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Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2016 Part 19-138-Caliphate-The State of al-Qaida-57-Comeback-11

“Take Up Arms, Do Not Sit Still”"the great hopes of the Islamic nation".

In audio recording al-Qaeda leader says group's Syria branch free to go its own way as long as outcome is Islamic state. If the plan is carried out it could see two “Islamic states” - Isil and the new al-Qaeda emirate - competing for territory and influence within the borders of war torn Syria.

The leader of al-Qaeda has given his blessing for the terror group's Syrian branch to form its own "emirate" to rival the Islamic State (Isil) inside Syria. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s successor, gave his backing to the al-Nusra Front to create the first sovereign state run by al-Qaeda.

If the plan is carried out it could see two “Islamic states” - Isil and the new al-Qaeda emirate - competing for territory and influence within the borders of war torn Syria. While the al-Nusra group, which is loyal to al-Qaeda, already controls areas in northern Syria, the formal establishment of a state would be a major step up in its ambitions. Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has released an audio recording, hinting that his organisation has no objection to if its Syrian affiliate, al-Nusra Front went its own way. In the audio statement posted online, Zawahiri said many people talked and fought about the issue of al-Nusra and its al-Qaeda link.

He said if the people choose their own leadership, the organisational affiliation will not be an obstacle to what he described as "the great hopes of the Islamic nation".Al-Nusra, one of Syria's main armed groups, has been excluded from peace talks between the country's government and opposition in Geneva because of its affiliation with al-Qaeda and it remains on UN and US terror lists. Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Gaziantep near the Turkey-Syria border, said Zawahiri's message could be interpreted as a split between al-Qaeda and al-Nusra. This is being interpreted as a blessing from the central leadership of al-Qaeda to its branch in Syria, to dissociate itself from the group," she said.In recent months there have been several reports suggesting al-Nusra is trying to "rebrand" and present itself to the Syrian people, as well as outside powers such as the US, as a more moderate, purely Syrian force not linked to al-Qaeda.But the group's leadership was reportedly unsure about breaking the organisational bond with al-Qaeda. "There was disagreement within the Nusra leadership about what to do," Al Jazeera's Khodr said. "Maybe things will change now that Zawahiri has actually given his blessing". The group - known as Jabhat al-Nusra in Arabic - has been actively involved in Syria's war since 2012, battling Syrian government forces across the country. It has also fought smaller rebel groups, including Western-backed ones, for control of territory. Al-Nusra is a popular force on the ground among many Syrians opposed to the government, because of its fighting capabilities.But, at the same time, many Syrians in the opposition have long been worried about the group's links to al-Qaeda.Recently, the Free Syrian Army, engaging in the political process with the West, has been weakened as al-Nusra has made gains.

1The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see. –Winston ChurchillCees de Waart: CdW Intelligence to Rent of 8

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On Friday al-Nusra and its allies captured the strategic town of Khan Touman in Aleppo province, from pro-government forces, a victory that could potentially open up new supply routes for rebel-held areas of the city.

Zawahiri's message comes at an "interesting time", our correspondent said."Those who back the opposition see al-Nusra as the only force capable of confronting the government at the moment. "The question now is what will the stance of the international community be, if al-Nusra decides to disassociate itself from al-Qaeda? Will they consider al-Nusra as a legitimate Syrian opposition force?" Since al-Nusra is considered a terrorist organisation by the UN and the US, it has not been an official party to any negotiations about the future of Syria.But it has allied itself with several other Syrian groups, who are not on international terrorist lists, in order to gain legitimacy."Certainly many in the Syrian opposition will say if al-Nusra disengages itself from al-Qaeda, it will no longer give the Russian government and the Syrian government a pretext to attack moderate rebels," Al Jazeera's Khodr said. Al-Nusra was excluded from a ceasefire agreed between government forces and the opposition in February.Dammam- Admiral Kevin M. Donegan commander of the United States’ Fifth Fleet told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that Houthi insurgents, al-Qaeda and ISIS represent the greatest threat to naval freedom of waters surrounding the Arabian Peninsula (C-1-i), which comprises the three prominently vital passages for global economy. Donegan’s declarations were made after concluding the IMCMEX drill, which is considered the world-wide most comprehensive naval drill staged by the U.S. navy and includes 36 countries, across the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. The military naval drill is for ensuring the protection of all the naval passages.

