UN delinks Al-Qaeda and the Taliban

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The separate resolutions would symbolically delink al-Qaida and the Taliban and recognize their different agendas. While Al-Qaida is focused on worldwide jihad against the West and establishment of a religious state in the Muslim world, Taliban militants have focused on their own country and have shown little interest in attacking targets abroad.

Germany’s U.N. Ambassador Peter Wittig, who chairs the Security Council committee that currently monitors sanctions against the two groups, told reporters in Kabul earlier this month that separating the sanctions regimes would futher highlight “the significance of the political efforts that are ongoing in Afghanistan.”

Of course, none of us knew this. We have been waiting for the UN to reveal such a huge discovery…

More comment at BCF.

Related articles

• UN separates al-Qaeda and Taliban sanctions (telegraph.co.uk)
• UN splits Taliban and al-Qaeda on sanctions blacklist (ukforcesafghanistan.wordpress.com)
• UN to delink al-Qaida and Taliban sanctions (foxnews.com)
• UN to delink al-Qaida and Taliban sanctions (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• U.N. to delink al Qaeda, Taliban sanctions (cbsnews.com)

Spanish naturalized citizen taught Jihadist strategies to Al-Qaeda terrorists

Al Qaida has posted (again) on the page from which it intends to lead the global “jihad” (struggle), videos in which “Abu Musad Al Suri,” aka Syrian Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, a Spanish citizen, taught various techniques for carrying out attacks against civilian targets such as stadiums, trains, ships, airports and large buildings.

Those were already known recordings that recommended the use of kamikaze aircraft, as in the Sept/11 attacks and, in general, any explosive or weapon which would produce the most damage. But now, the videos have now been updated by the criminal group headed by Osama bin Laden, killed recently in Pakistan in a U.S. military action, and they have appeared after the new leaders, including Egyptian Ayman Al Zawahiri, have sworn revenge.

Spanish anti-terrorism experts consulted by La Razón emphasize that this does not increase the threat exists against the West after the death of Ben Laden, but “surely must be taken into account.” Setmarian was, until his arrest, one of the great theorists of the ‘military’ Al Qaida. This is a very dangerous terrorist, as evidenced by the recordings that have been broadcasted again.

Mustafa Setmarian Nasar has held Spanish nationaly since his marriage to a Spanish woman in the late 1980s.

Al-Qaeda chooses Al-Zawahiri as the new leader

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Fox News is reporting that an Al Qaeda-affiliated website says Egypt-born Ayman al-Zawahri has succeeded Osama bin laden as head of the terror network. Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. commando raid in Pakistan last month.  Al-Zawahri, who will turn 60 next week, had been bin Laden’s second in command.

More here. Found here.

Al-Qaeda: “The Pope and Berlusconi are easy targets”

Adam Gadahn. Image via Wikipedia

Al Qaeda said in a video that western leaders are easy targets citing as examples Berlusconi and Pope Benedict XVI. In a 100-minute long video circulated on June 2 by the Al Qaeda media arm “As Sahab”, western leaders are described as easy targets, as they are less difficult to hit. The video message cites, as examples, Pope Benedict XVI, who was knocked down by a Swiss woman during the 2009 Christmas mass and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi who suffered face injuries when attacked by Massimo Tartaglia in Milan on December 13 2009

More here.

Terrorism: Al-Zawahiri speaks about Bin Laden’s death

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The number two of Al Qaeda, Ayman al Zawahiri, had not spoken on the death of Osama bin Laden so far. This week, he has broken his silence to threaten U.S. with a Muslim rebellion through a video recording posted on the YouTube website and monitoredWednesday by the U.S. central site monitoring Islamist SITE.

The Egyptian terrorist spends much of the 28 minutes of the recording to honor the leader of AlQaeda, killed last May 1 in an operation by U.S. special forces in Pakistan, after 10years of searching.

“Today, thank God, (United States) of America does not face an individual or a group… but a rebellious nation that has awakened from its sleep and gets up in the jihadist revival that challenge is wherever you are, “said Al Zawahiri.

Interpol believes that Al-Qaeda remains the most important global threat.

