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The US strategy in the fight against AQ

Part 2: Distinction in policy

The death of a charismatic leader who symbolizes a movement or organization undoubtedly has major consequences. However, we have seen that many great leaders in the Ummah died and Islam and Jihad nevertheless still lives on. This Religion does not stop with the death of a person. It can, however, cause for a period of turmoil; so the US will desperately settle with this tactical advantage for now. This turmoil is exactly what we see in Syria. The absence of several key leaders and scholars of Al-Qaedah, who symbolized the organization, plays an important cause in the instability between armed groups in Syria. We see that this instability is partially spreading to other fronts in the Muslim Ummah. The criminals in this Fitnah would’ve probably never come this far if these righteous leaders were still alive. And Allah knows best.

We did not see this Fitnah on such a large scale before prominent high ranking leaders and scholars were liquidated within Al-Qaedah. Like Shaykh Usama bin Laden, Anwar Al-Awlaki, Khalid Al-Husainaan, Abu Yahya Al-Libi, Atiyatullah ibn Abdurahmaan, Mustapha Abu Al-Yazid, Ali Sa'd Al-Shihri, Abu Zubair Adil Al-Abab, etcetera. This turmoil could even spin further out of control if leaders like Shaykh Ayman Ad Dhawahiri and Mullah Muhammad Umar- and scholars like as Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi and Abu Qatadah Al-Filistini would’ve been absent. It is therefore not surprising that the US promised to reward the golden tip that leads to Shaykh Ayman Ad-Dhawahiri with 25 million dollars. The US has already made numerous attempts to assassinate him, his wife and two children were even killed in these attempts. Anyone who’s trying to extinguish this Fitnah, with guidance and knowledge, is on the US hit list. That’s why they recently killed Shaykh Haarith An-Nadhaari in Yemen. Al-Qaedah in Yemen lately publicized extensive lectures of Shaykh Haarith An-Nadhaari, which gave a lot of insight and guidance, in these times of confusion. He recently gave a clarifying course about the rules of governance for example, he also gave a long series of good reminders which tackle a lot of misunderstandings within the Jihadi movements nowadays.

The Western world is searching more than two decades in vain to find Shaykh Ayman Ad-Dhawari, they have spent billions in this quest. The West that imagined itself inviolable is being humiliated before the eyes of the whole world. Their intelligence services claim to know and see everything. Nevertheless, the West with all its troops, resources and intelligence, had to search for nearly two decades to find Shaykh Usama bin Laden. While he was staying for years in a three-story villa, just 50km away from the Pakistani capital, next to a military base, of all places. The Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi wa Selam) said, “Know that if the whole world would come together to cause you any harm, then it could only happen if Allah had already written this for to you.” And only three months after the death of Shaykh Usama, the Chinook helicopter, which carried Seal Team Six, was shot down in Afghanistan. Almost all the perpetrators who carried out the assassination of Shaykh Usama, were killed in this operation by the Taliban. Allah did not only protect the Shaykh while he was alive, but He also avenged him after his death.

Al-Qaedah and the Mujahideen ruthlessly destroyed the idol-image of the west in the past couple of decades, with the 9/11 as most historical unmasking of all. With the attacks on targets in the West, in addition to their military losses on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, it became clear that the idol-image of an inviolable omnipotence was nothing more than a delusion fed by Hollywood-styled propaganda. This is the reason why the US is no longer respected by countries such as Russia and China, and is openly threatened by North Korea and Venezuela. The Mujahideen of Al-Qaedah have managed to shift the balance of power in the world, with the very limited resources they had (and still have).

However, Allah bestows Martyrdom to whom He- and when He wishes, even, and especially, our leaders are favored with this. In the months of September and October of 2014 alone, more than five prominent Al-Qaedah leaders achieved Martyrdom, in five different countries. The US has understood that it’s better to focus on eliminating the messengers instead of the message, so the US clearly accelerated its liquidation program against Al-Qaedah leaders. On September the 2^nd it liquidated Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, the leader of Al-Shabaab in Somalia, by a drone attack. On September the 23^rd it supposedly liquidated the leader Muhsin Al-Fadhli of the so called Khorasan Group, in Syria, and the commander Abu Yusuf At-Turki of Jabhat An-Nusra; an important leader who busied himself with uniting the Mujahideen under one army. On 11 October Shaykh Imran Ali Saddiqi was liquidated by a US drone attack –a major Al-Qaedah leader in the Indian subcontinent. On 15 October, the Al-Qaedah commander Abu Husayn Mahdi Badas was killed in a US drone attack in Yemen. On 19 October the Al-Qaedah commander Abu Bara al-Kuwaiti was killed by a US drone attack in Afghanistan. These are just a few of the long list of names over the past years. Al-Qaedah leaders are intensively tracked, purposefully targeted and they often fail at several attempts.

