al-qaida chief ayman al-zawahiri the coordinator 2017 part 19-138-caliphate- the state of...

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Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2017 Part 19-138-Caliphate- The State of al-Qaida-45-Our Performance-61d

"There might be a huge reaction that could drag us into a real war." "The Ummah's enemies today are like a wicked tree," he wrote, using the term for the world community of Muslims. "The trunk of this tree is the United States." Bin Laden "talked about the fear of our organization aging, and reaching decrepitude like other organizations," the letter said.But the jihadist leader also had time for personal advice for al-Qaida fighters in Northern Africa bound by "unfortunate celibacy" because of a lack of available wives.

"God is not ashamed of the truth," an aide wrote in a letter, citing bin Laden's advice. "As we see it, we have no objection to clarifying to the brothers that they may, in such conditions, masturbate, since this is an extreme case." - Osama bin Laden 2010.

“There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.” The term “moderate Islam” is ugly and offensive - September 04, 2007; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

"We will continue striking you and targeting you in your country and abroad in response to your oppression of the people of Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and the rest of the Muslim lands that did not survive your oppression.

"As for the revenge by the Islamic nation for Sheikh Osama, may Allah have mercy on him, it is not revenge for Osama the person but it is revenge for those who defended Islam." - Hamza bin Laden has been tipped as the future leader of al-Qaida

For at least the last 15 years, there has been an intense debate in both Russia and the West about how radical Islam can be defeated.

The declaration stressed that “there is no military solution to the Syrian crisis and that it can only be solved through a political process based on the implementation of UN security council resolution 2254 in its entirety.”

“Stop playing with fire and betting on losing cards,” he warned.Russia's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that any decision by the United States to

withdraw its forces from Afghanistan would worsen the situation in the country.America's longest war isn't something that Trump has said much about, and - as

with so many issues - what he has said is contradictory.In his first daily White House press briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer said

Monday that President Donald Trump has been "very clear" that he will "work with any country committed to defeating ISIS."

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday called for boosting security cooperation with the Gulf states as the Western military alliance opened its first office in the region.

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

CdW Intelligence to Rent of 18 03/05/2023

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Months before his death, Osama bin Laden fretted about the Islamic State group's impatient, violent tactics and the fading of al-Qaida, documents released by the CIA Jan 2017 showed. And he showed a strong focus on affairs in his family's original homeland, Yemen, where a powerful new branch -- Al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) -- was having a strong impact. One letter to AQAP founder Nasir al-Wuhayshi warns not to move too fast against the government because conditions were not yet right anywhere to form an Islamic state that could govern effectively and resist attacks from outside."Blood should not be shed unless we have evidence to show that the elements of success to establish the Islamic State and maintaining it are available or if achieving such goals is worthy of shedding such blood," he wrote.

"There might be a huge reaction that could drag us into a real war." "The Ummah's enemies today are like a wicked tree," he wrote, using the term for the world community of Muslims. "The trunk of this tree is the United States."

Al-Shabab attackers fight their way into a popular hotel in central Mogadishu after ramming a car bomb into its gate. The assault on 25 Jan, Wednesday morning began when attackers rammed an explosives-packed car into the gate of Dayah Hotel, which is near Somalia's parliament in central Mogadishu, and then stormed inside exchanging gunfire with security guards.

A second massive car bomb blast went off after ambulances and journalists had arrived at the scene, leaving at least four reporters wounded, according to AFP news agency.

January 25, 2017 - Remember candidate Donald Trump’s promise to, in his first 30 days, get a new plan out of America’s generals to beat the Islamic State?It appears that new Defense Secretary James Mattis is preparing to start as early as Friday, when Trump is scheduled to visit the Pentagon.Some options that could be quickly forwarded: two ideas that former President Barack Obama’s administration developed but never approved, according to CNN.They include arming Kurdish fighters for the battle to retake Raqqa, the ISIS capital in Syria. Obama didn’t like that idea due to concerns it would alienate Turkey, where the United States needs airbase access.Another option: sending more U.S. troops into Syria for combat against ISIS fighters. Under Obama, American service members are technically in an adviser role in Iraq and Syria.

New leadership at the Pentagon comes just as Iraq announced this week a somewhat tenuous victory in eastern Mosul, in what’s been a bloody, months-long onslaught to eliminate ISIS in its Iraqi stronghold…A new Administration that came to office with clearly defined intentions to change many key aspects of U.S. policy, and to do so as soon as possible, can be expected to try to act as quickly as possible. There are times, however, when quick action can do more harm than good. The way in which the United States deals with violent Islamic extremism and terrorism is a case in point.A recent study by the Burke Chair at CSIS addressed these issues in detail, examining the recent trends in violent Islamic extremist terrorism and violence, the causes of such violence, and the critical role played by America's strategic partners in the Muslim world. This study is entitled Rethinking the Threat of Islamic Extremism: The Changes Needed in U.S. Strategy and is available on the CSIS web site at





https://www.csis.org/analysis/rethinking-threat-islamic-extremism-changes-needed-us-strategy.It shows that a successful U.S. strategy—and U.S global posture in dealing with such threats —cannot be dependent on singling out Muslims. Instead, it critically depends on working with moderate Muslim governments as partners in both counterterrorism and regional security. It is also dependent on winning the support of Muslims living in the United States and the West—rather than alienating them and pushing some into the hands of extremists as a result.