Adam Gadahn to US Muslims: “Get automatic weapons and begin shooting Americans”

Hey, another peaceful guy:

American-born al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn calls on Muslims living in America to carry out deadly one-man terrorist acts using fully automatic weapons purchased at gun shows, and to target major institutions and public figures.

“What are you waiting for?” asks Gadahn in English, and then adds that jihadis shouldn’t worry about getting caught, since so many have been released. “Over these past few years, I’ve seen the release of many, many Mujahideen whom I had never even dreamed would regain their freedom.”

Found here.

As if some of them needed any incitement, after the Sudden Jihad Syndrome that have affected some of them…

Operation Cupcake

MI6 hacked into Al-Qaeda magazine and replaced bomb-making instructions with a recipe to make cupcakes, including one made with rum.

Imagine the expression of the guy who wanted the bomb-making instructions when he downloaded the magazine…

Al-Qaeda: Al-Zawahiri speaks about Lybia

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SITE said Zawahiri split his lecture into three distinct parts, addressing in turn the uprisings in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia.

“I want to direct the attention of our Muslim brothers in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and the rest of the Muslim countries, that if the Americans and the NATO forces enter Libya then their neighbors in Egypt and Tunisia and Algeria and the rest of the Muslim countries should rise up and fight both the mercenaries of Kadhafi and the rest of NATO,” he said, according to SITE.

Zawahiri stated Al-Qaeda’s backing for the ousted Tunisian and Egyptian presidents and also accused the Egyptian government of “separation from Islam” and “subservience to the West,” the monitoring group said.

The video was the fifth installment in Egyptian-born Zawahiri’s series titled “A Message of Hope and Glad Tidings to Our People in Egypt.”

More here.

Related Articles

• Al Qaeda Deputy Surfaces in Video (abcnews.go.com)

Libya: Rebels come from pro-Jihadist Areas

More information about this very important development, about which I posted earlier here.

In 2007 the U.S. Department of Defense snatched more than 600 records of al Qaeda’s foreign fighters in Iraq and discovered nearly a fifth of the foreigners were from Libya, according to a report by West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center released later that year. Within those records, the total put Libya second only to Saudi Arabia in total fighters and “far and away” the largest provider of foreign fighters per capita to the terrorist organization.

Almost all of the Libyan fighters hailed from the east — cities like Benghazi, effectively the current opposition headquarters; Ajdabiya, which was the site of intense fighting overnight; and Derna, a city currently held by the rebels.

As if this wasn’t enough, some intelligence suggest that Al-Qaida is using the Libyan conflict to arm itself with the weapons sent to the “rebels” (links in English inside) and one Lybian “rebel” commander has said that “first, we are going to cut Gadaffi’s throat and then to establish an Islamic state” (found here).

Isn’t it wonderful?

Libya: Rebel Commander says AQ jihadists are helping them

Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited “around 25″ men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are “today are on the front lines in Adjabiya”.

Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters “are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists,” but added that the “members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader”.

(Via).

So good, yeah. There is nothing democratic in these “revolutions”. Whatever our politicians and journalists keep telling us…

JIhad Cosmo

“Tis strange but true ; for truth…

Dubbed ‘Jihad Cosmo’, the glossy magazine’s front cover features the barrel of a sub-machine gun next to a picture a woman in a veil.
There are exclusive interviews with martyrs’ wives, who praise their husbands’ decisions to die in suicide attacks.
The slick, 31-page Al-Shamikha magazine – meaning The Majestic Woman – has advice for singletons on ‘marrying a mujahideen’.
Readers are told it is their duty to raise children to be mujahideen ready for jihad.
And the ‘beauty column’ instructs women to stay indoors with their faces covered to keep a ‘clear complexion’.
They should ‘not go out except when necessary’ and wear a niqab for ‘rewards by complying with the command of Allah Almighty’.

is always strange, stranger than fiction”

(Lord Byron).

Saudi Arabia: Al-Qaeda sent poisonous perfums to civil servants and clerics

The New Perfume. Godward. 1914

Saudi Arabia’s Okaz newspaper reports that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) recently tried to kill government officials and religious clerics by sending agarwood-scented and poison-dosed perfume to their homes and offices. The Saudi Interior Ministry claims it got wind of the plot after the arrest of 149 al-Qaeda suspects in the country comprising 19 separate cells. The suspects allegedly planned to rob banks in order to pay for the perfume plot and others.

via Al-Qaeda’s Latest Weapon: Poison Perfume | Danger Room | Wired.com.

