Salon.com > Al-Qaida

Drone strikes lead to deadly reprisals for spies

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 16:27:00 +0000

The New York Times' Saturday highlighted another dark product of U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan. Local informants who aid the CIA are tracked down and slaughtered by al-Qaida militants. According to the Times:

For several years now, militant enforcers have scoured the tribal belt in search of informers who help the C.I.A. find and kill the spy agency’s jihadist quarry. The militants’ technique — often more witch hunt than investigation — follows a well-established pattern. Accused tribesmen are abducted from homes and workplaces at gunpoint and tortured. A sham religious court hears their case, usually declaring them guilty. Then they are forced to speak into a video camera.

The taped confessions, which are later distributed on CD, vary in style and content. But their endings are the same: execution by hanging, beheading or firing squad.

With drones, no Christmas ceasefire

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 16:32:00 +0000

The U.S. carried out two drone strikes in Yemen over the Christmas holiday. On Christmas Eve, a vehicle carrying two suspected al-Qaida militants was hit by a U.S. missiles and later than night five "unidentified" individuals were killed in another U.S. strike from an unmanned aerial vehicle.

As Kevin Gosztola pointed out, the attacks highlight how drone technology have put an end to traditional American ceasefires over Christmas:

There was no ceasefire from the Obama administration during the holiday. In fact, it appears they waited until Christmas Eve on purpose to conduct a couple strikes as there had not been action in the covert drone war in Yemen for well over a month.

In earlier wars, there may have been some kind of a truce because most of the soldiers and their families would be celebrating Christmas, however, characteristic of drone warfare, the drone pilots who carried out the order to fire upon suspected militants were nowhere near the area of the strike. They were completely detached and, depending on where they were when they directed the flying killer robot to attack, they were likely able to go home and see their family on Christmas Eve.

As Reuters noted, the Christmas strikes "were the first in almost two months by pilotless aircraft against suspected al-Qaida men in Yemen" where the U.S. has escalated its shadow war over the past year.

Over 100 nations, including U.S., recognize Syrian opposition

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:40:00 +0000

UPDATE 12:24 p.m. (EST): The New York Times reports that forces loyal to Syria's embattled leader Bashar al-Assad have fired Scud missiles at rebel forces in northern Syria. The attack, according to a senior Obama administration official:

Shows, he said, the increasing desperation of Mr. Assad, since Scuds are primarily defensive weapons, being used by the government offensively against a counterinsurgency.

“Using Scuds to target tanks or military bases is one thing,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Using them to target rebels hiding in playgrounds at schools is something else.”

On Tuesday anti-government activists in Damascus said "Regime forces are firing land missiles that are capable of carrying chemical warheads." This is significant because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that Syria's use of chemical weapons in a civil war would violate a "red line."

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A Facebook lesson for terrorists

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 20:51:00 +0000

On January 19, 2012, 23-year-old Ralph Deleon, a legal permanent resident of the United States living in Ontario, Calif., "liked" a link to a video shared on Facebook by Sohiel Omar Kabir, a naturalized citizen of the U.S. originally from Afghanistan.

The link in question was one that might have given many Facebook users pause. According to an affidavit filed by N. T. Elias, a special agent with the FBI, the video, titled "Dua of Sheikh Muhammad al Mohaisany masjid al haram makkah," appeared "to be a prayer for the success of the mujahideen and features various photos including Al-Qa'ida leaders Usama Bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, 9/11 attacks, bloodied adults and children, and Islamic fighters."

U.S. buys Yemen a fleet of spy planes

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 20:20:00 +0000

U.S. drones will soon be joined in Yemeni skies by spy planes operated by Yemen's forces. Wired's Spencer Ackerman reported that "the Pentagon wants to buy its Yemeni ally small, piloted spy planes."

According to Ackerman, "It’s a sign that the U.S. is upgrading the hardware it gives the Yemeni military, and digging in for a long shadow war." The few dozen Light Observation Aircraft will be flown by Yemenis trained by U.S. forces. "The planes have to be configured so the U.S. can teach Yemenis how to be their own eyes in the sky, and they need to be in Yemen in under 24 months," reported Ackerman, noting that the aircraft will be used in Yemen alongside, not instead of, remotely operated U.S. drones to fly over areas where al-Qaida is believed to be operating.

