Category Archives: Department of Defense

Saudi Arabia Arrests 9 Americans Connected to Terror

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Saudi police arrest 9 American ‘terror’ suspects: report

Riyadh (AFP) – Saudi authorities have arrested nine American citizens among 33 “terror” suspects rounded up over the past week, the Saudi Gazette newspaper reported Sunday.

Four Americans were arrested last Monday and five others over the past four days, the paper reported, citing an unidentified source.

Washington, a strong ally of Riyadh, confirmed it was aware of the report but declined to elaborate.

A US State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP: “We are aware of reports alleging that several US citizens were detained in Saudi Arabia.

“The Department of State takes its obligation to assist US citizens abroad seriously. Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.”

The Saudi Gazette said the arrests also included 14 Saudis, three Yemenis, two Syrians, an Indonesian, a Filipino, an Emirati, a Kazakhstan national and a Palestinian.

It did not say if any of the “terror suspects” was linked to the Islamic State jihadist group, which has claimed several deadly attacks against security forces and Shiites in the kingdom since last year.

On Friday, a suicide bomber attacked a Shiite mosque in Eastern Province, killing four people before worshippers disarmed and tied up his accomplice who had fired on them.

IS, a radical Sunni group that considers Shiites heretics, did not claim that attack.

The Saudi Gazette said some 532 IS suspects accused of plotting attacks in the kingdom are being questioned ahead of their trial at the criminal court in Riyadh.

They are members of six cells arrested in “pre-emptive” raids across the kingdom and include a Saudi woman and a Filipina, the paper said.

Also on Sunday, the interior ministry said they were searching for nine suspects allegedly involved in an August suicide bombing that targeted a mosque inside a police headquarters, killing 15 people.

IS had claimed the attack in the southern city of Abha.

The ministry said in a statement that three other suspects, including a member of the kingdom’s special forces, had been arrested in connection with the Abha mosque bombing.

The oil-rich kingdom offered rewards of between one million riyals ($276,000) and seven million riyals ($1.87 million) for anyone who helps in the arrest of a suspect or thwarts an attack.

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Meanwhile it is important to know and appreciate the work many are in fact doing by the U.S. intelligence community, they are quite aware of terrorists and their locations. It is gratifying that this work occurs with some success.

Four Lebanese arrested in Paris under US request: report

French authorities reportedly detained four Lebanese based on an arrest warrant issued by the United States, local daily As-Safir said Friday.

The newspaper identified the four men as Mohamad Noureddine, Mazen Al-Atat, Ali Zbib and Osama Fahs.

The report said that the French authorities did not inform Lebanese authorities of the arrest until Fahs’ relatives in Paris reported him missing to French police. This prompted the latter to contact the Lebanese embassy in the capital to inform it of the detention of four of its nationals.

The daily added that preliminary information disclosed that French authorities had no charges against any of the four men, but it briefed Lebanese authorities on a U.S. arrest warrant issued against them.

(Note the date and the date of the arrests from Treasury. ) 

Noureddine was targeted in sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department Thursday, along with another Lebanese Hamdi Zaher, for his alleged activity in money laundering at the behest of Hezbollah.

The department targeted Noureddine and Zaher for providing financial services to Hezbollah, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization.

Treasury claims Noureddine has laundered money through his company called Trade Point International S.A.R.L. He is accused of using his network across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East to provide money laundering, bulk cash shipment, black market currency exchange and other financial services to clients, including members of Hezbollah.

The sanctions freeze any assets the two men have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibit U.S. citizens from doing business with them.

The U.S. has sanctioned more than 100 individuals and entities associated with Hezbollah.

Allies Hacked Israel’s Drone and Fighter Jet Feeds

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U.S. and Britain hacked into feeds from Israeli drones and fighter jets, according to report

WashingtonPost: The United States and Great Britain combined to hack into Israeli drone and fighter jet surveillance feeds as part of secret program that in part watched for a potential Israeli military strike against Iran, according to a new report published along with corresponding photos.

