Khorasan pledge splits al-Qaeda
By Radwan Mortada | al-Akhbar | April 23, 2014 |

The global jihad movement has split in two. Members of al-Qaeda will now have to choose between two different emirs. The so-called “Khorasan pledge” was the final nail in the coffin of the reconciliation between al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The rift no longer pertains to Syria only, but has spread to the other arenas of global jihad.

Nine al-Qaeda emirs from Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran declared their allegiance to the new emir of the faithful, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – the head of ISIS – in what is being termed as the “Khorasan pledge.”  

    Signatories:

    •  Abu Ubaida Lebanese.
    •  Mohannad Abu Jordan.
    •  Abu Jarir northern (Abu Thaer).
    •  Abu al-Huda Sudanese.
    •  Abdul Aziz (brother of Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi).
    •  Abdullah Punjabi.
    •  Abu Younis Kurdish.
    •  Abu Aisha Cordovan.
    •  Abu Musab solidarity.

    A copy of the statement to:
    Al-Qaeda in Yemen, Al-Qaeda in Somalia, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Brothers in the Mujahideen Shura Council in the environs of Jerusalem, Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus; And to all whom it may concern: jihadist factions in Muslim countries.

A few days later, ISIS spokesperson Mohammed al-Adnani declared that “al-Qaeda deviated from the rightful course,” indicating that “it is not a dispute about who to kill or who to give your allegiance. It is a question of religious practices being distorted and an approach veering off the right path.”

This is a turning point in the clash – currently limited to the Syrian arena – between Baghdadi and Ayman al-Zawahiri, threatening to create an open conflict throughout jihadist movement. The anticipated split had been declared by ISIS advisor Abu Ali al-Anbari. “Either we eliminate them or they will eliminate us,” he said in one of the reconciliation sessions, repeating the sentence three times.

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The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) Declares "Global Caliphate" on Ramadan (Credit Global Research)

The nine defected emirs’ declaration have put Baghdadi in a direct confrontation with current al-Qaeda leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. They want to attack al-Qaeda’s leader, saying his rule was “a thing of the past and today’s triumphs are made by the soldiers of ISIS.”

Mullah Omar had been the emir of emirs of al-Qaeda, enjoying both Osama Bin Laden and Zawahiri’s allegiance. During his reign, Afghanistan was destroyed after he refused to deliver Bin Laden and others to the United States.

Al Qaeda renews its oath of allegiance to Taliban leader Mullah Omar

Al Qaeda published the first edition of a new online bulletin, “Al Nafir” (meaning “call to arms” or “call to mobilize”), on July 20. And the organization uses the inaugural issue to publicly renew its oath of allegiance to Taliban emir Mullah Omar.

“The first edition begins by renewing the pledge of allegiance to [the] Emir of the Believers Mullah Muhammad Omar Mujahid, may Allah preserve him, and confirming that al Qaeda and its branches everywhere are soldiers among his soldiers,” the newsletter reads, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group. Al Qaeda goes on to say that it is fighting “under his victorious banner” to restore control over a broad swath of territory “to the coming State of the Caliphate.”

Suspected Taliban fighters loyal to al-Baghdadi and the Islamic State?
○ Taliban behead 12 civilians in Afghan Ghazni province – Sept. 25, 2014
○ Taliban truck bombs kill 33 people in central Afghanistan – Sept. 4, 2014
○ Taliban attack on Afghan intelligence agency in Jalalabad leaves 13 dead and many wounded (video) – Aug. 30, 2014
○ Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan formed a five-member commission which will be known as the Shura Muraqba – 2012

US Treasury linking Khorasan Group to Iranian backers, here we go again!

Cont’d below the fold …

Is the Obama administration using the Khorasan designation to smear Iran by implying the Khorasan leadership facilitates money transfers to both Iranian extremists and Al-Qaeda groups in Syria fighting Bashar al-Assad? Get real, who is to believe this utter bs. Is the White House feeding the Clarion Project or perhaps the Clarion Project is tipping off the White House who to fear in the War On Terror – Phase II.

○ U.S. Links Iran to Both Al-Qaeda and Taliban Terrorists | The Clarion Project |
○ Both AIC and the Clarion Project share anti-Muslim donors, including Sheldon Adelson

A Terror Cell That Avoided the Spotlight
By Mark Mazzetti | NY Times | Sept. 24, 2014 | plus VIDEO |

Obama administration officials for years have boasted that the C.I.A.’s campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan has devastated Al Qaeda’s apparatus there, but the emergence of the Khorasan Group in Syria appears to indicate that Mr. Zawahri’s authority and influence, however symbolic, endure in some corners of the universe of militant organizations.

Besides Mr. Fadhli, who was once one of Bin Laden’s close advisers and who according to the United Nations once fought against the Russian government in Chechnya, another top member of the Khorasan Group is believed to be Abdul Mohsen Abdullah Ibrahim al-Sharikh, a Saudi who also arrived in Syria in 2013. In August, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Mr. Sharikh, describing him as one of the Nusra Front’s “top strategists.”

Mr. Sharikh and Mr. Fadhli were once part of a cadre of Qaeda operatives living in Iran, facilitating the flow of money, weapons and fighters that moved from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to Iraq. Many senior Qaeda operatives fled Afghanistan to Iran after the American war in Afghanistan began in 2001, and the exact circumstances of the Qaeda group in Iran have been one of the mysteries of the post-Sept. 11 period.

