generalspeaking

 How To Wage Jihad

"People in the West view al-Qaeda as only a terrorist organisation, and it certainly is that ... but the group itself is much broader, and it is doing much more. The group sees itself as an organization that can be a government.
"These people did a very, very good job of rebuilding reorganizing, really resurrecting, al-Qaeda in Yemen up from the ashes. And they are also a much different, a much more radical group than the previous version of al-Qaeda that we had seen in the country.
"This organization under al-Wuhayshi and al-Raimi [has] done a very good job of tailoring a narrative to fit the Yemeni context. So they put themselves on the right side of nearly every issue from local corruption, to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to flooding in Hadramaut. This is an organization that really knows what it's doing and has built this really durable infrastructure that will withstand the loss of key leaders."
Gregory Johnson, Princeton University, Near Eastern Studies scholar, Yemen expert

Young as he is at age 36, the current Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula chief Nasser al-Wuhayshi has had ample experience. He appears to be held in such high esteem as a result of that experience and his assured confidence in what he has accomplished and what he plans to accomplish into the future that it appears he is now designated second in command to al-QAeda's Ayman al-Zawahri, who inherited the leadership of the core organization on the death of Osama bin Laden.
Moreover, like bin Laden, al-Wuhayshi is of Yemenite heritage. He has always shared his mentor's goals, and was with him  in Afghanistan in the 1990s, spending his four years there as bin Laden's personal secretary, just as the Egyptian-born al-Zawahri was bin-Laden's personal physician before ascending to the role of leader. Nasser al-Wuhayshi was imprisoned in Yemen, but he and some colleagues dug themselves out of the high-security prison and right into a local mosque.

From that inconvenient capture, and enterprising release, to the leadership of AQAP in Yemen. Considered now to be the top-flight operational controller of al-Qaeda affiliates. Tried and true, he is also considered to be a spiritual leader as one who studied Islam in his spare time. Wherever and whenever that happened to be. A valued colleague, Saudi chemical student Ibrahim al-Asiri is an innovative bomb-maker considered to be responsible for the attempted assassination of a Saudi deputy minister.

Al-Asiri designed a device, planted into the rectum of a suicide bomber. A misfortune for the suicide bomber who just happened to be al-Asiri's brother. When the explosion went off the bomber was killed but the deputy minister survived. Bruce Hoffman, professor at Georgetown University in Washington specializing in terrorism studies, characterizes Ibrahim al-Asiri as "the single most evil genius in the terrorism field today."  

It is without doubt that through the medium of the drone strikes that the United States has been successfully aiming at Yemen-based al-Qaeda leaders, high hopes are in place that they will eventually strike out this genius of explosive devices. AQAP is steadily recruiting new members, enlarging their presence and thus their effectiveness and plans for the future.

"Try to win them over through the conveniences of life", wrote Mr. Wuhayshi collegially to others in his organization, referring to fellow jihadists providing food, clean water and electricity to people residing in their controlled area. "It will make them sympathize with us and make them feel that their fate is tied to ours."

Precisely the winning formula used by Hamas in enticing Palestinians to vote for Hamas candidates in the Palestinian Authority elections, and they followed in the footsteps of the inspired Muslim Brotherhood who initiated this winning formula many decades earlier wherever they had a presence throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Which is why the Brotherhood has such a staunch and large support among the impoverished and the deeply faithful.

And according to Professor Hoffman, AQAP's evolution has been to present as one of the most effectively enterprising of the terrorist groups. "A terrorist's stock in trade is generating fear and anxiety. From their point of view, they're doing pretty good. They just talk about a plot and it gets us to shut down embassies and consulates", he stated.

Some 19 of them, in fact. If they do nothing else to the West -- and confine themselves largely to confronting and combating the ineffectual Yemen government and its military to effect the sweeping victory they're looking for, their ability to foment dread and fear, apprehension and terror in the minds of Western officials responsible for the safe-keeping of their home populations -- they have succeeded admirably in that stage at least of their long-range plans.

Labels: Africa, Al-Qaeda, Islamism, Terrorism

posted by Pieface @ Monday, August 12, 2013