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The Intercept reported that the secret program was called “Anarchist.” It was carried out by Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, and the National Security Agency from a mountaintop Royal Air Force base in Cyprus, according to the report.

“GCHQ files provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden include a series of ‘Anarchist snapshots’ — thumbnail images from videos recorded by drone cameras,” The Intercept reported. “The files also show location data mapping the flight paths of the aircraft. In essence, U.S. and British agencies stole a bird’s-eye view from the drones.”

An Israeli official downplayed the significance of the report on Friday, telling the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the revelations weren’t “very dramatic.” Israeli military operations were not harmed in the process, the source told Haaretz, adding that “it goes without saying that foreign intelligence elements in the Middle East detect our operations, just like we detect the operations of other states in the region.”

Officials at the NSA couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, and have historically declined to comment on classified programs.

Anarchist was first started in 1998, according to The Intercept. It occasionally hacked into the feeds of drones operated by Syria and Hezbollah, but the bulk of the effort was focused on Israel, which has long had a complicated relationship with the United States when it comes to spying and intelligence collection. A summary of the CIA’s budget, also released by Snowden, notes that Israel is a “priority” target for U.S. counterintelligence operations. Although allies, the United States and Israel have a history of spying on one another.

Photographs from the program appear to show Israeli drones equipped with missiles. Israel has long declined to discuss the arming of any of its unmanned aircraft, saying they are used for surveillance and to mark targets so that fighter jets and others manned aircraft can carry out airstrikes.

A 2008 British military document quoted by The Intercept suggested the Anarchist program was “indispensable” for maintaining an understanding of Israeli military operations and gaining insight into possible future developments in the region.

“In times of crisis,” it said, “this access is critical and one of the only avenues to provide up to the minute information and support to U.S. and Allied operations in the area.”

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Military technology experts do not consider hacking into a video feed from a manned jet or drone to be difficult. In 2009, for example, U.S. defense officials acknowledged in media reports that Iranian-backed militants in Iraq had used off-the-shelf software costing about $26 to hack the video feeds of Predator drones.

Air Force officials said that year that they were working toward encrypting all feeds by 2014. It is not clear if that has occurred.

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These and other images from Anarchist will be on view as part of Intercept co-founder Laura Poitras’ solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. The exhibition,Astro Noise, opens February 5.

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On January 28, 2010, GCHQ analysts on Cyprus captured six minutes of video from what appears to be a Heron TP, a giant drone manufactured by the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

In this snapshot still from the video, a large missile-shaped object is clearly visible on the left side. A GCHQ report mentions “regular collects of Heron TP carrying weapons” in 2009. A very similar image, likely from the same intercept, is named “Heron_TP_Payload.” The video is shot from the right-hand rear vertical stabilizer of the TP (this open-source videooffers a similar viewpoint).

Drone experts consulted byThe Intercept confirmed that the image shows a Heron TP.

“It certainly looks like the missile-shaped objects are weapons,” said Bill Sweetman, an editor at Aviation Week. “The bodies appear to have cruciform tail fins. The distortion makes it a bit to hard to tell size but — assuming they are bombs — these are definitely less than 500-pound class.” He added that because the Heron-TP is an Israeli strategic intelligence system, the objects could be decoys, used to “force a response from Iran’s air defenses, while the UAV orbits and hoovers up signals.”

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This is another image taken from a Heron TP, intercepted on February 9, 2010. The Heron TP or Eitan (meaning “strong” or “steadfast”) has an 85-foot wingspan, can carry a 1-ton load, and can stay aloft for up to 36 hours. It has been described in the press as “the drone that can reach Iran.”

The image is blurred, but objects appear to be mounted under the wings. The GCHQ file notes that the signal was “too poor to process” further.

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An IAI Heron, intercepted on April 26, 2009. “This is the standard IAI Heron, which can be recognized by the shape of the satellite communications radome,” said Sweetman.

Former U.S. drone pilots interviewed for this story told The Intercept that this view, showing the body of the aircraft, was a way of checking for ice or other problems.

