2] Barack’s Dilemma” – Adam Gadahan, As-Saḥāb Foundation for Islamic Media Publication: https://bit.ly/c6dQXK
“Forget the substance of Gadahn’s post, it’s the tech that matters” – J.M. Berger, IntelWire: https://bit.ly/dty6tR
“Good Deal for Gaza” – Marc Lynch, The Middle East Channel: https://bit.ly/blRn8x
Monday June 21:
“Kandahar Timeline 1979-2010” – Alex Strick van Linschoten, A Different Place Blog: https://bit.ly/aM0bld
“The 2010 Failed State Index Rankings” – Foreign Policy Magazine, July/August 2010: https://bit.ly/9kutY3
“State of Jihad: 2010 and Beyond” – Matthew M. Reed, International Affairs Review: https://bit.ly/cYX4w4
“Politics and prayer”- Review of “A Mosque in Munich” – Issandr El Amrani, The National: https://bit.ly/95mbax
Jihadi Websites Monitoring Group, Periodical Review June 2010 – No. 1, International Institute for Counter-Terrorism: https://bit.ly/ab2WDN
“Profiles of the 15 known Saudi Guantanamo recidivists” – Thomas Joscelyn, The Long War Journal: https://bit.ly/bL1CEw
“A New Taleban Front?” – Thomas Ruttig, The Afghanistan Analysts Network: https://bit.ly/aexJjQ
Tuesday June 22:
“Yemen: Avoiding Freefall” – Ginny Hill, The World Today, Volume 66, Number 7, July 2010: https://bit.ly/aA7kln
“West Africa and the Maghreb Security Brief June 7, 2010 – June 22, 2010” – Critical Threats Project: https://bit.ly/cHdVL7
“Punjab’s growing militant problem” – Interview with Hassan Abbas, The AfPak Channel: https://bit.ly/c9Rvm4
“West coast jihad” – Brian Fishman, The AfPak Channel: https://bit.ly/dzmznm
Wednesday June 23:
“Militant’s Path From Pakistan to Times Square” – Andrea Elliott, New York Times: https://nyti.ms/b1ZJEX
“Veiled Truths- The Rise of Political Islam in the West” – Marc Lynch, Foreign Affairs: https://bit.ly/caa3UL
Thursday June 24:
“The Iraqi Elections of 2010—and 2005” – Kanan Makiya, The Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Middle East Brief 42, June 2010: https://bit.ly/9OfrOA
“Puncturing Pakistan’s “madrasa myth”” – Gregg Carlstrom, The Majlis: https://bit.ly/9vNjZR
Friday June 25:
“Saudi Preacher: The West Implements the Humane Values of the Shari’a Better than the Muslims” – Middle East Media Research Institute: https://bit.ly/9KHXNj
“The Legal War on Terror for the week of 6/18-6/24” – Andrew Lebovich, Foreign Policy: https://bit.ly/cI0a7I
“Al-Qaeda losing supporters in jihadi groups across Arab world” – Camille Tawil, Magharebia: https://bit.ly/bZw7yr
“Islamist Preacher Zakir Naik, Barred from U.K. and Canada – An Ideological Profile” – Steven Stalinsky, Middle East Media Research Institute: https://bit.ly/cXSiR4
‘Scratching the Surface of Radicalism in Germany” – Andrew Lebovich, The Washington Note: https://bit.ly/9ZsTHm

Jamā’at Anṣār al-Sunnah release their first propaganda video: "The Knight of Ansar #1"

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

UPDATE: IbnSiqilli has clarified the similarities between the two Jamā’at Anṣār al-Sunnah in Gaza and Iraq. The Iraqi groups’ members are mostly Kurds, therefore it seems unlikely that Palestinians have been part of their group. Rather, it is just a popular name.
NOTE: Jamā’at Anṣār al-Sunnah is an al-Qā’idah-linked group based in the Gaza Strip. It is speculation on this authors behalf, but there is a group in Iraq that has the same name, therefore it is possible that Jama’at Ansar al-Sunnah in Gaza is a faction of past Palestinian foreign fighters in Iraq. Jama’at Ansar al-Sunnah in Gaza also claimed responsibility a for rocket attack this past March, which landed in Israel, killing a Thai worker. The attack in response for the so-called “Judaization” of sites both holy to Jews and Muslims.
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Best Articles of the Past Week – 6/12-6/18

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

Sunday June 13:
“Lashkar-i-Taiba: Roots, Logistics, Partnerships, and the Fallacy of Subservient Proxies” – Ryan Clarke, Terrorism and Political Violence, Volume 22 Issue 3, July 2010, 395-418: https://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a922884886~frm=titlelink
Monday June 14:
“Jihad Is Not the Medicine for Every Disease” – Mark Stout, On War and Words: https://onwarandwords.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/jihad-is-not-the-medicine-for-every-disease/
“AfPak Behind the Lines: Taliban reconciliation” – Interview with Thomas Ruttig, The AfPak Channel: https://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/06/14/afpak_behind_the_lines_thomas_ruttig
“Barack Obama face au spectre Al-Qaida” – Jean-Pierre Filiu, Le Monde: https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2010/06/14/barack-obama-face-au-spectre-al-qaida_1372437_3232.html
Tuesday June 15:
“Catherine Zara Raymond — Al Muhajiroun and Islam4UK- The group behind the ban” – Catherine Zara Raymond, The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, May 2010:  https://icsr.info/publications/papers/1276697989CatherineZaraRaymondICSRPaper.pdf
Wednesday June 16:
“Afghanistan: Graveyard of Assumptions?” – Andrew Exum, Abu Muqawama Blog: https://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawama/2010/06/afghanistan-graveyard-assumptions.html
Thursday June 17:
“World Cup Fatwa” – Mathilde Aarseth, Jihadica: https://www.jihadica.com/world-cup-fatwa/
“Coddling Pakistan’s Islamists” – Rania Abouzeid, The AfPak Channel: https://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/06/17/coddling_pakistans_islamists
“The Hollow Arab Core” – Marc Lynch, The Middle East Channel: https://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/06/17/the_hollow_arab_core
“Terrorists Versus Soccer” – Adam Serwer, The American Prospect: https://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=terrorists_v_soccer
“English Translation of Abū Walīd’s Response to Charles Cameron” – al-Maktabah Blog: https://azelin.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/english-translation-of-abu-walids-response-to-charles-cameron/
“The Legal War on Terror for the week of 6/11-6/17” – Andrew Lebovich, Foreign Policy: https://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/17/the_lwot_grand_jury_returns_shahzad_indictment_supreme_court_rejects_rendition_lawsuit
“Pak intelligence pulls Taliban strings: New report gives an inside view of our ally’s double game” – Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, The Washington Times: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/17/pak-intelligence-pulls-taliban-strings/
Friday June 18:
“Could the Taliban Take Over Pakistan’s Punjab Province?” – Ahmad Majidyar, The American Enterprise Institute: https://www.aei.org/docLib/02-MEO-June-2010-g.pdf

