Labels: Ayman al-Zawahri, Britain, Eurabia, France, Islamic Emirates of Britain, Islamic terrorism, Islamist, Londonistan, Osama Bin Laden
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:16 AM
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The U.S. Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the high security threat level in Yemen due to terrorist activities and civil unrest. The Department urges U.S. citizens to defer travel to Yemen and those U.S. citizens currently living in Yemen to depart immediately.On Monday, ABC News reported that the intercepted 'chatter' of al-Qaeda operatives - which led to a shutdown of US embassies all over the Middle East and to a worldwide terror warning - was discussion of a new and harder-to-stop method of suicide bombing: Implanting the bomb inside the terrorist's body (Hat Tip: Legal Insurrection).
On August 6, 2013, the Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel from Yemen due to the continued potential for terrorist attacks.
U.S. citizens currently in Yemen should depart. As staff levels at the Embassy are restricted, our ability to assist U.S. citizens in an emergency and provide routine consular services remains limited and may be further constrained by the fluid security situation. This supersedes the Travel Warning for Yemen issued on July 16, 2013.
The senior U.S. official said there is concern about devices that could be implanted inside the body of a terrorist.
“We are concerned about surgically implanted devices,” they said. “These are guys who have developed the techniques to defeat our detection methods.”
The official also said authorities were stunned that the group broke “operational security” — meaning they talked likely knowing it would be picked up by intercepts.The man behind the technique, and who may have been the target of Tuesday's drone strike, is Ibrahim al-Asiri. Asiri, a Saudi (what else?), is al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's chief bombmaker, and was behind the bomb hidden in the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in December 2009.
Though the Transportation Security Administration has long been concerned about liquid explosives being used in potential devices -- as it was during the failed Christmas Day bombing in 2009 -- the new tactic allows terrorists to dip ordinary clothing into the liquid to make the clothes themselves into explosives once dry.Wait a minute - didn't al-Qaeda die with Osama Bin Laden and President Hussein Obama's declaring 'victory' in the war on terror? Not exactly....
"It's ingenious," one of the officials said.
Another senior official said that the tactic would not be detected by current security measures.
The officials said the new technique is believed to have been developed by the Yemen-based al Qaeda affiliate al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), home to notorious alleged bomb maker Ibrahim al-Asiri. Al-Asiri is suspected of being the mastermind behind several devious explosive devices including the underwear bomb and surgically implanted body bombs.
Al-Asiri was listed today among Yemen's 25 top terrorists, who the Yemeni government said were planning to carry out operations in the capital, Sana'a. The Yemeni government is offering 5 million Yemeni rials, or $23,000, for information leading to the capture of any of the terrorists.
Nada Bakos, a former CIA analyst who was part of the team that hunted Osama bin Laden for years, told ABC News that any suggestion al Qaeda as a whole was down and out and is now seeing a resurgence is wrong. Instead, she said the group has just been undergoing a metamorphosis.
"An ideology has tentacles. That's why it's hard to predict how or if it will grow," she said. "Each of these groups [al Qaeda affiliates] are funded and operate independently, but they all share the same ideological platform that central al Qeada has propagated since the 1990s."
Seth Jones, associate director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation, testified before Congress last month that despite the "weakness" of central al Qaeda, "there has been a net expansion in the number and geographic scope of al Qaeda's affiliates and allies over the past decade, indicating that al Qaeda and its brand are far from defeated."
Michael Scheuer, a former CIA officer who led the hunt for bin Laden before his retirement in 2004, went further, telling ABC News that he believed al Qaeda really hasn't changed since bin Laden's death.
"I think the guys on the ground [local affiliate commanders], day-to-day tactical decisions were made there, where they always have been," he said. "Core al Qaeda lays down the guidelines to keep everybody pointed at the enemy."
Scheuer said he believes al Qaeda is more dangerous under its currently leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, than it was under bin Laden. Zawahiri, Scheuer said, may settle for smaller U.S.-based operations that would have a much smaller body count than a 9/11-type operation that bin Laden aspired to repeat.There's only one way to stop terrorists - the Israeli way. The problem is that with these methods they could blow themselves up without ever leaving the airport. But then that wouldn't be as spectacular and may not kill as many people.