This particular Heron seems to be modified to carry arms or other wing-mounted equipment such as sensors, but given the quality of the image, it is not entirely clear.

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This is an IAI Searcher MK III, said Sweetman.The Searcher was developed in the 1980s, but is still used by the Israel Defense Forces and by a number of other countries.

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This image was intercepted early on the morning of January 7, 2010. Based on the display markings like the dial in the upper right-hand corner, it appears to be from a drone made by the company Aeronautics. (This videofrom the manufacturer shows a similar view.) The image indicates that this model was equipped with Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera.

Unlike other Anarchist snapshots identified byThe Intercept, the video angles downward, and appears to show a view of buildings below.

A GCHQ document from 2010 reported that analysts on Cyprus had collected signals from Aeronautics’ Aerostar Tactical, a medium-sized drone that has been used by the Israeli military since 2000, and sold to countries from Poland toThailand.

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This blurred image was recorded on August 25, 2009, the same day that news agencies reported that the IDF bombed a smuggler tunnel in Gaza, killing three Palestinians inside. According to an Anarchist document, the signal was “too poor to process” further.

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This image is from a March 2008 internal NSA newsletter celebrating the successful capture of video from the cockpit of an Israeli F-16 during unrest in the Gaza Strip. The newsletter describes a “14-second long video” captured on January 3, 2008, which “showed an ‘unbroken line’ running through the targeting display, indicating that the target being tracked was on the ground.” On that same day, Israeli airstrikes and shelling from tanks reportedly killed nine people in Gaza.

The F-16 display was captured by operators of satellite surveillance systems at Menwith Hill, an important NSA site in England, working “closely with a GCHQ site in Cyprus for tip-offs.”

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This image comes from a PowerPointpresentation and shows a video still from an Iranian-made Ababil III drone flying out of western Syria. The signal was captured by Anarchist analysts and recorded on March 11, 2012.  Many more images and background are found here.

Source: http://defence.pk/threads/u-k-u-s-spy-program-hacked-into-video-feeds-on-israeli-drones-fighter-jets.419902/#ixzz3yg34WXj9

Link Between San Bernardino Attack, Prior Terror Plot

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If you don’t think the FBI is doing enough when it comes to investigating terrorists or plots across the homeland, the text below will give you reasons to change your mind. When we consider the major adjustments that Usama bin Ladin made when it came to communicating throughout the entire al Qaeda organization and with the matter of Edward Snowden releasing intelligence collection methods, we begin to understand the daunting task of the FBI.

Feds release new evidence, seek link between San Bernardino attack, prior terror plot

FNC: The couple behind the San Bernardino attack and a jihadist group that earlier plotted to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan operated so close to one another in a tight-knit Southern California community that investigators believe there may be a connection, but newly released evidence shows any missing link remains elusive.

Sohiel Omar Kabir, the ringleader of an Islamist terror cell whose Afghanistan plot was disrupted in November, 2012, shared the same violent objectives and lived in the same California community known as The Inland Empire as Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, the pair who killed 14 and wounded 22 in a Dec. 2 attack at an Inland, Calif., social services building. But the FBI remains unable to say if the two terror cells were independent, or if there is an as-yet invisible hand responsible for radicalizing them and potentially organizing another attack.

“Because these cells operated in such close proximity to one another during the same time period, it seems very likely they crossed paths.”

– Veryan Khan, TRAC

“The focus should be on whether these two terror cells and their members are connected to each other and to other self-starter cells or other lone wolf operatives,” said Veryan Khan, editorial director of the U.S.-based Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium. “Because these cells operated in such close proximity to one another during the same time period, it seems very likely they crossed paths.”

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Deleon, shown here on surveillance video at a paintball facility, intended to kill U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan. (US Department of Justice)

This week, prosecutors made public evidence from the 2012 plot, including 15 hours of audio and video recordings made through wiretaps and an FBI confidential informant, and photographs, as well as hundreds of court records, and transcripts and other documents. But nothing so far establishes a direct connection between Kabir, who last year was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison, and the jihadist couple behind the worst terror attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.