Focusing on given Muslim countries may be better than adopting truly dangerous concepts like banning all Muslims. Improving the vetting for entry and visas may be better than barring entry on the basis of religion and national origin. At the same time, all of the Muslim countries the United States can single out because of unrest and extremist threats are also countries where the U.S. needs partners and allies. It is also far too easy to turn "extreme vetting" into entry impossible…

Levant Front seizes towns from other rebelsAL-QAIDA’S Syrian branch turned on its Western-backed allies yesterday 24 Jan — just as a peace deal with other factions was being signed in Kazakhstan.The Levant Conquest Front (LCF) moved against fellow Salafist extremists Ahrar as-Sham and the Army of Mojahedin — a major faction of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA).LCF — a rebranding of the UN-proscribed Nusra Front — seized or besieged towns and villages held by its erstwhile friends across occupied Idlib province and western areas of neighbouring Aleppo province. The LCF also issued a communique expelling fellow al-Qaida affiliate Jund al-Aqsa, which pledged allegiance to the dominant faction after it lost out in infighting with Ahrar as-Sham last year.Ahrar as-Sham is one of the two dominant groups in the Saudi-based, Western-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC).But it has rejected the ceasefire — struck following the Syrian army’s liberation of Aleppo — and the talks in Astana.UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura hailed a watershed there yesterday afternoon when other HNC groups signed a ceasefire with the Syrian government delegation.Russia, Iran and Turkey will act as guarantors to the ceasefire, which will pave the way for substantial peace talks in Geneva to begin on February 8.The declaration stressed that “there is no military solution to the Syrian crisis and that it can only be solved through a political process based on the implementation of UN security council resolution 2254 in its entirety.”That means “armed opposition groups” must end their alliance with Isis and the LCF and join in defeating them.Syrian UN ambassador and delegation leader Bashar al-Ja’afari called on Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to end their support of the terrorist groups they fostered in his country.“Stop playing with fire and betting on losing cards,” he warned. “Everybody has lost, including the countries supporting terrorism.”Meanwhile army troops took back more villages north-east of Aleppo from Isis — putting them within striking distance of al-Bab — which the Turkish army and its FSA allies are trying to capture.Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said yesterday Turkey would refuse to surrender the town to Syrian forces following its capture.

Russian jets blitzed rebel targets on Monday with target data Moscow said was “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war

first and then seek to win”― Sun Tzu, The Art of WarCdW Intelligence to Rent of 18 03/05/2023



provided by Washington.

MOSCOW - Russia's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that any decision by the United States to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan would worsen the situation in the country, Interfax news agency reported. The ministry said it had not spoken to the new administration of US President Donald Trump about the issue.

"As far as I know, Trump does not currently have any intentions to withdraw, which is logical, because if in the current environment he decides to withdraw the contingent, then everything will collapse," Interfax quoted Zamir Kabulov, special representative to the Russian president on Afghanistan, as saying.

As Donald Trump settles into his new home in the White House, one of the most pressing issues in his in-tray is Afghanistan.America's longest war isn't something that he has said much about, and - as with so many issues - what he has said is contradictory.In the past, he has described America's involvement in Afghanistan as a "disaster", and has talked about pulling out US troops.But when he spoke to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on 2 December, he reportedly told him that America would not waver in its commitment to Afghanistan.

Then, however, he failed to invite Mr Ghani to his inauguration, deepening worries in Afghanistan that it simply was not a priority for the new president.AFP, Kuwait City Tuesday, 24 January 2017

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday called for boosting security cooperation with the Gulf states as the Western military alliance opened its first office in the region."It will be a vital hub for cooperation between the alliance and our Gulf partners," Stoltenberg said at the inauguration of the center in Kuwait in the presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah.The center is based on the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI), which was launched by the NATO leaders in 2004 and aims to boost security links with the Middle East, in particular Gulf Arab states.Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are members of ICI while the remaining two Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states -- Saudi Arabia and Oman -- plan to join.Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah said the region is facing serious challenges that require cooperation with international organizations."We face common security threats like terrorism, weapons proliferation, and cyber-attacks. And we share the same aspirations for peace and for stability," Stoltenberg said."So it is essential that we work more closely together than ever before. We have now developed individual cooperation programs with all our Gulf partners," he said.Stoltenberg said that over the past year, NATO has trained hundreds of Iraqi officers in Jordan to better fight ISIS."We are now extending our training and capacity-building efforts into Iraq itself," he said.NATO continues to fight terrorism in other ways, including with direct support to the anti-ISIS coalition, he said.The center will strengthen the military-to-military cooperation and the fight against terrorism and extremism, Stoltenberg said.The center will help the Gulf states by providing advanced training courses on cyber security, energy security, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.Tuesday, 24 January





2017

Moscow Seeks to Reinforce Trump’s Belief That Force Alone Can Defeat Islamic StateFor at least the last 15 years, there has been an intense debate in both Russia and the West about how radical Islam can be defeated. Some argue that force alone is sufficient, but their opponents say that because radical Islam is an ideological project, it can be defeated only if the use of force is supplemented by the elaboration of an alternative narrative for Muslims. Otherwise, the latter group argues, those threatened by Islamist radicalism will find themselves in the position of a “whack-a-mole” game in which some Islamist projects will be defeated only to be replaced by others. Russian President Vladimir Putin is among those who argue, all evidence to the contrary in the North Caucasus (see EDM, May 1, 2013) and abroad, that force alone is sufficient, that seeking to engage in dialogue of any kind with Islamists is a fool’s errand, and that Islamists can only be destroyed. Now, he appears to have gained an ally in that view with the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States. And the Kremlin leader is sending signals via various channels that the two should approach Islamism as “a police matter” rather than as an ideological challenge. The clearest indication of this comes from a Facebook post by Yana Amelina, an analyst closely connected with the Kremlin via the Russian Institute for Strategic Research. Amelina has often been a leading indicator and promoter of Putin’s line with regard to the North Caucasus in particular and the Muslim world in general. On January 9, she wrote that “radical Islamism as a global project has completely exhausted itself” and that “the struggle with it is not an ideological but a police problem” (Facebook.com/yana.amelina.92, January 9).Her words were reinforced today (January 24) by Abdurashid Magomedov, the Republic of Dagestan’s interior minister. Magomedov declared that the transfer of the functions of the Federal Migration Service to the Ministry of Interior had “helped in the control over the flow of Dagestanis to Syria,” where several thousand of them have been fighting on the side of the Islamic State. Only law enforcement bodies and the force structures can work effectively against such people, he argued (Chernovik.net, January 24). Moscow faces two problems regarding its fight against Islamist radicalism. On the one hand, no matter how many adherents of radical Islam it has killed be it in the North Caucasus or in Syria, new supporters of that trend have emerged—often in even greater numbers. Indeed, the Russian government finds itself in the situation of those who try to fight a grease fire by throwing water at it. Such a strategy only causes the fire to spread (Vzglyad, August 25, 2015).And on the other hand, Russian officials openly admit that they do not know how to counter the Islamic State’s ideological messages or how to block its highly-developed recruitment strategies. Igor Barinov, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Nationality Affairs, admitted as much last year, when he said that Islamist radicals have put out a message that is attractive to all kinds of people, even young women who may be seeking husbands (Lifenews.ru, Nazaccent.ru, January 20, 2016). What then is Putin hoping to gain by encouraging Trump’s impulse to believe that force is enough? At least three things: First, if the Islamic State’s ideology is irrelevant, so too are