By Terence P. Jeffrey | May 4, 2016 | 4:33 AM EDT

The White House this week marked the fifth anniversary of the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden by posting a piece by National Counterterrorism Center Director Nick Rasmussen on the White House website. It was Rasmussen's recollection of being in the White House Situation Room when U.S. forces took bin Laden down."Five years ago, I watched in the Situation Room along with President Obama, Vice President Biden, and members of the president's national security team to see if U.S. Special Operations Forces could deliver the justice that every American had been waiting for for a decade," Rasmussen wrote.They did.But killing bin Laden did not kill the radical Islamist ideology he embraced. Nor did killing Abu Musab Zarqawi before him.

Indeed, the strategic plan that bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, outlined for Zarqawi in 2005 is at this moment being advanced by the late Zarqawi's terrorist group, which is now divorced from al-Qaida and calls itself the Islamic State.In October 2005, the office of the director of national intelligence released a letter Zawahiri sent to Zarqawi in July of that year. An English translation of this letter is currently available on the website of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.Zawahiri told Zarqawi that he was "blessed" to be at the struggle's main front."What I mean is that God has blessed you and your brothers while many of the Muslim mujahideen

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have longed for that blessing, and that is Jihad in the heart of the Islamic world," said Zawahiri.He pointed to four "stages" he envisioned in that struggle."The first stage: Expel the Americans from Iraq," Zawahiri wrote."The second stage: Establish an Islamic authority or amirate," he said, "then develop it and support it until it achieves the level of a caliphate — over as much territory as you can to spread its power in Iraq, i.e., in Sunni areas, is in order to fill the void stemming from the departure of the Americans, immediately upon their exit and before un-Islamic forces attempt to fill this void, whether those whom the Americans will leave behind them, or those among the un-Islamic forces who will try to jump at taking power.""The third stage: Extend the jihad wave to the secular countries neighboring Iraq," said Zawahiri."The fourth stage: It may coincide with what came before: the clash with Israel, because Israel was established only to challenge any new Islamic entity," he said.What has happened since Zawahiri sent Zarqawi this letter?Almost 10 years ago, in June 2006, U.S. forces killed Zarqawi in Iraq. Five years after that, in May 2011, U.S. forces killed bin Laden in Pakistan.

For more than six years after Zawahiri sent his July 2005 letter to Zarqawi, the U.S. maintained troops in Iraq. According to the Congressional Research Service, those troops peaked at 170,300 in November 2007, more than a year after Zarqawi's death.In December 2011, President Obama removed all remaining U.S. forces from Iraq."But we're leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people," Obama said then. And the

Islamic State now controls territory in both Syria and Iraq, where it has declared a "caliphate" and where it is committing genocide against Christians and other religious minorities.President Obama has sent more than 4,000 U.S. troops back into Iraq and last week the administration announced he was adding 250 U.S. troops to the 50 already in Syria.But, as recent history has demonstrated, a U.S. ground war in the Middle East will not eradicate the threat posed by radical Islamist terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State.Instead, America needs to do everything necessary to keep Islamist terrorists from entering this country while supporting the Arab governments that understand the same threat.

Al Qaeda-linked cleric leads new recruiting campaign for jihadists in SyriaBY THOMAS JOSCELYN | April 28, 2016 |

Sheikh Muhaysini recruiting at a refugee camp in Syria.Sheikh Abdallah Muhammad al Muhaysini, one of the most influential jihadist ideologues in Syria, has launched a new recruiting campaign that aims to indoctrinate thousands of young men. The mobilization effort, named “Take Up Arms, Do Not Sit Still” and also referred to as “Go Forth,” began online and throughout Syria on Apr. 20.


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One of the first propaganda videos released for the effort shows Muhaysini speaking in front of a large crowd at a refugee camp. The Saudi cleric, who is linked to al Qaeda, is treated like a rock star at the event. The rally was supposedly led to between 200 and 300 new recruits joining the jihadists’ cause.Muhaysini begins his speech by blasting Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad, Iran and Hezbollah. A clip of Hasan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, is played. “If the battle with those terrorists and takfiris needs me and all Hezbollah to go to Syria, we will go to Syria,” Nasrallah promises.