    Al-Fadhli is a veteran al-Qa’ida operative who has been active within the terrorist network for years.  Treasury previously designated al-Fadhli pursuant to  E.O. 13224 in February 2005 for providing financial and material support to the al-Zarqawi Network and al-Qa’ida. At that time, al-Fadhli was considered an al-Qa’ida leader in the Gulf and provided support to Iraq-based fighters for attacks against U.S. and multinational forces.  Al-Fadhli was also considered a major facilitator for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and prior to that was involved in several terrorist attacks that took place in October 2002 including the attacks on the French ship MV Limburg and against U.S. Marines on Faylaka Island in Kuwait.

    Al-Fadhli began working with al-Qa’ida’s Iran-based facilitation network in 2009 and was later arrested by the Iranians.  He was subsequently released by the Iranians in 2011 and went on to assume the leadership of the facilitation network from Yasin al-Suri later that year.

Iran’s government said the militants were living under house arrest, and American intelligence agencies do not believe that Iran — a Shiite-majority country — ever considered an alliance with a Sunni terrorist network. Starting at the end of the last decade, the Qaeda operatives began leaving Iran for Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere. One of them, Bin Laden’s son Saad, was killed in a C.I.A. drone strike in Pakistan in 2009.

Others went farther afield — to the war in Syria that erupted in 2011 and that has since become the epicenter of the jihadist world.

Treasury Targets Networks Linked To Iran – Feb. 6, 2014

DoD Pentagon Press Briefing on Operations in Syria by Lt. Gen. Mayville | Transcript |

In terms of the Khorasan group, which is a network of seasoned Al Qaida veterans, these strikes were undertaken to disrupt imminent attack plotting against the United States and western targets. These targets have established a safe haven in Syria to plan external attacks, construct and test improvised explosive devices, and recruit westerners to conduct operations. The United States took action to protect our interests and to remove their capability to act.

Coalition strikes targeted ISIL training camps, headquarters, command and control facilities, logistical nodes, armored vehicles and leadership.

Lt. Gen. William Mayville: U.S. military forces also executed unilateral precision strikes against the Khorasan Group, an A.Q.-affiliated terrorist organization located in northwest Syria. The intelligence reports indicated that the Khorasan Group was in the final stages of plans to execute major attacks against Western targets and potentially the U.S. homeland.

Last night’s strikes were organized in three waves. The first wave began around midnight in Syria, or 8:30 Eastern Standard Time. I draw your attention to the map. The first slide, please.

In the first wave strikes, the USS Arleigh Burke in the Red Sea and the USS Philippine Sea in the northern Arabian Gulf launched more than 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles in eastern and northern Syria. As you look at that slide, it is the target area around Aleppo and Ar-Raqqah.

The majority of the Tomahawk strikes were against Khorasan Group compounds, their manufacturing workshops and training camps.

DoD Briefing On Strikes In Syria | Pentagon |

The War Machine
By John Cassidy | The Nation | Sept. 24, 2014

An alternative interpretation is that Obama may well believe everything he says about the dangers ISIS presents, but he’s also acting politically in the run-up to the midterms. Having spent much of his tenure resisting calls for military interventions and articulating a cautious realism about America’s power to dictate events in the Middle East and elsewhere, he has thrown up his hands and given in to the war party.

Versions of this view are percolating on the left and the right. In a piece at the Washington Post, Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor of The Nation, accused Obama of “surrendering to three forces”: a media “lathered into war fever,” a group of liberal interventionists in his own party, and “the mindless bellicosity of his opposition.” Andrew Sullivan, despairing of a President he has for the most part vigorously supported, writes, “He has folded–and you can see he knows it by the wan, listless look on his face. His presidency may well now be consumed by this new war and be judged by it–just like his predecessor’s. And all because when Americans are faced with even the slightest possibility of future terror, they shit their pants and run to daddy.”

Only Obama knows for sure what his real motivations are. In all probability, he sincerely believes that the attack on ISIS is consistent with the principles he has espoused all along. As he pointed out in his 2009 Nobel Prize speech, he is not a pacifist but a skeptic. He believes that some wars are just and justified. “I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people,” he said in Stockholm. “For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world…. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism — it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.”

Did Obama offer Assad’s head on a platter to Saudi King Abdullah?

A Look Inside The Secret Deal With Saudi Arabia That Unleashed The Syrian Bombing

When Mr. Kerry touched down in Jeddah to meet with King Abdullah on Sept. 11, he didn’t know for sure what else the Saudis were prepared to do. The Saudis had informed their American counterparts before the visit that they would be ready to commit air power–but only if they were convinced the Americans were serious about a sustained effort in Syria. The Saudis, for their part, weren’t sure how far Mr. Obama would be willing to go, according to diplomats.

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Qatar has spent as much as $3bn supporting the rebellion in Syria to overthrow Assad, Prince Bandar coordinated the Sunni fighters. (Photo: Zero Hedge)

Meet Saudi Arabia’s Bandar bin Sultan: The Puppetmaster Behind The Syrian War – August 2013

Bandar said that the matter is not limited to the kingdom and that some countries have overstepped the roles drawn for them, such as Qatar and Turkey. He added, “We said so directly to the Qataris and to the Turks. We rejected their unlimited support to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and elsewhere. The Turks’ role today has become similar to Pakistan’s role in the Afghan war. We do not favor extremist religious regimes, and we wish to establish moderate regimes in the region.

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