Labels: al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, Islamic terrorism, Osama Bin Laden, US State Department, Yemen
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:13 PM
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In a 22-minute recording, posted on Islamist websites on Thursday to mark 65 years since Israel's founding, Zawahri also said the only way to solve the Palestinian problem was through Jihad (Islamic holy war).
"Lions of the Levant, unite around this honorable goal and rise above sectarian affiliations," Zawahri said.
"America, its agents and allies want you to shed your blood and the blood of your children and women to bring down the criminal Baathist regime, and then set up a government loyal to them and to safeguard Israel's security," he added.
The recording came one day after Syrian government forces, backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, captured the border town of Qusair from rebels. It appeared on the Mujahideen al-Ansar website, which carries statements from al-Qaida leaders.
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Zawahri warned Syrians not to play into the hands of the United States which, he said, wanted to turn their Jihad into a "Western tool against Iran."
He said that fighters seeking to topple Assad in Syria had rekindled hope that one day that might happen.
"There is no solution for Palestine except Jihad," Zawahri said.
"Every free Muslim in Palestine should unite with his Muslim brothers to implement Sharia (Islamic law) and rule by it, and make it a reference above all references, and to liberate Palestine in order to set up an Islamic state, even if the West hates that and calls it terrorism and extremism," he added.And you believed Obama's claim that al-Qaeda is no more, didn't you? Or do you just believe that what al-Zawahri has in mind is a 'jihad for peace'?
Labels: al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, Bashar al-Assad, Free Syrian Army, jihad, Nusra Front, Syria, Syrian uprising
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:10 PM
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Syria's rebel al-Nusra Front, one of the most effective forces fighting President Bashar al-Assad, pledged allegiance to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri in an audio recording posted on the Internet on Wednesday.
Abu Mohammad al-Golani also appeared to distance his group from a recently announced merger with al Qaeda's Iraq branch.
The group's allegiance to Zawahri would trouble Western nations which support the revolt against Assad and will dismay Syrian moderates who want a civil state but fear the rise of extreme Islamist militancy.
"The sons of Nusra Front renew their pledge (of allegiance) to the Sheikh of Jihad Ayman al-Zawahri and declare obedience," Golani said in the recording.
Golani's statement came a day after the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, said his group and the Nusra Front would operate under a united leadership called the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.
Golani said that his group was not consulted before that announcement and he had first heard about it through the media.
Golani said that while the Nusra Front had received assistance from the Islamic State of Iraq, his group would continue operating under its own banner, with loyalty to Zawahri.
This has JPost correspondent Yaakov Lappin asking whether Syria is turning into our Afghanistan next door."The banner of the Front will remain the same, nothing will change about it even though we are proud of the banner of the (Islamic) State and of those who carry it," he said.
Syria’s deteriorating situation – with its daily violence and crumbling of state sovereignty – allows for the ideal breeding ground for radical forces, just as similar circumstances did in the late 1980s in Afghanistan, where al- Qaida was formed.Read the whole thing.
Today, the ideology espoused by the founders of al-Qaida is alive and well in Syria, and its influence is felt around the region.
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The concern is that al- Qaida’s worldview will spread to Israeli Arab volunteers, who can then try to return to Israel and carry out attacks.
The phenomenon is by no means limited to one country.
Labels: Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, Bashar al-Assad, Free Syrian Army, Syrian uprising
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:55 AM
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The Pakistani source, which Elgdida quoted, adds that:But don't expect the Obama administration to reduce its aid to Egypt by one cent.