Farook, 28, a restaurant inspector born in the U.S. to a family from Pakistani, and Malik, 29, an immigrant from Pakistan, who entered the U.S. on a fiancé visa, were slain during a gunfight with law enforcement several hours after their initial assault at the holiday party. A computer hard drive belonging to the pair remains missing, and their cell phones were damaged to the point that investigators have been unable to recover potentially revealing information.  A third person who authorities say previously plotted with Farook, Enrique Marquez, has been charged with providing the rifles the pair used in the massacre.

Before the San Bernardino attack, Marquez reportedly told associates there were terror cells in the area awaiting orders.

“He would say stuff like: ‘There’s so much going on. There’s so many sleeper cells, so many people just waiting. When it happens, it’s going to be big. Watch,’ ” Nick Rodriguez, who frequented a Riverside bar where Marquez drank.

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Members of the Inland Empire terror cell posted jihadist propaganda on their social media pages. (US Department of Justice)

Finding other cells poised to attack could depend on establishing that a common handler is calling the shots. But compartmentalization is a hallmark of terrorist groups’ command and control structure, which, according to experts, means the two cells could have received their orders from the same source without ever knowing they were on the same team.

Kabir, 37, a naturalized citizen who was born in Afghanistan, and Ralph Deleon, 26, a permanent resident and citizen of the Philippines, were sentenced to identical terms for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, conspiring to murder U.S. military and government personnel, and in Kabir’s case, also for conspiring to provide material support to Al Qaeda. Two other members of the cell pleaded guilty and cooperated with authorities.

Kabir’s group, dubbed by prosecutors the “Inland Empire Cell,” allegedly received guidance from a local radical imam, who remains unnamed in court records, and encouragement from a brother of one of the men.

Ironically, federal court documents tied to Marquez’s case show both he and Farook abruptly halted plans for a dual terror attack in 2012 after Kabir’s cabal was arrested. In that assault, Marquez and Farook planned to use pipe bombs and two AR-15 rifles “to maximize the number of casualties” at Riverside City College, a nearby institution they attended, and on state Route 91, a busy freeway with few exits where motorists are frequently stuck in heavy gridlock.

An FBI spokesman said the agency continues to investigate possible ties between the groups, who practiced shooting at local gun ranges, worshiped at area mosques and boasted of their plans on social media.

“I’d take C-4 number one but I want to enjoy my targets,” DeLeon wrote in one post revealed this week by investigators. “That’s why I want to go to the front line.”

Another common interest of cells operating in The Inland Empire was their devotion to teachings of the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s “leader of external operations” until he was killed in 2011 by a U.S. drone strike. Kabir and his followers listened to many hours of videos and audio recordings from al-Awlaki, according to audio and videotapes obtained by FoxNews.com.

“Even from the grave, the power of Anwar al-Awlaki cannot be underestimated,” Khan said.

Court records show Kabir was effective at recruiting others, according to his conspirator, Deleon, who compared Kabir to a “Mujahideen walking the streets of LA.” Deleon spoke of recruiting others into their cell, boasting he had four people who were “potentials” and was up for recruiting “Everyone!”

Deleon also claimed Kabir recruited many others before he left for Afghanistan, while Kabir himself boasted contacts within terrorist organizations including “the Students” – code for Taliban – and “the Professors” – meaning Al Qaeda.

Too Damaging to Release, ah Hillary???

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Official: Some Clinton emails ‘too damaging’ to release

FNC: EXCLUSIVE: The intelligence community has now deemed some of Hillary Clinton’s emails “too damaging” to national security to release under any circumstances, according to a U.S. government official close to the ongoing review. A second source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, backed up the finding.

The decision to withhold the documents in full, and not provide even a partial release with redactions, further undercuts claims by the State Department and the Clinton campaign that none of the intelligence in the emails was classified when it hit Clinton’s personal server.