As-Saḥāb releases new video statement from American Adam Gadahan: "Legitimate Demands [2] Barack’s Dilemma"

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

NOTE: Adam Yaḥyā Ghadan (“Azzām al-Amrīki”) was born as Adam Pearlman in California. He converted to Sunni Islam in 1995. He has been a senior operative for al-Qā’idah since 2004 and is currently in control of the As-Saḥāb (“The Clouds”) Foundation for Islamic Media Publication. A transcript of Ghadan’s message to Obama is below.
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As-Saḥāb releases new video statement from American Adam Gadahan- “Legitimate Demands [2] Barack’s Dilemma”
[scribd id=33313385 key=key-fyvbfc3z9emlp1e2p31 mode=list]

al-Qā’idah in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a new statement: "On the killing of women and Destruction of Homes and Mosques in Valley Ubaida"

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

NOTE: al-Qā’idah (AQ) has been in Yemen since the late 1990s. As is well known AQ operatives struck the USS Cole in October of 2000. Following that attack and 9/11, the United States and Yemen worked together to suppress and eliminate al-Qā’idah in Yemen or al-Qā’idah in Southern Arabia as they were called then. This mission was successful and by November 2003 that generation of al-Qā’idah members was for all intents and purposes eliminated.
Following the above successes, though, the United States, along with Yemen, took their eyes off preventing a rise in a new generation of al-Qā’idah activists in Yemen. Consequently, in February 2006, twenty-three al-Qā’idah terrorists, including the mastermind of the 2000 USS Cole bombing, escaped from a Yemeni prison.  National security experts have claimed this event as the date when al-Qā’idah’s presence in Yemen started to rise again. Within months of the escape al-Qā’idah was responsible for attacks on oil and gas facilities and culminated in September of 2008 with its attempt to bomb the US Embassy.
Along with the prison escape another important factor behind al-Qā’idah’s reemergence in Yemen is due to the successful counterterrorism efforts by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As a result, many Saudi al-Qā’idah members fled to Yemen. This led in January of 2009 for the two groups, al-Qā’idah in Yemen and al-Qā’idah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to merge into what it is now referred to as al-Qā’idah in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). AQAP has shown it is a force to be reckoned with by its attempted assassination of Saudi Arabia’s Prince Muḥammad bin Nāyef as well as attempts to smuggle weapons into KSA dressed as women and assassinating key local leaders in southern Yemen. Furthermore, AQAP has been linked to the failed Christmas Day attack attempted by ‘Umar Fārūk ‘Abd  al-Muṭallab. AQAP claims they went forth with this attack as a response to the US’ cruise missile attacks against AQ assets on December 17 and 24.
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al-Qā’idah in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a new statement- “On the killing of women and Destruction of Homes and Mosques in Valley Ubaida”
[scribd id=33225219 key=key-zzlk7kye0kpvnhcel85 mode=list]

Statement from the Islamic State of Iraq: "Condolences on the Death of the Martyr Shaykh Muṣṭafā Abū al-Yazīd"

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

=&0=& =&1=&يقول تعالى: {وَلِيَعْلَمَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَيَتَّخِذَ مِنْكُمْ شُهَدَاءَ وَاللَّهُ لا يُحِبُّ الظَّالِمِينَ، وَلِيُمَحِّصَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَيَمْحَقَ الْكَافِرِينَ، أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَنْ تَدْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَعْلَمِ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا مِنْكُمْ وَيَعْلَمَ الصَّابِرِينَ}[آل عمران:140-142].=&2=&

As-Saḥāb released a new video of Abū Yaḥyā al-Lībī mourning the death of the Islamic State of Iraq's former senior leaders: "Blood of our Commanders, Fuel of our Battle"

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

NOTE: As-Saḥāb (“The Clouds”) Foundation for Islamic Media Publication released a new video of Abū Yaḥyā al-Lībī mourning the death of the Islamic State of Iraq’s former senior leaders: “Blood of our Commanders, Fuel of our Battle.” Abū Yaḥyā al-Lībī is considered one of the top leaders within the al-Qā’idah organization (AQSL). He has also been touted as a possible replacement to ‘Usāmah Bin Lāden. Al-Lībī started to gain notoriety and respect within thejihādī community after he broke out of the Bagram Airbase prison facility in 2005. It was also reported this past December that a drone killed al-Lībī, but it ended up being Ṣāleḥ al-Ṣūmālī instead.
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