Ackerman added:

Four California men charged in terror plot

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:37:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Four Southern California men have been charged with plotting to kill Americans and destroy U.S. targets overseas by joining al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan, federal officials said Monday.

The defendants, including a man who served in the U.S. Air Force, were arrested for plotting to bomb military bases and government facilities, and for planning to engage in "violent jihad," FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said in a release.

A federal complaint unsealed Monday says 34-year-old Sohiel Omar Kabir of Pomona introduced two of the other men to the radical Islamist doctrine of Anwar al-Awlaki, a deceased al-Qaida leader. Kabir served in the Air Force from 2000 to 2001.

The other two - 23-year-old Ralph Deleon of Ontario and 21-year-old Miguel Alejandro Santana Vidriales of Upland - converted to Islam in 2010 and began engaging with Kabir and others online in discussions about jihad, including posting radical content to Facebook and expressing extremist views in comments.

They later recruited 21-year-old Arifeen David Gojali of Riverside.

Authorities allege that in Skype calls from Afghanistan, Kabir told the trio he would arrange their meetings with terrorists. Kabir added the would-be jihadists could sleep in mosques or the homes of fellow jihadists once they arrived in Afghanistan.

US officials counter reports on Benghazi attack

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 12:11:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Just days before the presidential election, U.S. officials are striking back at allegations they failed to respond quickly or efficiently against the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, detailing for the first time a broad CIA rescue effort.

Senior U.S. intelligence officials said Thursday that CIA security officers went to the aid of State Department staff less than 25 minutes after they got the first call for help from the consulate, which was less than a mile from a CIA annex. The detailed timeline provides the first in-depth look at how deeply the CIA was involved in the rescue attempt, and it comes amid persistent questions about whether the Obama administration responded as quickly and effectively as it could to the siege.

The attack on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 by what is now suspected to be a group of al-Qaida-linked militants killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

U.S. officials described the timeline in a clear effort to rebut recent news reports that said the CIA told its personnel to "stand down" rather than go to the consulate to help repel the attackers. Fox News reported that when CIA officers at the annex called higher-ups to tell them the consulate was under fire, they were twice told to "stand down." The CIA publicly denied the report.

Do Obama and Romney live in “Homeland”?

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 16:30:00 +0000

There can be no question about the general consensus that President Obama won last Monday’s foreign-policy debate on style points – and as we discussed last week, style always trumps substance in a presidential campaign. But the two candidates’ Alphonse-and-Gaston routine, where they focused on minor points of disagreement in minor areas of policy and steered away from the biggest problems facing our country in the world, raised some disturbing questions. Here’s one that occurred to me: Are Romney and Obama proposing foreign policy based on what’s happening in the real world, or are they just reacting to events in the current season of “Homeland”?

Emails show White House was aware of militants in Libya attack

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:19:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two hours after the U.S. Consulate came under attack in Benghazi, Libya, the White House was told that a militant group was claiming responsibility for the violence that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

A State Department email sent to intelligence officials and the White House situation room said the Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter, and also called for an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.

The document may fuel Republican efforts to show that the White House knew it was a terrorist attack, even as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was saying — five days afterward — that it appeared to be a protest gone awry.

The Obama administration's account of the Benghazi events has become a campaign issue, with Republican challenger Mitt Romney and GOP lawmakers accusing the White House of misleading Americans about the nature of the attack. But militant groups often surface after such attacks claiming responsibility and it's difficult to immediately verify such claims.

The Associated Press and other news organizations obtained the unclassified email and two related emails from government officials who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about them publicly.

Syrian rebels warily accept foreign fighters’ help

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 12:23:00 +0000

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — The presence of foreign Islamic militants battling Syria's regime is raising concerns over the possible injection of al-Qaida's influence into the country's civil war.

Syria's rebels share some of those misgivings. But they also see in the foreign extremists a welcome boost: experienced, disciplined fighters whose battlefield valor against the better-armed troops of President Bashar Assad is legendary.

Nothing typifies the dilemma more than Jabhat al-Nusra, a shadowy group with an al-Qaida-style ideology whose fighters come from Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the Balkans and elsewhere. Many are veterans of previous wars who came to Syria for what they consider a new "jihad" against Assad.

The group has become notorious for numerous suicide bombings during the 19-month-old conflict targeting regime and military facilities. Syria's rebels have tried to disassociate themselves from the bombings for fear their uprising will be tainted with the al-Qaida brand.

