Over the weekend, the CIA tweeted about the Usama bin Ladin raid…..emulating events of 5 years ago. Several media outlets wrote pieces saying how weird it was while others were more critical. The CIA twitter feed was full of people even more hostile.
Perhaps none of these people including media took a deeper look at the possible reason as to why the CIA hosted this session. Could it be that the CIA hosted this event to flush out who was participating globally, where they are and to investigate their affiliation or sympathy with terror groups? Of course. Sheesh….I ‘get-it’.
Does anyone realize that al Qaeda is not on the run, has not been decimated much less defeated?
Replaced as the preeminent global jihadist power by the Islamic State group, Al-Qaeda nonetheless remains a potent force and dangerous threat, experts say.
With last year’s Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris and a wave of shootings in West Africa, Al-Qaeda has shown it can still carry out its trademark spectacular attacks.
And in Syria and Yemen its militants have seized on chaos to take control of significant territory, even presenting themselves as an alternative to the brutality of IS rule.
Writing for French news website Atlantico in early April, former intelligence officer Alain Rodier said that while IS may have stolen the spotlight, Al-Qaeda may be in a better long-term position.
By rushing to declare its caliphate and establish its rule, IS has made itself an easier target, with thousands of its supporters killed in air strikes launched by a US-led coalition and by Russia.
Its harsh rule has also alienated potential supporters, while groups like Al-Nusra have instead sought to work with local forces in areas under their control.
“The death of Al-Qaeda’s founding father in no way meant the end of his progeny,” Rodier wrote. “This jihad will last for decades.” More here from Dubai (AFP).
In 2011, when Barack Obama ordered all….all military out of Iraq, the country was stable and sovereign and could self govern. Yeah, right. Then Obama’s National Security Advisor, John Brennan, now the Director of the CIA stated that al Qaeda’s goal for a global caliphate was an absurd notion. Really?
Are you still unsure as to how the Obama strategy or rather lack of strategy was concocted?
“Our strategy is…shaped by a deeper understanding of al Qaeda’s goals, strategy, and tactics,” Brennan claimed. “I’m not talking about al Qaeda’s grandiose vision of global domination through a violent Islamic caliphate. That vision is absurd, and we are not going to organize our counterterrorism policies against a feckless delusion that is never going to happen. We are not going to elevate these thugs and their murderous aspirations into something larger than they are.”
Sure recently Islamic State has suffered some territorial setbacks as well as financial setbacks, that is a great thing. However, Islamic State just imposed it’s will in the highly protected and fortified Green Zone in Baghdad.
The Green Zone, surrounded by thick blast walls topped with razor wire, is off-limits to most Iraqis because of security procedures that require multiple checks and specific documentation to enter. It has long been the focus of al-Sadr’s criticism that the government is detached from the people.
Supporters of al-Sadr have been holding demonstrations and sit-ins for months to demand an overhaul of the political system put in place by the U.S. following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Last summer, demonstrations demanding better government services mobilized millions across Iraq and pressured Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to submit his first package of reform proposals. However, months of stalled progress followed, and in recent months al-Sadr’s well-organized supporters took over the protest movement.
Despite the subdued end to the latest protest, Iraqi officials fear the precedent set by the Green Zone breach will continue to undermine the country’s security.
Earlier on Sunday, car bombs in the southern city of Samawah killed 31 people and wounded at least 52. A police officer said two parked cars filled with explosives were detonated within minutes of each other around midday, the first near government offices and the second at an open-air bus station less than a mile away. On Saturday, an ISIS-claimed bombing in a market filled with Shiite civilians in Baghdad killed at least 21 people and wounded at least 42 others.
Further, al Qaeda is recruiting heavily in Syria those Islamic State fighters leaving the terror battlefield. While recently, there is a major debate underway about the Obama administration releasing the 28 pages about Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the 9/11 attack, John Brennan said recently that those documents are full of misinformation and assumed facts now proven to be false. Either way, they need to be declassified, but there will be consequences for going that. However Brennan could be somewhat correct given the trove of documents recovered from the bin Ladin compound. Some of those documents have been declassified and is know at the ‘bookshelf’.
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Declassified Material – March 1, 2016 (113 items)  |
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Declassified Material – May 20, 2015 (103 items) |
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Publicly Available U.S. Government Documents (75 items) |
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English Language Books (39 items) | |||||||||||
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Material Published by Violent Extremists & Terror Groups (35 items) | |||||||||||
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Materials Regarding France (19 items) | |||||||||||
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Media Articles (33 items) | |||||||||||
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Other Religious Documents (11 items) | |||||||||||
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Think Tank & Other Studies (40 items) | |||||||||||
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Software & Technical Manuals (30 items) | |||||||||||
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Other Miscellaneous Documents (14 items) | |||||||||||
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Documents Probably Used by Other Compound Residents | |||||||||||