Muhaysini responds, “We say come, and we swear by Allah we will [introduce] you to the dogs of Sham.”The jihadist cleric continues by saying that the refugees in the camp had their homes destroyed by Assad and suffered from his barrel bombs. Muhaysini points to an empty tent that he says will be filled with the “new mujahideen,” who “will fill the land of Sham with the blood of the Russians” and the Iranians.The video, which is just over 10 minutes long and includes English subtitles, is well-choreographed. It appears that a commercial drone was used to shoot footage from overhead. For instance, an aerial shot of the camp (seen on the right) plays as Muhaysini criticizes the youth who live there for failing to join the jihad.

“O you here, know I love you,” Muhaysini says, before imploring the camp’s youth to join the jihadists. He preaches the virtues of martyrdom: “Allah’s religion is awaiting you. What makes you sit? O you hero, are you afraid of martyrdom? Do you know what martyrdom is? It is one bullet in the cause of Allah which makes you leave the life. Then you will become alive in Gardens of Eternity by the Lord of the Worlds.” Muhaysini calls for all willing males over the age of 15 to make their way to the empty tent. Young men and adolescents then stream in, committing themselves to the jihad against Assad and his allies.In a second, longer video, Muhaysini is joined by three others and together they explain the purpose of the recruiting drive. The additional men are Abu Namis (a military commander in Liwa al Haq), Sheikh Muslih al Alyani (deputy chair of the Jihad’s Callers Center, which is headed by Muhaysini), and Dr. Ayman Harush (a lecturer at the University of Aleppo).Muhaysini says the “zeal” of sharia officials in his Jihad’s Callers Center and their comrades in the Scholars League of the Levant, which is another association of sharia officials in Syria, led to the effort. The campaign does not serve any single faction, Muhaysini says, and 200 officials from different groups have spread out across Syria to proselytize.

The Saudi cleric explains how a new recruit is assigned to an organization. Once a young man agrees to join, he is sent to the “central command of the campaign,” which coordinates across the various factions and decides where he goes. They all receive sharia instruction, but only the best are armed. Between 400 and 500 new mujahideen have been selected thus far, according to Muhaysini, who says that they hope to attract 5,000 new jihadists.Muhaysini says Syrians, including those who fled to Turkey, are being recruited and he hopes that the ideology of jihad takes root throughout the Levant, beyond the immediate call to arms. He adds that the campaign is a response to the Iranian-backed popular mobilization forces fighting in Iraq and Syria, as well as the Shiites’ mobilization throughout the region. Muhaysini criticizes the Sunni scholars who refuse to mobilize the Sunni youth to counter their Shiite adversaries in Iran and Hezbollah. Harush, the lecturer in Aleppo, justifies the jihad as a defensive one, saying that Iran has brought in fighters from throughout the Middle East to attack the Sunnis. And Abu Namis, the Liwa al Haq official, says that the Sunni factions do not have a surplus of fighters, as some claim. Abu Namis calls on foreign fighters to join their Syrian counterparts.

Muhaysini wears multiple hats inside Syria. In addition to being the chairman of the Jihad’s Callers Center, he is a senior judge in Jaysh al Fath, a rebel coalition that overran the Idlib province in 2015. Jaysh al Fath was co-founded by Al Nusrah Front, which is al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, and another al Qaeda-linked group, Ahrar al Sham.


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Muhaysini and some of his supporters online refer to him as an “independent” jihadist. The Long War Journal assesses that this is unlikely and he is probably a senior al Qaeda sharia official. He has numerous connections to al Qaeda’s international network.He was a student of Sulayman Al Alwan, a jihadist cleric responsible for indoctrinating some key figures within al Qaeda. The 9/11 Commission found that al Alwan even instructed one of the 9/11 hijackers. Muhaysini has defended and spoken fondly of al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri. In 2014, Muhaysini even issued a proposal for jihadist reconciliation that was timed to coincide with Zawahiri’s own. The initiative was intended to reconcile the Islamic State with its jihadist rivals in the Al Nusrah Front and Ahrar al Sham. While the latter parties agreed to the plan, the Islamic State rejected it.Muhaysini works closely with Al Nusrah Front and other al Qaeda groups in Syria, such as the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) and similar ethnic jihadist brigades. His work has been featured in Al Masra, an al Qaeda newsletter launched earlier this year, as well as in the Taliban’s literature. Muhaysini’s popular social media sites are regularly littered with references to al Qaeda, including eulogies for senior al Qaeda operatives killed in American airstrikes. Numerous al Qaeda-affiliated social media accounts are promoting Muhaysini’s new recruiting campaign.