Fox News is told the emails include intelligence from “special access programs,” or SAP, which is considered beyond “Top Secret.”A Jan. 14 letter, first reported by Fox News, from intelligence community Inspector General Charles McCullough III notified senior intelligence and foreign relations committee leaders that “several dozen emails containing classified information” were determined to be “at the CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET, AND TOP SECRET/SAP levels.”

The State Department is trying to finish its review and public release of thousands of Clinton emails, as the Democratic presidential primary contests get underway in early February.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, there is an exemption that allows for highly sensitive, and in this case classified, material to be withheld in full — which means nothing would be released in these cases, not even heavily redacted versions, which has been standard practice with the 1,340 such emails made public so far by the State Department.

According to the Justice Department FOIA website, exemption “B3” allows a carve-out for both the CIA and NSA to withhold “operational files.” Similar provisions also apply to other agencies.

Fox News reported Friday that at least one Clinton email contained information identified as “HCS-O,” which is the code for intelligence from human spying.

One source, not authorized to speak on the record, suggested the intelligence agencies are operating on the assumption there are more copies of the Clinton emails out there, and even releasing a partial email would provide enough clues to trace back to the original – which could allow the identification of “special access programs” intelligence.

There was no comment to Fox News from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General, or the agency involved. Fox News has chosen not to identify the agency that provided sworn declarations that intelligence beyond Top Secret was found in the Clinton emails.

Reached for comment by Fox News, a State Department official did not dispute that some emails will never be made public.

“We continue to process the next set of former Secretary Clinton’s emails for release under the FOIA process and will have more to say about it later,” the official said. “As always, we take seriously our responsibilities to protect sensitive information.”

The State Department was scheduled to release more Clinton emails Friday, while asking a D.C. federal court for an extension.

FBI investigators looking into the emails are focused on the criminal code pertaining to “gross negligence” in the handling and storage of classified information, and “public corruption.”

“The documents alone in and of themselves set forth a set of compelling, articulable facts that statutes relating to espionage have been violated,” a former senior federal law enforcement officer said. The source said the ongoing investigation along the corruption track “also stems from her tenure of secretary. These charges would be inseparable from the other charges in as much as there is potential for significant overlap and correlation.”

Based on federal regulations, once classified information is spilled onto a personal computer or device, as was the case with Clinton and her aides, the hardware is now considered classified at the highest classification level of the materials received.

While criticized by the Clinton campaign, McCullough, an Obama administration appointee, was relaying the conclusion of two intelligence agencies in his letter to Congress that the information was classified when it hit Clinton’s server — and not his own judgment.

Joseph E. Schmitz, a former inspector general of the Department of Defense, called the attacks on McCullough a “shoot the watchdog” tactic by Clinton’s campaign.

The developments, taken together, show Clinton finding herself once again at the epicenter of a controversy over incomplete records.

During her time as the first female partner at the Rose Law firm in Arkansas during the mid-1980s, she was known as one of the “three amigos” and close with partners Webb Hubbell and Vince Foster. Hubbell ended up a convicted felon for his role in the failure of the corrupt Madison Guaranty, a savings and loan which cost taxpayers more than $65 million. Hubbell embezzled more than a half-million dollars from the firm.

Foster killed himself in Washington, D.C., in July 1993. As Clinton’s partner in the Rose Law firm, he had followed the Clintons into the White House where he served as the Clintons’ personal lawyer and a White House deputy counsel.

Clinton’s missing Rose Law billing records for her work for Guaranty during the mid-1980s were the subject of three intense federal investigations over two years. Those records, in the form of a computerized printout of her work performed on behalf of Guaranty, were discovered under mysterious circumstances in the Book Room of the private White House living quarters.

The discovery of those records was announced during a  blizzard in January 1996 by attorney David Kendall, who still represents Hillary Clinton. After Clinton testified before a grand jury, prosecutors concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt she committed perjury or obstruction of justice.