“…the meeting lasted 45 minutes, during which Egyptian president Muhammad Morsi promised to make preparations for Ayman Zawahiri to return soon to Egypt, indicating that some Muslim Brotherhood members would handle the operation, by first smuggling the al-Qaeda leader to a Gulf nation, likely Qatar, and then easily transferring him to Egypt—on condition that Zawahiri disappear lest he embarrass Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood with its American ally, whose security and intelligence agencies consider Zawahiri most wanted.”Morsi is not the only Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood figurehead to meet Zawahiri. Daniel Pipes chronicled multiple instances of Tareq Ramadan, the grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder Hassan Al-Bana, in which Ramadan interacted with al-Qaeda operatives—including and like Morsi coordinated a meeting with al-Qaeda’s number two at the time, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Labels: al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, Barack Hussein Obama, Egypt, Mohammed Morsy, Pakistan
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:54 PM
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As I'm sure you'll all be shocked to hear, Caroline Glick reports that the 9/11 attacks on the US Embassy in Cairo and the US Consulate in Benghazi had nothing to do with a movie. In fact, they were planned. The attack in Libya was well planned and executed. It wasn't about a spontaneous protest against some ridiculous internet movie of Muhammad. The assailants came armed to the teeth, with among other things, RPG 7s. They knew that the US Ambassador was in Benghazi rather than Tripoli. They knew how to track his movements, and were able to strike against him after he and his colleagues left the consulate building and tried to flee in a car. As Israel Channel 2's Arab Affairs Correspondent Ehud Yaari noted this evening, you don't often see well trained terrorists participating in protests of movies.Meanwhile, the Manchurian candidate goes on fiddling as if nothing is burning, while the mainstream media slams the challenger for daring to point out that the incumbent's policies had a lot to do with this.
Then there is the attack in Cairo. They were led by Mohammad Zawahiri - Ayman Zawahiri's brother. According the Thomas Josclyn in the Weekly Standard, the US media has been idiotically presenting him as some sort of moderate despite the fact that in an interview with Al Jazeerah he said said, "We in al Qaeda..."
Egypt's US supported Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi recently released Zawahiri from Egyptian prison. The same Barack Obama who has no time in his schedule to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu next week in New York, is scheduled to meet Morsi.
The Egyptian government has not condemned the attack on the US Embassy in Cairo. But Morsi is demanding that the US government prosecute the film's creator.
You may be wondering how some movie no one's heard of has caused such a hullabaloo. Well, as it turns out, the film was screened on an Egyptian Salafist television channel. Obviously the Salafists -- many of whom, like Zawahiri were released from prison by Morsi, wanted to stir up anti-US violence on the eve of 9/11. So if the film is responsible for the violence, a finger needs to be pointed to its chief distributor -- Al Qaida's Egyptian friends and members.
Labels: al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, Barack Hussein Obama, Benghazi, Cairo, Egypt, Libya
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:34 AM
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Al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawhari has suggested to Egypt that it cancel its peace treaty with Israel. Al-Qaeda's leader has urged Egypt to cancel its peace treaty with Israel and to establish Islamic rule.What could go wrong?
He said the goal is to stop Israel from turning Jerusalem into a Jewish city.
Ayman al-Zawahri issued his 10th message to Egypt since taking over al-Qaeda's leadership after founder Osama bin Laden was killed in an American raid in Pakistan last year.
His 47-minute audio recording was posted Sunday on jihadi websites.
He charged that Egypt's ruling military council takes orders from the United States.
Al-Zawahri called on the Islamic movements to unite against what he described as "the secular American schemes that only seeks evil to Egypt."
Labels: al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, Egypt, Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:28 PM
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A new lawsuit filed in Federal Court in Manhattan by a group of relatives of 9/11 victims, led by the widow of the pilot of United Flight 175 (pictured above), alleges that Iran and Hezbullah trained the al-Qaeda terrorists and were behind the 9/11 attacks. Much of the evidence comes from Israel. And the article was written by Israeli intelligence reporter Ronen Bergman, who testified before the 9/11 commission about this. In July of 2004, members of the National Commission established to look into the September 11 attacks were facing immense pressure. The target date for submitting the report the whole of America was waiting for had passed, and commission members were given a 60-day extension that was also about to expire. However, eight days before the final submission date, some commission members received word of new information; a real intelligence time bomb.Read the whole thing.
Commission members didn’t know what to do. On one hand, a whole new lead emerged; yet on the other hand, nobody could process this huge amount of information within days. At the end of the day, the commission chose a solution that turned out to be the worst of all: It crammed some of the information into three pages (pp. 240-242 in the report) written hectically, ignored most of the information, and in fact left the big question open.
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Early in the 9/11 commission’s work, it turned out that the issue of traveling and visas was a major component in the affair. According to the documents submitted to the court, an immense operation was managed prior to September 11 in order to facilitate the many trips required by the operation.