Regards Cees***

The CIA’s Plan B for Syria: Supporting Al Qaeda ["Moderate Terrorists"], Repeating the Mistake of AfghanistanWhy was the CIA’s Plan B leaked? Global Research, April 30, 2016Talk of the validity of elections conducted by the Assad administration and prospects for a political process somehow left out the recently announced Plan B to be implemented if the political process reaches a deadlock. And how wrong that was.Actually, American maneuvers around Plan A, i.e., a ceasefire and political solution, are becoming more obvious. Barack Obama is running out of time to declare himself a ‘peacemaker in Syria’. He needs a success before November and it doesn’t matter what happens after that.Plan B turned out to have nothing to do with a political solution, because it implies increasing money and arms to the ‘moderate opposition’ that is constantly transforming into ‘non-moderate’. With Plan B, Americans implicitly accept that their clients in Syria have extremely dubious political ties.Crucially, the key is delivery of portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) designed to defend the ‘moderate opposition’ from air strikes. American policy in the Middle East came full circle and returned to the same political ‘crossroads’ where, in 1986 by delivering MANPADS to Afghan ‘freedom fighters’, as Ronald Reagan called them, it gave the Afghan conflict a new dimension.Note that the ‘Afghan International’ formed around American (and Chinese, by the way) arms deliveries, was the forebear of Al-Qaeda and the ‘spiritual grandfather’ of ISIS, the organization the US is now desperately fighting. Americans are right when they suggest that Al-Qaeda, among others, was created and supported by Saudi money. But they deliberately forget that the ‘Afghan international’ was created by Americans.American policy has returned to the same point, with almost the same allies, the same ideas and the same ignorance of consequences but with a new technological level that makes it extremely dangerous.Most principal actors involved in the American political and propaganda process around Syria denied the existence of such plan, noting that, if there was any, MANPADS would be equipped with a ‘location-based system’ that would limit the area of their use. But this peculiar Plan B was denied in such a way that the unpleasant taste remained. Everyone understood that there was a plan, but so far it appears too risky to announce it at a higher level than anonymous ‘CIA sources’.The problem with Plan B is not that it will result in the destabilization of the entire Middle East. The


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mere fact that this information appeared, even as propaganda, to pressure Russia (or at least, Iran and Assad), shows the level of geopolitical irresponsibility that prevails today in Washington. Seeking revenge, the American administration crossed a propaganda red line, removing another restraint on the world information war, which it had hesitated to cross even during height of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine.The question to what extent the US will cross the propaganda red line is still up in the air. But we must remember that irresponsibility is never ‘local’ – either it’s nowhere, or it’s everywhere. We cannot exclude that rumors about Plan B could become reality when serious people discuss the pluses and minuses of MANPADS and other arms.It’s too bad that the USA never learns the lessons of history.In the 1980s and 1990s, Stingers didn’t shoot American aircraft. The ‘American International’, nurtured by the US, attacked a little later, on September 11, 2001. But that was a significant shot, involving the US in a ‘vicious circle’ that has lasted for sixteen years and takes on new stature with every cycle. The Taliban are the natural children of American and Saudi policy toward the ‘Afghan International’, which now looks like boy scouts compared to ISIS. And we can only guess what monsters the infamous Plan B would generate.The key point about Plan B is that American policy in Syria (and in the Middle East in general) is becoming more chaotic, more oriented toward rapid results and much more unscrupulous. It’s doubtful that Washington will find the strength to get out of the ‘vicious Middle East circle’ it created.A ‘window of opportunity’ for Russian-American cooperation in the Syria-Iraq conflict is shutting down.