But several hundred fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra — Arabic for "the Support Front" — have also been a valued addition to rebel ranks in the grueling, three-month battle for control of Aleppo, Syria's largest city.

CIA found militant link a day after Libya attack

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:53:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The CIA station chief in Libya reported to Washington within 24 hours of last month's deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate that there was evidence it was carried out by militants, not a spontaneous mob upset about an American-made video ridiculing Islam's Prophet Muhammad, U.S. officials have told The Associated Press.

It is unclear who, if anyone, saw the cable outside the CIA at that point and how high up in the agency the information went. The Obama administration maintained publicly for a week that the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans was a result of the mobs that staged less-deadly protests across the Muslim world around the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the U.S.

Those statements have become highly charged political fodder as the presidential election approaches. A Republican-led House committee questioned State Department officials for hours about what GOP lawmakers said was lax security at the consulate, given the growth of extremist Islamic militants in North Africa.

Suspected 9/11 mastermind calls U.S. worse killer

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 18:38:00 +0000

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 mastermind, told a Guantanamo courtroom yesterday that America is a bigger killer than he ever has been.

As Reuters reported, during a pretrial hearing focused on security classification rules for evidence that will be used in his trial, the terror suspect used his address to lambast the United States:

"When the government feels sad for the death or the killing of 3,000 people who were killed on September 11, we also should feel sorry that the American government that was represented by (the chief prosecutor) and others have killed thousands of people, millions... Many can kill people under the name of national security, and to torture people under the name of national security, and to detain children under the name of national security, underage children," said Mohammed in Arabic through an English interpreter. "Your blood is not made out of gold and ours is made out of water. We are all human beings," he said.

Details emerge about Federal Reserve attempted bomber

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:01:00 +0000

Following his appearance in a Brooklyn court Thursday morning, more details are emerging about the Bangladeshi man who allegedly tried to detonate what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb outside the Federal Reserve building in Manhattan.

Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, is the son of a middle class Dhaka banker, who, according to the AP, reacted to news of his son's terrorist aspirations with disbelief. Following an unsuccessful period as a student at the private North South University in Dhaka, Nafis moved to the U.S. on a student visa in January. He had been living recently in Jamaica, Queens. CBS reported Thursday that Nafis "had made statements that he was in contact with a Qaida network before he arrived in the United States...[and] allegedly said he admired the radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki." Al-Awlaki was controversially executed by a U.S. drone strike without due process usually afforded to U.S. citizens.

White House ponders strike over Libya attack

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:43:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House, under political pressure to respond forcefully to the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, is readying strike forces and drones but first has to find a target.

And if the administration does find a target, officials say it still has to weigh whether the short-term payoff of exacting retribution on al-Qaida is worth the risk that such strikes could elevate the group's profile in the region, alienate governments the U.S. needs to fight the group in the future and do little to slow the growing terror threat in North Africa.

Details on the administration's position and on its search for a possible target were provided by three current and one former administration official, as well as an analyst who was approached by the White House for help. All four spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the high-level debates publicly.

In another effort to bolster Libyan security, the Pentagon and State Department have been developing a plan to train and equip a special operations force in Libya, according to a senior defense official.

Partisan spats at hearing on Libya

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 12:38:00 +0000

Wednesday's GOP-led hearing on the Benghazi embassy attack remained a partisan affair, rife with political manoeuvrings. However, the House committee inquiry did reveal a series of potential security shortfalls at the U.S. consulate before the al-Qaida attack in September in which Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed.

Two former heads of U.S. diplomatic security in Libya testified that requests for additional security to protect American missions in the country were rejected by the state department ahead of the attack.

"The RSO (regional security officer) struggled to obtain additional personnel there, but was never able to attain the numbers he felt comfortable with," said Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Wood, former head of embassy security in Libya.

Republicans on the hearing committee were swift to point fingers at the state department, particularly senior official Charlene Lamb who handled and denied the request for extra security. Speaking at the hearing, Lamb maintained that on the night of the attack (Sept. 11,) the U.S. had "the correct number of assets" in Benghazi. Indeed, as was revealed in the hearing, more agents were on the ground at the consulate that night that had been requested by former head of security, Eric Nordstrom.