the ideological positions of those who may join together to fight it. Thus, by pushing this line, Putin is opening the way for the kind of purely hardheaded military cooperation between Moscow and Washington that Trump has often suggested is one of his chief goals in order to defeat the Islamic State.

Second, if one believes that force alone will defeat Islamism, then one is driven to conclude that authoritarian regimes like Putin’s own or that of Bashar al-Assad in Syria are entirely justified in their harsh measures. To the extent Putin can encourage Trump to accept that notion, he will reduce still further any interest in the current US administration to condemn human rights violations in such countries and even gain support for what Moscow is doing at home and abroad. And third, by pushing an approach that, at some level, even Putin knows is counter-productive—however superficially seductive it may be—the Kremlin leader can guarantee that radicals in the Muslim world will again turn their focus away from Russia and back toward the West in general and the United States in particular. Consequently, any US hopes for expanded influence in the Muslim world will likely be dashed for a long time to come. In short, even though Putin’s promotion of the notion that force alone is sufficient to defeat the Islamic States is unlikely to lead to that outcome, the acceptance of the Kremlin leader’s ideas on this point is almost certain to result in a defeat for the United States. And that is almost certainly Putin’s larger goal. --Paul Goble

Regards Cees***

Strange Bedfellows: US, Saudi, Al-Qaida & ISIS Interests Align In War On YemenThe people of Yemen continue to suffer amid a humanitarian catastrophe created by foreign and domestic forces alike -- almost all of whom stand to profit as long as war and chaos have a hold on the impoverished country.By Catherine Shakdam | January 23, 2017LONDON — (Analysis) As Yemen remains entrenched in the protracted, multi-fronted military conflict led by Saudi Arabia and funded by the United States, socio-political dynamics and economic realities have evolved according to the needs of competing factions — often to the detriment of civilian populations.Since the Saudi-led coalition began dropping bombs on Yemen on March 25, 2015, 3.2 million Yemenis have been displaced and more than half of the country is suffering from food insecurity and malnutrition.As of August, at least 10,000 civilians have been killed — that’s 13 civilians a day.The war has taken a particularly devastating toll on children. With hundreds of thousands of schools closed, 2 million school-age Yemenis are being denied an education. In its most recent briefing on Yemen, “Struggling to Survive: Stories from Yemen’s collapsing health system,” Save the Children reported that 14.8 million people, 55 percent of whom are children, are “currently deprived of access to even the most basic health care.”Emphasizing the human costs of war and the systematic targeting of vital civilian infrastructure, the children’s rights NGO warned:“Yemen is in the grip of the largest humanitarian catastrophe in the world right now. 18.7 million people — including 10 million children — are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance or protections — that’s more than one third of the entire population.”Edward Santiago, Save the Children’s Yemen director, noted:“Even before the war tens of thousands of Yemeni children were dying of preventable





causes. But now, the situation is much worse and an estimated 1,000 children are dying every week from preventable killers like diarrhoea, malnutrition and respiratory tract infections.”Indeed, Yemen is a bleeding wound in the region, abandoned and shunned by the powers which profit most from the war waged by the Saudi-led coalition — namely, the United States and United Kingdom.

Double Standards by Carlos Latuff.While the war on Yemen has brought a litany of suffering to Yemenis, it has also given rise to a flourishing black market. This shadow economy is tied up and firmly embedded in the terrorism inspired by Wahhabism, the dominant faith of Saudi Arabia for more than two centuries and the cornerstone of the violent jihadist movement embodied by al-Qaida and Daesh (an Arabic acronym for the terrorist group known as ISIS or ISIL in the West). It’s the nexus of terrorism which calls for the annihilation of all those who oppose its diktat.Al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula, an al-Qaida offshoot of militant extremists known as Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen, has increasingly adopted the structure and behaviors laid out in Syria and Iraq by Daesh. Like so many Wahhabi-inspired terror groups, AQAP has reportedly taken its cues from Saudi Arabia, serving as a proxy of war for the kingdom and its foreign patrons.And with a weapons industry and political blank check that feed the Saudi military complex, the U.S. corporate empire sits at the very core of such dynamics. Data gathered from the Congressional Research Service, Department of Defense Fiscal Year Series, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and Defense Security Cooperation Agency, revealed that the U.S. sold an excess of $100 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia from 2009 to 2015, Bryan Schatz reported for Mother Jones in September.Often overlooked by the mainstream media is the economic agenda carried out by Riyadh against its impoverished neighbor. Beyond the frenzied bombing of a nation and the systematic targeting of its institutions and infrastructure, has sat a cold determination to allow terrorist forces to usurp Yemen’s resources and capital.The Saudi-led war on Yemen operates far beyond any military or geopolitical narrative. It’s steeped in breathing new life into the most inhumane of trades on which the Saudi economy depends: human trafficking, sexual exploitation, drugs and weapons smuggling, and Wahhabi terror financing.Yemen has long been earmarked for complete annihilation so that the Gulf kingdom can achieve these ends.“Behind the slaughtering of a people, Riyadh is really testing world powers’ patience and Western capitals’ propensity to rationalize genocide under such labels as ‘national security,’” Sheikh Shabbir Hassanally, a U.K.-based political analyst and commentator on Middle East affairs, told MintPress News.