Picture: John William Godward [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

‘Christmas Tree Bomber’ Mohamud Was In Touch With Al Qaeda Mouthpiece

Republicanmother asked me here if “Christmas Tree Bomber” was in fact a danger, considering that the bomb he had planted was given to him by FBI. It looks that, despite his friends being stunned by his arrest, he was more dangerous than he looked at first.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, the Somali-American college student charged with plotting an attack on a Christmas lighting event in Portland, Oregon, was in contact with, and wrote articles for, another prominent American al Qaeda propagandist for nearly two years, authorities say.

…

The FBI affidavit alleges that Mohamud stated to undercover agents that he had wanted to take part in violent jihad since he was 15, and that he told FBI agents that he had written four articles since 2009 for two different on-line jihadist magazines edited and distributed by Samir Khan.

Khan, 24, is the Saudi-born, New York-raised editor behind Inspire magazine, the English language online publication of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. Khan, who has said he is currently hiding in Yemen, has become a rising figure in jihadist propaganda and an “aspiring” Anwar Awlaqi, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

Samir Khan is the guy who wrote “I am Al-Qaeda to the core” and “I am proud to be a traitor to US“. He also said: I am acutely aware that body parts have to be torn apart, skulls have to be crushed and blood has to be spilled in order for this (Islam’s claim to power in modern world) to be a reality“. His magazine Inspire Magazine published a list of terrorist tips recently.

Yemen: tribal leaders will not hand over al-Qaeda operatives

This is hardly a surprise. They are the leaders of a tribe, so if you belong to it, you’ll be protected, whatever you have done, against people from other tribes…

In a severe blow to international demands for Yemen to do more to curb terrorism, sheikhs from the al-Qaeda heartlands in the country’s central provinces have told The Daily Telegraph that they would not turn in members of their tribes. The government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, they said, had not done enough to bring development to their impoverished regions, making them fertile breeding grounds for disaffected radicals.

“There’s no discussion with the government, nothing,” said Sheikh Ahmed Shuraif, leader of the Bani Dhabyan, one of Yemen’s most important tribes. He holds sway in parts of Marib, to the east of the capital Sana’a, a hotbed of al-Qaeda-led unrest. “What al-Qaeda are doing is very bad and against Islam. If we had someone from al-Qaeda we would not accept him but we would not give him to the government either.”

via Yemen tribal leaders will not hand over al-Qaeda operatives – Telegraph.

So, his “tribe” is located in one of the “hotbeds of AQ-led unrest”. And he dares to say that “if he had some AQ operative he wouldn’t accept him”! Yeah, sure.

Afghanistan: Taliban use 2-year-old girl as bomb trigger

Taliban flag

TWISTED Taliban killers used a TWO-YEAR-OLD girl as the trigger for a bomb which killed her and five Afghan police, The Sun can reveal.

The terrorists stood the frightened toddler on the device and ordered her not to move.

Worried Afghan National Police raced to help the screaming child and when they picked her up to comfort her the bomb detonated. As well as claiming six lives the blast also injured a bystander.

Officer Rafiulah Qandahar – who is being trained by British troops and civilian cops at the Helmand Police Training Centre in Lashkar Gah – watched the chilling event unfold six months ago.

Rafiulah, 27, said: “She was just a little girl. It happened in Kandahar and was very sad. Bad people did this. They are enemies of humanity, enemies of Islam and enemies of the Koran.”

via Soldiers scupper bid to blow up British troops | The Sun |Features.

Related:

AL-QAEDA operatives in Iraq tried to unleash deadly terror in the skies by deploying a pair of dogs on a US-bound plane, it has emerged.

The plot failed because the bombs were so badly stitched inside the dogs that they died, according to a report in the respected French daily newspaper Le Figaro.

“This case illustrates the determination of al Qaeda militants, who are trying to circumvent terrorism controls by any means,” French criminologist Christophe Naudin, an aviation security expert, told the newspaper.

More about this here.