Despite Clinton’s recent public statements about not knowing how the technology works, at least one email suggests she directed a subordinate to work around the rules. In a June 2011 email to aide Jake Sullivan, she instructed him to take what appeared to be classified talking points, and “turn into nonpaper w no identifying heading and send nonsecure.”

A State Department spokesman could not say whether such a fax was sent.

Taliban Infiltration in Afghan Army

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Afghan Taliban Claims “Infiltration” of Numerous Fighters into Afghan Military

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SITE: The Afghan Taliban detailed numerous attacks via “infiltration” of its fighters into Afghan military ranks, a tactic the group described as “largely expedient.” The English statement was posted to the group’s website on January 26, 2016.

The statement cited two examples of successful attacks within the ranks of the Afghan National Army. One alleged attack by an infiltrated fighter resulted in the killing of a commander and four soldiers in Helmand province. In the second attack described in the message, three fighters purportedly killed nine soldiers, also escaping with weapons and ammunition.

The message, which claimed that many in the Afghan military “are now discerning the prevailing realities and amalgamating with Mujahidin,” concluded:

Infiltrated assaults are highly valued by Mujahidin of the Islamic Emirate in their Jihadi operations and tactics as the enemy can simply be targeted inside their fortified bases and sanctuaries. They become confused and demoralised. And eventually, either they abscond from the battle-field or surrender to Mujahidin of the Islamic Emirate.

*** This is not a new phenomenon as it was noted in 2012:

Military: Taliban infiltration of the Afghan army and police is much worse than the U.S. military and NATO have admitted and was the main factor in the surprise move to limit contacts with Afghan security forces to curb insider attacks, former ranking  U.S. officials in Afghanistan said.

“I would put the percentage rather higher” than the 25% figure for enemy infiltrators and sympathizers  that U.S. commanders have estimated, said Ryan Crocker, who stepped down as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan in July.

Crocker, who said he held secret meetings with the Taliban in fruitless efforts at a peace settlement, described Taliban leaders as “tough, smart and resilient,” and noted that they have embraced infiltration as a main tactic.

“I think we underestimate at our peril” the number of Taliban “sleepers” in the ranks of the Afghan National Security Forces that the allies have been pressing to take the lead security role, Crocker said in remarks Monday to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

A former senior advisor to the U.S. military in Afghanistan lined up with Crocker’s assessment that Taliban insurgents were more widespread in the Afghan military and police than NATO would have it.

NBC: Intelligence analysts say Khorasan refers to battle-hardened al Qaeda fighters who have travelled from Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere to Syria. Beyond that, accounts differ.

U.S. Central Command said the group was using civil war-ravaged Syria as a haven from which to plot attacks, build and test roadside bombs and recruit Westerners to carry out operations.

While Khorasan has been in operating in Syria for over a year, their attention has been focused beyond that country’s borders.

“They’re in Syria but they’re not really fighting in Syria,” said Michael Leiter, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center and now an NBC News analyst. “They’re using it as a place to find Western recruits.”

The core group is believed to be small – probably no more than 100, according to Leiter. They have one main mission: To attack Western targets.

But isn’t there already an al Qaeda affiliate in Syria?

Al Qaeda’s recognized affiliate in Syria is Jabhat al-Nusra – but that doesn’t mean there’s not room for Khorasan. Khorasan’s motivations are “very much in line” with traditional al Qaeda and it maintains close relations with Nusra, according to Leiter.

Intelligence analysts acknowledge disagreement over how separate or linked Nusra is to Khorasan. Still, the relationship appears to be symbiotic — Nusra focuses on internal operations within Syria, while Khorasan plans for external operations.

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Why is the U.S. worried?

Director of National Intelligence James Klapper last week said that Khorasan poses a threat to the U.S. equal to that of ISIS, according to The Associated Press.

“Khorasan is less of a threat to the region and more of a threat to the U.S. homeland than ISIS,” Leiter said. “Unlike ISIS, the Khorasan group’s focus is not on overthrowing the Assad regime. These are core al Qaeda operatives who … are taking advantage of the Syrian conflict to advance attacks against Western interests.”