Security officer at US embassy in Yemen killed

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 11:18:00 +0000

SANAA, Yemen (AP) -- A masked gunman assassinated a Yemeni security official at the U.S. Embassy in a drive-by shooting in the capital Sanaa on Thursday, officials said.

The Yemeni officials said the killing bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaida attack, but it was too early to determine if the group was behind it. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Anti-American violence in the Middle East has spiked over the past month, most of it triggered by an anti-Islam video made privately in the United States. On September 11 in the Libyan city of Benghazi, U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans - including two former Navy SEALs - were killed in what U.S. administration officials now describe as an act of terrorism. There is some debate about whether the attack was related to protests about the film or whether it was a premeditated attack unrelated to the film.

The latest attack in Yemen, however, may be more tied to domestic tensions. The assassination resembles other attacks targeting Yemeni intelligence, military and security officials in retaliation for a wide military offensive by Yemen's U.S.-backed government against al-Qaida's branch in the country.

GOP’s October surprise?

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 13:30:00 +0000

According to a highly reliable source, as Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama prepare for the first presidential debate Wednesday night, top Republican operatives are primed to unleash a new two-pronged offensive that will attack Obama as weak on national security, and will be based, in part, on new intelligence information regarding the attacks in Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens on Sept. 11.

The source, who has firsthand knowledge of private, high-level conversations in the Romney camp that took place in Washington, D.C., last week, said that at various times the GOP strategists referred to their new operation as the Jimmy Carter Strategy or the October Surprise.

He added that they planned to release what they hoped would be “a bombshell” that would make Libya and Obama’s foreign policy a major issue in the campaign. “My understanding is that they have come up with evidence that the Obama administration had positive intelligence that there was going to be a terrorist attack on the intelligence.”

Wave of bombs kills 26 in Iraq

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 19:30:00 +0000

BAGHDAD — A series of coordinated bombings shattered Shiite neighborhoods and struck at Iraqi security forces Sunday, killing at least 26 in attacks that one official described as a rallying call by al-Qaida just days after dozens of militants escaped from prison.

The blasts brought September's death toll from sectarian violence to nearly 200 people — a grim, above-average monthly total for the period since U.S. troops left last year. The steady pace of attacks has worked to undermine confidence in the government.

"The people are fed up with the killings in Iraqi cities," said Ammar Abbas, 45, a Shiite and government employee who lives in a Baghdad neighborhood near one of the bombings. "The government officials should feel shame for letting their people die at the hands of terrorists."

Police said the wave of explosions stretched from the restive but oil-rich city of Kirkuk in the north to the southern Shiite town of Kut, wounding at least 94 people. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but bombings are a hallmark of al-Qaida in Iraq, the Sunni insurgency that has been struggling for years to goad Shiite militias back toward civil war.

Iraq prison break kills 10 guards

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 11:46:00 +0000

BAGHDAD — Officials say a prison break in central Iraq has killed 10 guards and two inmates and that many prisoners, including suspected al-Qaida fighters, escaped after hours-long clashes with security troops inside the facility.

A spokesman in Salahuddin province says several convicts broke into a prison storeroom in Tikrit late on Thursday night, seized weapons and overpowered prison guards.

Spokesman Mohammed al-Assi says several hours of clashes followed and that scores of prisoners had escaped by Friday morning when security troops regained control of the prison. Tikrit is 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad.

A provincial health official, Raed Ibrahim, confirmed that 12 died in the violence.

Prison breaks are common in Iraq and are a big embarrassment to the country's Shiite-led government.

Limbaugh: Al-Qaida “gave up Osama”

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 14:43:00 +0000

Polite and serious pundits were shocked when Mitt Romney suggested, and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus outright declared, that President Obama "sympathized" with those who killed American diplomats in Libya. But anyone familiar with the alternative universe version of Obama created by the right shouldn't be too surprised. As TPM's Josh Marshall wrote, the charge was "picked wholesale from the right-wing blogosphere."

It's now taken for granted on the far right that the statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo condemning the anti-Islamic film that sparked the violence (which was expressly not authorized by the Obama administration) is tantamount to "apologizing to Al-Qaida," as Fox News host Steve Doocy said this morning. But for those prone to believe Obama is a secret Muslim radical, or at least feckless enough to sympathize with them, there's always been that one key bit of evidence that even a heavy does of cognitive dissonance can't ignore -- Obama authorized the mission that killed bin Laden.