In Syria, US Rejects Russia Call To Name al-Qaeda Allies ‘Terrorist’Daniel McAdams, April 28, 2016Print This | AddThis Button BEGIN Share This AddThis Button END | CommentThe total muddle that is US policy toward Syria continues to astonish. This week we saw the spectacle of a State Department Spokesman telling us that President Obama’s promise to not put US boots on the ground in Syria, was never a promise not to put boots on the ground in Syria. Yes, it was funny to see him squirm, but there is nothing funny about the past five years of disastrous policy in Syria. Particularly considering the thousands killed once the US decided that “Assad must go” and began sending in fighters to make that happen.Now we see the extraordinary situation where the US government admits that the militia groups Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham are fighting alongside and are “intermingled with” al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, but resoundingly rejects the Russian request to therefore classify these two groups terrorist.In fact, not only does fighting alongside and “intermingling with” al-Qaeda not get a group classified “terrorist,” the US government is actually asking Russia and the Syrian government to stop shooting at such groups!

Here’s State Department Spokesman Mark Toner making the request:US wants Russia & #Syria not to target terror grps AhrarSham & Jaish al-Islam even though they fight alongside Nusra pic.twitter.com/yUG9RF1lhg— Walid (@walidmiyati) April 28, 2016So the State Department is urging the Syrians and Russians to stop bombing Aleppo because Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham are operating there, even though it also admits that the groups are “intermingling” with al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front.But it gets even more bizarre, as Pentagon Spokesman Col. Steve Warren said last week in a press briefing that “it’s primarily al-Nusra who holds Aleppo.”


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Why does the State Department urge a cessation of hostilities against the forces holding Aleppo while the Pentagon tells us that it is primarily al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front that is in charge of Aleppo?Do either of them know what’s going on there?State Department Spokesman John Kirby tries to explain it away by telling us that because Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham are also present (intermingling with Nusra Front — “because they want to be near one another”), there should be no Russian or Syrian attack on Aleppo.But in a February 22 press briefing, State Department Spokesman Mark Toner explicitly stated that groups who fight alongside al-Nusra Front or other terrorist groups in Syria would be legitimate military targets!Asked whether the groups fighting alongside al-Nusra in Syria should be considered military targets, Toner made it clear that such actions opened them up to being targeted:Again, that’s for them to – frankly, to resolve. I mean, if they’re going to be – I mean, they cannot – we have been very clear that – we, the ISSG, have been very clear in saying that al-Nusrah and Daesh are not part of any kind of ceasefire or any kind of negotiated cessation of hostilities. So if you hang out with the wrong folks, then you make that decision.Is this all coming through clearly? Doesn’t it feel like they are making it up as they go?Daniel McAdams is director of the The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity. Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.


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i Cees remember the al-Suri plan of the AQSL longer-term strategy: Strategic move in Phase VI; DAR AL HARB to start in 2016. As noted and mentioned in AQ master strategist Abu Mus'ab As-Suri his manifesto; The Call to Global Islamic Resistance, So, the most important enemy targets in detail: Third: The straits and the main sea passages: On the Earth there are five (5) important straits, four of them are in the countries of the Arabs and the Muslims. The fifth one is in America, and it is the Panama Canal. These straits are: 1. The Strait of Hormuz, the oil gate in the Arab-Persian Gulf. 2. The Suez Canal in Egypt. 3 . The Bab el Mandib between Yemen and the African continent. 4. The Gibraltar Strait in Morocco. -- Most of the Western world's economy, in terms of trade and oil, passes through these sea passages and 5 is the Panama canal. Cees we could and should add one to the list: The Strait of Malacca is also one of the most narrow chokepoints in the world. The narrowest point in the strait is only 1.7 miles wide, which creates a natural bottleneck for shipping. The strait has also become one of the newest piracy hotspots in the world.

Cees a Special `focus; The strategic Bab al-Mandeb "Gate of Tears" straits at the entrance to the Red Sea to the south. With the World focus on the Middle East be it DAESH, Iran, Iraq, Syria Yemen etc, the real danger could and will be if AQ in accordance to their plan are able to chock the world Economy by controlling both side of the Bab-el-Mandab; "Gate of Tears". The Bab-el-Mandeb acts as a strategic link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

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