Terror: Spy agencies have infiltrated Al-Qaeda

Wow, well done!! About time too…

Months after he was released from Guantanamo Bay, Abdul Rahman was back in the company of terrorist leaders along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. But he was a double agent, providing Taliban and al-Qaida secrets to Pakistani intelligence, which then shared the tips with Western counterparts.

The ruse cost him his life, according to a former Pakistani military intelligence official, Mahmood Shah. The Taliban began to suspect him, and after multiple interrogations executed him.

The case of Rahman, which Shah recounted to The Associated Press, falls in line with a key aspect of the fight against terror — Western intelligence agencies, with help from Islamic allies, are placing moles and informants inside al-Qaida and the Taliban. The program seems to be bearing fruit, even as many infiltrators like Rahman are discovered and killed.

It was a tip from an al-Qaida militant-turned-informant that led international authorities to find explosives hidden in printer cartridges from Yemen to the United States a week ago, Yemeni security officials say. Officials say the explosives could have caused a blast as deadly as the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in Scotland that killed 270 people.

Intelligence agencies such as MI6 and the CIA have hired more agents from diverse backgrounds since the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and others that followed. Many say the tactics have worked: Several plots, also including the 2006 trans-Atlantic airline plot, were thwarted because intelligence agents were able to use tips to track the would-be terrorists.

In recent years, U.S., European and Pakistani intelligence officials have said al-Qaida has been weakened by CIA drone strikes along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and by governments planting agents within terror cells. Top leaders have been taken out of the picture or trust has been eroded enough that militants have begun to turn on one another.

In an unprecedented public speech last week, MI6 chief John Sawers revealed for the first time that the British spy agency had managed to “get inside” terror organizations. He would not elaborate.

“Layers of al-Qaida’s security have been slowly worn down and it’s much easier today to infiltrate these groups,” says Noman Benotman, a former jihadist with links to al-Qaida in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan, and now is a security and terrorism analyst in London.

via Associated Press.

Related: The live among us @ A Tangled Web.

Al-Qaeda, Drug Cartels and Chávez, united in drug trafficking

Powerful cartels have made a fortune in the drug trade along the U.S.-Mexico border. Now, rogue dictators and Islamic terrorist groups are following their example.

Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez differ in many ways, but they share a common enemy — the United States. And according to U.S. officials, drugs help connect and fund the dangerous networks.

West Africa is the center of their interests in the multi-billion dollar business. The region has become a transit point for cocaine bound for Europe.

Somalia: Al-Shabab executes 2 girls; town horrified

The two accused spies died amid a fusillade of bullets from a firing squad organized by a hardline Islamist militia. The condemned pair were only girls, aged 15 and 18, and their grieving relatives say they were uneducated, usually stayed at home and could not have spied for anyone.

Horrified residents of the town of Belet Weyne, in western Somalia, were forced to watch the execution by al-Shabab on Wednesday. One woman fainted as the girls were gunned down by 10 masked executioners.

Yemen: woman arrested over explosives sent by UPS

This is an update on this story:

Yemeni security forces arrested on Saturday a woman thought to be involved in sending explosive packages headed to the United States after surrounding a house where she was hiding in the capital Sanaa, a security official said.

…Napolitano told CNN on Saturday that the parcel bombs appeared to include the same explosives used in the Christmas Day attempted attack, pentaerythritol trinitrate, or PETN.

…The device found on a U.S.-bound cargo plane at a British regional airport was “viable” and could have brought down an aircraft if it had exploded, British Home Secretary May said on Saturday.

US: Gadahn is back!

Gadahn “cautioning” infidels with love about their future if they don’t convert to Islam

American al-Qaida spokesman urges Muslims to carry out attacks in US, Europe | StarTribune.com:

“An American spokesman for al-Qaida is urging Muslims in the United States and Europe to carry out attacks there.

In a video posted on militant websites Saturday, Adam Gadahn directed his appeal to Muslim immigrants in what he called the ‘miserable suburbs’ of Paris, London and Detroit as well as those traveling to the West to study or work.

Gadahn grew up on a farm in California and converted to Islam before moving to Pakistan in 1998 and reportedly attending an al-Qaida training camp. He has been wanted by the FBI since 2004.”