The most remarkable detail is not even the fact that so many Al-Qaedah leaders were liquidated in such a short time period, even more striking is the silence of the media about these operations. These attacks took place in just two months time –five Al-Qaedah leaders liquidated in five different countries. Nevertheless, the media has given it very little attention. After all, the media has been busy with bringing us news about the Islamic State (IS). One may argue that the Islamic State is more dangerous to the west than Al-Qaedah, hence the one-sided media attention. Although the US already indicated that Al-Qaedah is a greater threat to the internal security of the west, we will assume for the sake of argument that this is true. Then we come to perhaps the most striking detail, the remaining question, why does the US extensively track down- and purposefully liquidate so many Al-Qaedah leaders, but rarely any IS leaders? If IS poses a greater threat to the West, it would be more logical for the West to enormously focus on detecting and disabling their leadership. But this does not seem to be a priority for the West.

The mysterious attack on September the 9^th, which eliminated almost the entire leadership of Ahraar Ash-Shaam, and, despite the fingers pointing to the IS, still not claimed by no one, is also very suspicious. This attack was preceded by the attack on Abu Khalid Shaykh As-Suri on February the 23^rd 2014 –a former high ranking Ahraar Ash-Shaam leader affiliated with Al-Qaedah. Which, again, despite the fingers pointing toward IS, remains unclaimed. This leader played a very important role in binding the different fighting groups in Syria. His death had a major effect on this fragile unity, and sparked great turmoil in Syria. It is very remarkable that the death of these leaders match the US strategy. Covert operations are undoubtedly executed in Syria; by different parties with interest; inside and outside Syria. However, we can’t say anything about this with certainty, because the necessary evidence is lacking.

It is undeniable that the west is indeed attacking IS, but the way the two organizations are fought is totally different. With IS the West focuses on taking out its soldiers, and with Al-Qaedah the West focuses on taking out its leadership. We saw this very well with the first US air strikes conducted in Syria, hitting both IS and Al-Qaedah targets. In addition to this, the fight against IS gets a lot of media coverage while the fight against Al-Qaedah gets considerably less media coverage. So why do we see this distinction in policy?

We see this distinction again in the reward the US has promised for the golden tip leading to the Caliph Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. While the reward for Shaykh Ayman Ad-Dhawahiri is 25 million dollars, the reward which is promised for the Caliph Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi is less than half, 10 million dollars. So the west gives much less importance to the leadership of IS, and more to the leadership of Al-Qaedah. What other reason is there for the bigger reward promised for the head of Al-Qaedah instead of IS? Considering the media hype it would be more logical to promise a much bigger reward for the head of IS. Especially given the fact that the leader of IS has takes the title of Caliph on himself. So the Islamic State is not perceived or considered as a mere battle group or organization, by its own ranks, but it is enforced as a Caliphate. Surely this sounds like a much bigger threat to the West, doesn’t it? Even a small operative within Al-Qaedah like Shaykh Nasir Al-Wuhayshi is worth 10 million dollars. So why is the central leader of an organization, or rather even the Caliph, worth the same as just a reasonably small operative withing Al-Qaedah?

The conclusion we can draw from these facts; Al-Qaedah poses in terms of strategy, ideology and doctrine a greater danger for the West than IS does. The US has fired 47 Tomahawk missiles in the very first coalition airstrike against the Mujahideen in Syria, to hit just a few high-value targets from the dreaded Khorasan Group –a made-up American pseudonym for Jabhat An-Nusra because of the huge popularity it enjoys among the Syrian citizens. No one had heard about this mysterious group, until just a few days before the attack. The US realizes fully well that they cannot attack Jabhat An-Nusra openly, as this will not be tolerated by the Ummah. That’s why, the day after the attack, in which more than 50 Mujahideen of Jabhat An-Nusra were killed, the civilians in Syria stood up in mass protests against this airstrike. A Tomahawk cruise missile costs more than a million dollars, so the US wasted more than $50 million in this airstrike alone; and the main target of this excessive airstrike, Muhsin Al-Fadhli, was most likely not even hit. We can see that the US gives great value to disabling the leadership of Al-Qaedah. The media tries to convince us constantly that this is a coalition war against IS. In reality, however, this is accompanied by numerous and excessive airstrikes and drone attacks against the Al-Qaedah leadership, veiled in much mystery and suspicious secrecy.