The war on Yemen has become a struggle for national survival against state actors like Saudi Arabia and non-state actors like Daesh and AQAP. In this new paradigm of asymmetrical warfare driven by a neo-imperialistic agenda, the grand Wahhabist kingdom of Saudi Arabia has worked to anchor its caliphate’s economic system deep within Arabia, establishing a new, violent form of hyper-capitalistic imperialism through heinous exploitation. ‘War … is a blessing for al-Qaida’With its territorial and national identity compromised by a rising narrative of sectarianism, tribalism, and regionalism, Yemen’s descent into socio-economic, political, and even sovereign instability has empowered radical elements within its borders. Groups like al-Qaida and Daesh have found an ever-expanding space in which to live and breed.Forced into a reactionary economy, Yemen’s resistance movement has had to withdraw behind enemy lines to find economic breathing space. From behind an iron curtain, the movement has staked its survival on the reinvention of its institutions outside the matrix of the global economy. Under siege by the Saudi-led coalition, Yemen was forced to break away and affirm its sovereign rights, as did Iran, Argentina, Cuba, and other nations targeted by imperialism’s onslaught.Yemen’s resistance movement, represented by Ansarullah, is a loose coalition of tribal leaders, clerics, and political parties united in the rejection of Saudi Arabia’s military interventionism. It’s an umbrella for groups including the Houthis, members of the General People’s Congress (the former ruling party) still loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as well as a slew of tribes and activists. Like Yemen itself, the movement is socially, politically, and religiously diverse.Speaking through his office, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, president of the Revolutionary Committee, which currently controls Yemen, told MintPress: “Out of every vacuum this war has created, it is al-Qaida and ultimately its patrons which have risen stronger still.”He continued:“Yemen’s war has become too much of a liability to regional stability for parties to still entertain the notion that further military entrenchment will generate positive results. War at this stage is a blessing for al-Qaida and those parties benefitting from the annihilation of Yemen’s national sovereignty. Such an eroding of Yemen’s nation-state could have terrible repercussions, since it could allow for the rise of another socio-political system – that of the Islamic Caliphate. Beyond all blame and culpability, Yemen’s biggest threat remains terror.”

A Map of Bab-el-Mandeb, the world’s primary oil route connecting the Red Sea to the Aiden Sea. (Wikimedia commons)Yemen sits on Bab-al-Mandeb, the world’s primary oil route, and its waterways offer openings to Africa, Europe, and Asia, so the country on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula cannot be allowed to further fall. While assigning blame and demanding accountability are important, sovereign restoration — economic, institutional, or social — is vital.Whether world powers have the courage to realize it or not, the Saudi leadership is attempting to institutionalize the caliphate’s black economy and breathe into existence an atrocious new financial network.Speaking to MintPress, Sheikh Shabbir Hassanally stressed: “Yemen’s run-in with terror today is more than an ideology, it is becoming an institutional reality hungering for sovereignty — there lies a danger too great for any of us to ignore.”“It is our ability to see through the muddied waters of imperialism and engineered terror





which ultimately will determine whether we will defeat this new evil or fall under its yoke.”Hasan al-Sa’adi, an official with the former ruling party, the General People’s Congress, told MintPress:“While it has often been assumed that only the Houthi/Saleh complex, aka Yemen’s resistance movement, has dabbled into less than holistic activities to sustain their war efforts, careful investigating determined that while individuals within the resistance had a hand in the looting of Yemen’s sovereign economy, the resistance movement, as a whole, has proven loyal to its goal: freeing Yemen. As for those parties in league with Riyadh, their default setting has been criminality.”

Further, a certain fluidity has been observed between self-proclaimed warring factions as far as financial interests are concerned. Where very clear lines may have existed in the early stages of the conflict (individuals, tribal entities, political factions, and coalition groups sat on very distinct sides), military and humanitarian needs and an imperious desire to generate money to overpower the opposition have often led opposing sides to negotiate “access” to resources.For example, weapons dealers based in southern Yemen, areas which are under Saudi occupation, have smuggled weapons, ammunition, diesel, and other supplies to northern Yemen via old tribal trading routes, thus betraying their alliance to resigned President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, Riyadh’s patsy in Yemen.While such activities betray immediate military interests, it appears the war has created a space too lucrative for any one party to ignore, except maybe those invested in peace. ‘Criminality has been a default setting for many of the parties involved’Yemen’s national economy suffered a series of crises and mismanagement well before the current chaos erupted. Yemen has not only been economically starved, its national currency been targeted so the country is unable to survive the Saudi-led, U.S.-backed war.War has been a driving factor in Yemen’s national impoverishment, but it’s certainly not