The reason is clear: Only a well-oiled arrangement of flights and secret border crossings could have enabled the terrorists to enter and exit the US and go to Afghanistan. Anyone who ever tried to get a US visa knows this is no simple matter. A passport stamp of a state on America’s list of terror-sponsors immediately turns one into a suspect.
So how did the 19 terrorists manage to enter the US after all? How could it be that US immigration officials in Germany and Saudi Arabia suspected nothing? The answer to these questions remained unknown, until the treasure trove was discovered at the NSA basement. As it turned out, many of the terrorists headed from Afghanistan to Iran, with Iranian officials ordering border control officers not to stamp these passports. The other terrorists passed through Beirut in their many trips, where Hezbollah officials similarly cared for them.
Mellon’s team hopes that this is where the “smoking gun” can be found, proving a direct link between Iran and 9/11. If Iran did not know about the attacks and was not involved in them, why did it keep its stamps off the terrorists’ passports?
Yet that’s not all. The intelligence information submitted to the court includes yet another “smoking gun”: In some of the flights, the terrorists were accompanied by figures whose names were identical to the aliases used by former Hezbollah “army chief” Imad Mugniyah and some of his close aides. This would be hard to dismiss as an “odd coincidence.”
Labels: 9/11, al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, Hezbullah, Imad Mughniyah, Iran, Osama Bin Laden
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:34 PM
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Al-Qaeda is reeling from the revolutions that have taken place in the Arab world over the past couple of weeks. One of al-Qaeda's raisons d'etre is to replace the Arab world's secular dictatorships with Islamic Caliphates. The dictatorships are falling in mostly (except in Libya) non-violent uprisings. Terrorism analysts believe al Qaeda's senior leadership is reeling. In some ways, the largely nonviolent, secular and pro-democracy revolts amount to a rejection of the group's core beliefs. They were also successful.Read the whole thing.
"It's not just a defeat. It's a catastrophe, the worst thing that has happened since al Qaeda was created," said Jean-Pierre Filiu, an expert on al Qaeda and affiliated groups at the University of Sciences Po in Paris.
President Barack Obama alluded to this notion last week, when he said during a press conference: "I also think an important lesson … that we can draw from this is, real change in these societies is not going to happen because of terrorism. … It's going to happen because people come together and apply moral force to a situation."
How significant a blow al Qaeda will take from the current unrest will be in part determined by how the leaders of the Middle East adapt. A harsh crackdown from the remaining regimes could fuel the group's narrative of oppression. A swift and successful transition to democracy, particularly in Egypt, could do much the opposite. Additionally, the unrest in Libya could provide an opening for extremist Islamists in the eastern part of the country to reassert themselves.
But even the rise of Islamist political parties in countries such as Egypt wouldn't be a win for al Qaeda—the terrorist group is bitter enemies with the Muslim Brotherhood. And in countries such as Yemen, where al Qaeda today has a much stronger operational foothold, terrorism analysts highlight the secular nature of recent protests and conclude that al Qaeda's message doesn't have much grassroots appeal.
Labels: al-Qaeda, Arab democracy, Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama Bin Laden
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:08 AM
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Eli Lake reports on deep concern in the United States that senior terrorists escaped from Egyptian jails over the last two weeks. U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence officials say they are concerned about the fates of prisoners such as Shawky Salama Mostafa and Mohammed Hassan Mahmoud, two suspected leaders of Egyptian Islamic Jihad captured by U.S. forces in 1998 in Albania but sent to Egypt for trial. Human Rights Watch and other groups report the two men were tortured in Egyptian jails.What could go wrong?
U.S. intelligence officials are also trying to locate Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman, the son of the “Blind Sheik,” Omar Abdel-Rahman, the mastermind of the failed 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. He was captured in Pakistan in 2003 but was eventually sent to Egypt.
Senior Egyptian officials have warned that senior jihadists may have escaped from prison in the midst of the popular uprising. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Vice President Omar Suleiman said al Qaeda operatives and other terrorists are among those who have escaped.
Labels: al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, Egyptian riots, Omar Abdel-Rahman
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:48 AM
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I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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