the only factor. Political factions on all sides have greatly benefited from the chaos and instability generated by the conflict, notwithstanding a widespread lack of judicial accountability. In short, this chaos allowed an already grand degree of criminality to reach new heights, elevating embezzlement into an artform.No party can claim innocence in the race to control Yemen’s resources and institutions. Officials on all sides, at all levels, all across the country have much to answer for, as the Yemeni people have been held hostage by war capitalists and others for whom civilian interests are no matter of importance.War profiteers, both foreign and domestic, have graced all sides and played every narrative to ensure their paydays. More often than not, malfeasance and wrongdoing have overlapped and financial interests have aligned, making it more difficult to prosecute any single party. It would be morally and legally hypocritical to hold one party to certain standards and offer another immunity on account of politics. Ultimately, Yemenis will have to decide how justice should be served.When speaking about the crisis in Yemen, the media has focused its coverage on pitting former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthis against the renegade, twice-resigned, Saudi-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is described as the head of “the legitimate government.”However, Kim Sharif, a lawyer and activist heading Human Rights for Yemen, told MintPress that Hadi’s claim on power “remains subject to contention as per Yemen’s customary law, one needs to stress that criminality has been a default setting for many of the parties involved.”She further noted that if Yemen is to heal its broken institutions, closure needs to take place. But there can be no closure without some degree of justice. Yemen would need a grand political cleanse — the departure of the state, individuals, and entities who drove Yemen to its financial death — to begin anew on healthy footing.The northern governorates of Yemen have suffered under an unprecedented liquidity crisis that has been worsening since June, following calls by Hadi loyalists for the head offices of the Central Bank of Yemen to be moved in Aden. The move, which took place in September, ambitioned to starve Yemen’s currency market and cripple the Ansarullah resistance movement — including the Houthis, in particular.Hadi has so far escaped scrutiny, yet his financial dealings and those of his close associates demand close inspection. Often painted as a grand criminal among grand criminals, Hadi is said to have systematically dipped his hands into the proverbial cookie jars, leaving his people to starve in a landscape of fire and lead.A former Saleh man, Hadi is in the process of recreating his predecessor’s nepotist oligarchy and building himself a fortune from behind Riyadh’s shadow bank.

All sides operate in the shadow economy, drain the national economyEven before Saudi Arabia declared war on Yemen in March of 2015, the Ansarullah movement was unable to sell Yemen’s oil due to a series of sabotage attacks and structural damage. And Yemen faced a security crisis posed by al-Qaida and AQAP well before the resistance assumed power over the capital, Sanaa, and by extension the running of the country.Hadi and his loyalists have benefited from this instability. Tribal sources told MintPress that Hadi has sold several Yemeni provinces to al-Qaida in exchange for cash since the Saudi-led bombing campaign started in March of 2015. His network has amassed a fortune on the black market, dealing in weapons, drugs, and other contraband. Speaking to





MintPress, Abdullah Shaban, a high-ranking Houthi officer, confirmed these allegations. Cut off from the world oil market, the resistance turned to the shadow economy.Yemen has a natural right to resist foreign oppression, and true legitimacy can only be rooted in popular will — a concept adherents to the notion of American exceptionalism have been keen to reject so they could better claim to exercise it.While the resistance has syphoned millions of dollars out of the mainstream economy, it has also used state funds to run the country’s affairs — at least, as much as it could. The same cannot be said of Hadi, whose sole aim has been to exploit, loot, and disappear Yemen’s riches.Hasan al-Sa’adi, the official linked to the General People’s Congress, told MintPress that the Houthis and Saleh first looked abroad for funding for their efforts against Hadi. Both Russia and Iran were approached as early as March of last year, shortly before Riyadh moved in against Yemen. Despite some reports in mainstream media of a proxy war set-up involving Iran or Russia, there have been no indications that any deals were reached.Indeed, other than to offer political support, Iran and Russia have stayed out of the Yemeni theater. In the light of developments in Syria and Iraq it would be logical to assume that both powers would acknowledge it if they had any involvement in Yemen.In December of 2015, Gareth Porter, a historian and investigative journalist focusing on U.S. foreign policy, exposed this construct when he debunked Saudi Arabia’s war narrative and the concept of an Iranian proxy war in Yemen. He wrote in Truthout:“The allegation of Iranian arms shipments to the Houthis – an allegation that has often been mentioned in press coverage of the conflict but never proven – was reinforced by a report released last June by a panel of experts created by the UN Security Council: The report concluded that Iran had been shipping arms to the Houthi rebels in Yemen by sea since at least 2009. But an investigation of the two main allegations of such arms shipments made by the Yemeni government and cited by the expert panel shows that they were both crudely constructed ruses.” Forging alliances despite diverging agendasWith no hope for foreign help, Yemen’s resistance took steps to fix the country’s faltering economy.In August of 2015, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi announced a new tax of four Yemeni rials per liter on sales of all petroleum products. The tax immediately generated an estimated $237 million.By October of 2016, 20 liters (5.28 gallons) of gasoline sold for 3,600 rials (just over $14) through legitimate sources and for as much as 7,000 rials on the black market. And since October, Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, a Houthi leader, has overseen the fuel black market to ensure that all profits are directed to the war efforts.If the resistance has clearly played into illegal markets to generate income, the group has largely done so to sustain its war efforts against Saudi Arabia and allow for civilian life to return to some degree of normality under the humanitarian blockade. Suffocated under a punishing blockade, Yemen, which imports 90 percent of all of its food, has been starved so that Riyadh could win its colonial war.Though accused of looting and property damage, Yemen’s resistance movement is actually a model of restraint compared to Hadi’s cold capitalistic ambitions. Where the resistance has, for example, re-routed humanitarian aid toward resistance forces to feed the war efforts and allow for fair distribution in parts of northern Yemen made most





vulnerable by famine, Hadi loyalists in Aden have committed grand treason.In the summer of 2015 residents in Aden complained that food aid was being sold to supermarkets with links to Hadi’s militias rather than distributed to the poor. Speaking to MintPress from Aden, Dr. Abdel-Mageed Kulaib said, “Whatever aid the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia sent to the seaport of Aden never actually made it, as it was requisitioned by the military under strict orders from Hadi’s high-ranking officers.”It would be wrong to look upon the Houthis and Saleh as more than an alliance forged out of political and military necessity. Despite their alliance, it’s important to note that the resistance movement and Saleh are pursuing very different agendas.Unlike Saleh, who has reverted to his default setting of corruption, the Houthis seek to fundamentally reform Yemen and restore political self-determination to the country. They also yearn for social justice — a basic human right the former regime long denied its people. And where Saleh seeks to replenish his personal coffers with the profits of war, the Houthis and the broader resistance movement are working to ensure their political survival.Humanitarian aid has been used by the Houthis and Saleh to create profits. In a December 2015 interview with Fatik al-Rodaini, a former journalist who now serves as co-director of the Mona Relief Organization, he explained how the NGO has established that the Houthi-Saleh complex accelerated their withholding of humanitarian aid to civilians to boost sales on the black market in the city of Taiz.Meanwhile, Hadi has exploited his al-Qaida connections to oppose the advances of resistance troops. This allowed for AQAP to establish pockets of influence in and around Taiz as a buffer against Sanaa.More troubling still is Hadi’s insistence on appointing al-Qaida affiliates to government positions within the territories he controls. Hadi has repeatedly shown a propensity to support AQAP in southern Yemen, using terror as a weapon of asymmetrical warfare. There, one must say, Hadi has taken his cue from Riyadh.On Dec. 28, 2015 Hadi appointed Nayif Salih Salim al-Qaysi as governor of al-Bayda. The U.S. Department of the Treasury identified the well-known al-Qaida supporter as responsible for providing financial support to terrorist organizations in May of 2016.“As of 2016, al-Qaysi was a senior AQAP official and a financial supporter of AQAP,” according to the statement issued by the State Department, which further accuses al-Qaysi of raising money for AQAP, delivering aid to AQAP, facilitating access through his position as governor of al-Bayda, and enabling the terror group’s expansion in the province and beyond through infiltration.Hadi also favored another target for Treasury sanctions, Abd al-Wahhab Muhammad, aka Abd al-Rahman al-Humayqani, secretary general of al-Rashad Union, a Salafi political party with ties to al-Qaida.His name was added to the list of al-Qaida supporters in December of 2013, around the same time that Hadi nominated al-Humayqani as a member of the National Dialogue Conference, giving al-Qaida a foothold in Yemen’s political arena. In 2015, al-Humayqani represented the “government in exile” in U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Geneva.Here, one must discuss Taiz. The city sat at the heart of violent controversy in which mainstream media, activists, and politicians have been keen to portray the efforts of the resistance toward “breaking Taiz” as criminal, genocidal, and tyrannical.Yet the presence of al-Qaida forces within the walls of the city has gone largely ignored. Voices echoing in the mainstream have failed to clarify al-Qaida’s ambitions of gaining





a foothold in the key strategic chokepoint in Yemen. In Syria, it’s Aleppo; in Yemen, it’s Taiz.Behind the mainstream media’s subservient peddling of Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabist agenda lies a truth few have had the courage to acknowledge, let alone internalize: the rise of al-Qaida and Daesh which Riyadh seeks to enable in Yemen.In a letter dated Nov. 11, 2016, Brig. Adnan al-Hamadi, commander of the 35th armoured camp in Taiz, asks Hadi to approve the promotion of Sheikh Adel Abdo Faria, aka Abo al-Abas, to the rank of colonel, citing Hadi’s verbal promise to do so. Known as one of al-Qaida’s princes by Yemeni security services, Abo al-Abas was among al-Qaida’s jihadi fighters in Afghanistan.The kingdom realized long ago that Wahhabism would need to take hold of Yemen if the Saudi elite were ever to control the whole of Arabia. To this end, the House of Saud has become a grand architect of terror, planning the death of a nation-state with total impunity. The terror economy goes digitalLast year, sources, including the U.N. Security Council, attested to a rising trend of asset flight in Yemen through previously unidentified channels.Facing heightened pressure from the United Nations in regards to unlawfully obtained financial holdings, members of Yemen’s deep state and militants have sought new ways to hide their transactions and holdings.According to a forthcoming report which this writer helped to prepare for the United Nations Security Council’s Yemen Panel of Experts, al-Qaida — specifically, AQAP — has resorted to the “dark web” and the use of bitcoins to conduct several high-volume financial dealings, including cash transfers through a series of agents and shell companies. Recent scrutiny has forced al-Qaida to pursue more sophisticated technologies to prevent these transactions from being traced and their locations being uncovered.Meanwhile, like so many average people who have turned to bitcoin instead of corporate banking and paper trails, the cryptocurrency has long been considered criminals’ preferred method for laundering money, trading in counterfeit currencies, and committing credit card fraud. In 2013, Stephen Mihm reported for Bloomberg: “Criminals, it turns out, really like bitcoins, which can be exchanged for nefarious purposes on the ‘Dark Web,’ with complete anonymity and, it seems, impunity.”Those criminals, of course, include al-Qaida.This writer conducted research in association with the Shafaqna News Association, an English-language Shiite news organization based in the United Kingdom, which established that al-Qaida traded weapons, precious artifacts, and drugs with bitcoin as the currency.Once purchased, the items would be trafficked in and out of Yemen by smugglers via the Horn of Africa and Oman. Yet Yemen is under a complete blockade. As that blockade is manned by Saudi Arabia, it is safe to assume that Riyadh knows exactly what is happening. (The full findings of this report will be presented in February at the New Horizon Conference in Tehran.)According to research conducted in association with Shafaqna and shared with the UNSC’s Yemen Panel of Experts, while the resistance has been instrumental in collecting new taxes by playing the black market to generate revenue and other schemes, it has done so to finance its legitimate war efforts against both Saudi Arabia and al-Qaida. Although it is evident that individuals within the resistance movement have abused their positions of power to embezzle funds, the resistance movement as a whole is not to blame.





Sources in southern Yemen have pointed to terrifying developments, including accusations that Hadi has been trading Yemen’s state secrets for a profit. Selling out his nation for a buck is a particular type of treachery that Yemenis will certainly have a difficult time getting over.If such claims may seem far-fetched in that they betray an imperialistic agenda, one should note that Yemen is not terrorism’s first victim. Since grabbing hold of Afghanistan, then spreading through the Greater Middle East, terror has developed a sophisticated financial system. Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan all attest to this reality.Yemen is merely the newest piece of the puzzle, another cog into the terror machine.Start SociableBe Sociable, Share!

Reality Check on Strategic Interests Behind Humanitarian Concerns in YemenBy: Barak Seener, January 24, 2017The US and Saudi Arabia have opposing strategic priorities in Yemen. The US has prioritized countering al-Qaida, while Saudi Arabia considers al-Qaida an equal threat to its security as Iranian proxies such as Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Behind US humanitarian concerns for civilian casualties in Yemen lies another motivation: a growing inclination at least during the latter part of the Obama administration, undeclared but increasingly clear, to pivot away from Saudi Arabia in favor of its rival, Iran, which backs the Houthis. For this reason, the US has not reacted to Iran’s recent announcement that it plans to build naval bases in Syria and Yemen, which could considerably increase Iran’s support for the Houthis.

Iran, along with Hezbollah, provide money, training and ballistic missile technologies to the Houthis posing a threat to Saudi Arabia from the south, as the Houthis have overrun Saudi border guard headquarters and occupied 50 square miles of depopulated Saudi border towns. In April 2015, US Secretary of State John Kerry asserted that Iran was providing military assistance to Houthi rebels. Brig. Gen. Ahmad Asiri, a military adviser to Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told me that, to date, Saudi Arabia has intercepted 36 ballistic missiles fired indiscriminately by the Houthis. As the collapse of Yemen’s government enabled al-Qaida, Houthis and other local militias to organize, Saudi Arabia’s exit from Yemen would be met by the increased presence of al-Quds fighters of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, al-Qaida, Houthis and Hezbollah, all threatening regional security.

Broader Ramifications of the Conflict

Sunni-Shiite tensions in Yemen have global security and economic ramifications; tensions are affecting sailing routes of oil tankers leaving the Arabian Gulf. The Pentagon confirmed Houthi rebels in Yemen were responsible for launching cruise missiles at the US Navy destroyer Mason m ultiple times in October 2016. In the same month, the Houthis used advanced anti-ship missiles provided by Iran to target US, UK, and Emirati ships delivering medical aid to Aden and evacuating wounded civilians for treatment.

The increasing Iranian presence in Yemen and differing strategic priorities of the US and Saudi Arabia can adversely affect the United States’ capabilities to exert influence in the Gulf. Iran or Russia would be in a position to control the Bab el-Mandeb strait that





connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. This will most certainly occur if Iran builds a naval base along the strait, undermining the access and activities of US warships such as mine sweeping and coastal patrols. An Iranian naval base would prevent Saudi Arabia’s blockade of Yemen and likely lead to direct confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia. This could also prevent the trade route of two-thirds of global oil from the Arabian Gulf from reaching the Suez Canal or Sumed Pipeline. Iran demonstrated its naval aspirations in 2009 when it conducted exercises near the Gulf of Aden and in 2011 when Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood granted Iranian ships access to the Suez Canal.

New Administration Reset

The Trump administration’s rejection of the Iran deal will likely be accompanied by a greater willingness to confront Iran’s building of naval bases beyond its borders and support for Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen. Preemptively targeting transit points for weapons prior to reaching Houthi fighters will likely reduce civilian casualties as Saudi Arabia will be less reliant upon faulty Yemeni intelligence. Neighboring Gulf states with Yemen are likely to be pressurized to provide intelligence on overland smuggling routes to interdict weapons along porous borders with Yemen. Barak Seener is the CEO of Strategic Intelligentia and a former Middle East fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.

Open letter by Spokesman of Islamic Emirate to the American President Donald Trumpin Statements January 25, 2017 331 Views

To Donald Trump, President of the United States of America!Availing this opportunity of understanding arisen due to the presidential change of your country, I wish to share with you a few realities about the ongoing war in Afghanistan.The war launched on Afghanistan by your troops has completed its fifteenth year, is the longest war in your history (still prolonging) and has caused human and material losses to both sides.You, being chosen as the elected President of the United States and having to carry the burden of responsibility for all aspects of this war, must ask what is the end goal of this war? Everyone understands that wars are not waged for the sake of war but as a means to an end.If your goal is the permanent occupation of Afghanistan, oppressing this nation, forcing a rule upon them then using the land, air space and other resources of this country for your own interests; then you must learn from past experiments and understand that such dreams can never materialize because to do so you must first guarantee stability for your soldiers and the servile regime before using the air and land for your vested interests. However historical experiences, the nature of this land and its people and most importantly, the past 15 years have proven that it is impossible to provide safety for foreign forces or quell the armed religious and national resistance against it.Come let us unwaveringly accept that our nation has waged a historically successful struggle against a foreign invasion over the past 15 years. Our people did not have the material, military, logistical or even the official moral support of any nation.Tens of countries allied in this occupation used military, political, propaganda and every other means available to breakdown our lawful resistance but as our Jihad and struggle





was legitimate religiously, intellectually, nationally and conforming to all other lawful standards and because our nation believes in it to the extent of sacrosanctity, therefore the invaders failed to pacify this resistance despite having a lopsided military advantage. In the end, many officials of the countries allying with the occupation recognized that they are not fighting some rebellious group, rather they are at war with an entire nation. Hence they embraced this reality, opened channels of dialogue and understanding with the Islamic Emirate and slowly began pulling their troops out of this illegal, ineffective and aimless war.Elected President of the United States!The Afghans, as a nation ravaged by war for thirty eight long years, sincerely want to bring this war to an end however they know – despite whatever reasons for previous wars – that the principle cause for the ongoing conflict is the presence of foreign occupying forces in our independent country. To bring an end to this war feeding on the blood of your and our people, you must further understand the geography and nature of this war through the following clarifications.First: As a nation of the Asian continent, Afghanistan boasts of regionally having the longest history of independence and freedom. That this nation has been invaded the most and has somehow emerged sound from these disasters while the dangers of occupation and disintegration have not harmed it, one of the reasons is because the independence of this nation, its territorial integrity and defense of national interests is dependent upon its people and not on individuals, groups and governments. This nation holds its sovereignty dear above any estimations and considers itself the true and undisputed owner of this geography. Second: The Afghan nation considers the independence of their country as their lawful right and firmly believes it can safeguard and manage its own homeland. History does not recall a time when the security and interests of others were threatened from the land and airspace of this country. Our country remained neutral in both the First and Second World Wars and did not aid or ally with any side. Our country also remained a member of non-aligned nations during the Cold War.This fear of people viewing our country being used as a potential strategic theater by rivals or being involved in a great game is unfounded. We want to take a breath of serenity in our country after long wars and heal the wounds of our nation. Our nation will not accept the military presence of western colonialists just as it refused the military presence of eastern colonialists. Third: Just as our people do not hold the intention of harming others, they reciprocally will not accept harm by others. You understand that our country is the poorest from amongst the so-called third world countries. The only asset that our persecuted nation holds is a free and independent country retained through the ages with a lot of blood and sacrifice. Our nation is ready for every sacrifice in defense of this asset and values its preservation above every estimation. We fought against the English for more than half a century from the end of the 19th century and beginning of 20th century for this exact aim (acquiring independence). In defense of our country, we offered over 1.5 million martyrs against the Soviet invasion.Looking at the above, it would be naive for someone to think that they can force our nation to accept their invasion and rule or that they can exhaust our nation by prolonging this war. Our nation considers fighting for its rights as a great honor and the pinnacle of heroism and they do not see dying in this path as death, but as eternal life.





Fourth: Your previous administrations have tried to portray the armed resistance against occupation in Afghanistan as mere rebellion, being led by a few supposed ‘terrorists’ who do not have the backing of the people. However after witnessing fifteen years of realities and the ever expanding resistance, there should be no doubts left that this war is the unified uprising of all ethnicities across Afghanistan and not the work of a small group or a few individuals. The leadership of this uprising, as a governing system, is in the hands of the Islamic Emirate. The Islamic Emirate is not some unsupported terror spreading fighting group, rather it is an orderly and well-grounded movement of the people which carries with itself a rational and understandable agenda for its warfare, politics and lawful cause.The Islamic Emirate has justification and rationale for its every action and reaction. That is why it is gaining international political legitimacy every day and on top of regional countries, maintains relations with various countries around the world including with the United Nations and various other bodies. The Islamic Emirate – as a governing body – is the only movement among the current political sides of Afghanistan to have popular and countrywide support of the people. It has deep roots in all the ethnic communities of Afghanistan, currently rules over fifty percent of Afghanistan, influences a further thirty percent and can threaten the enemy rule established by your troops and Kabul regime in the remaining twenty percent at any given moment.It is due to this reason that many countries regionally and globally have arrived at a conclusion that it is this nationally supported political-military power (Islamic Emirate) which they should interact and come to an understanding with as a responsible future entity of this country because the other groups and individuals have risen only through foreign support and do not have any foundations among the people. Fifth: The people serving in the current regime under your support calling themselves the government of Afghanistan, can never represent this nation and neither do the people have any trust in them. These people, who earn the dishonor of most corrupt regime in the world annually, are not loyal to anything except their own material interests.An illustration of their disloyalty towards their country and people is the saga of Kabul Bank where the savings of the poor workers, teachers, laborers and working class were siphoned off by the high-ranking officials of this very regime that built their accounts and businesses with it overseas.On top of embezzling international aid, these corrupt officials have also looted the wealth of their own people, having usurped thousands of hectares of land, and are embroiled in theft, banditry, administrative corruption, immorality and organized crimes. Therefore they are not trusted by the people and neither can you impose them upon the nation any longer through threat of force and violence. Sixth: There is a consensus in the country, regionally and even internationally that the war in Afghanistan is not in the interest of anyone. We, as a party of the conflict on whom this war has been imposed and whose country has come under direct military invasion, consider it our responsibility to deliver our persecuted and oppressed nation from the flames of war. It is on these basis that we send you our message to control this war of occupation launched by your military. Do not exert any further efforts into turning Afghans and the children of America into sacrificial animals for an unwinnable war.In recent times all international research and analysis institutes agree that the American military mission in Afghanistan has reached a slowly deteriorating stalemate. If the





American forces insist on continuing the occupation of our country and preventing us from living an honorable and free life then obviously, war is our necessity and at the same time our lawful right. But perhaps this futile war is not your necessity. In such a state it is the responsibility of American officials, as the initiators of war, to bring an end to this tragedy. We call it a tragedy because it is due to your soldiers and your sponsored militias that our sinless children, women and innocent youth are killed daily throughout the country and they continue to lose their homes, businesses, hospitals and farms. It is due to the barbaric airstrikes of your army that whole villages are turned into graveyards like in the case of Kunduz and the Afghan people endure their lives in a climate of fear and terror due to your night raids and bombings.Just as this war has proven fruitless for you both militarily and politically, it has also morphed into a mark of shame for you morally and ethically where it is either your own soldiers or armed gangs under your patronage that are regularly implicated in war crimes. President of America!Perhaps some contents of this letter will prove bitter for your taste. But since they are realities and tangible facts, they must be accepted and treated as bitter medicine that is taken by patients out of fear of seeing their condition deteriorate.

Spokesman of Islamic Emirate of AfghanistanZabihullah Mujahid

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