generalspeaking

Portrait of a Leader

"What he's got left is a sort of meaner, leaner al-Shabab. He has consolidated a much-diminished al-Shabab. So on the one hand it is a weaker al-Shabab, but on the other, it is more cohesive, tightly knit, more secretive and more violent.
"Everybody is very much loyal to him. He has set up an organization that is highly disciplined, and well organized.
"He is popular amongst a certain group of people who believe in his values and the value that al-Shabab is holding"
Cedric Barnes, regional director, International Crisis Group

Al-Shabaab fighters conduct military exercises in northern Mogadishu, Somalia in October 2010. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File) - See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/2-or-3-americans-among-islamist-terrorists-kenyan-mall-siege#sthash.8lpjI2n6.dpuf

Al-Shabaab fighters conduct military exercises in northern Mogadishu, Somalia in October 2010. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File) - See more at: http://cnsnews.com/image/al-shabab#sthash.oeftf0ut.dpuf

 Under leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, heavily armed al-Shabab fighters have become more disciplined and committed to a global Islamic caliphate. Farah Abdi Warsameh/The Associated Press Files

And those values? So odiously murderous that Osama bin Laden himself was reputed once to have chided him for his psychopathic dedication to slaughter. When Ahmed Abdi Godane, the now-secretive leader of Al-Shabab proposed linking with al-Qaeda, he was rejected by the former leader of al-Qaeda. Once Ayman al-Zawahri took the leadership role with the death of bin Laden, however, al-Shabab was welcomed into the organization.

"We will fight and the wars will not end until Islamic Sharia is implemented in all continents in the world", he vowed. His leadership led al-Shabab to specialize in suicide bombings and large scale terrorist attacks.  "Godane is completely uncompromising. He is not a pragmatist. He is not interested in negotiating. It is not even clear that al-Shabab has a vision of national leadership, or that they aspire to become leaders", explained director of Sahan Research, Matt Bryden.

The al-Shabab leader's agenda, said Mr. Bryden, is "a very vague sort of nebulous commitment" to jihad, the caliphate, global Islamism. "The expression of that agenda is nihilistic violence." He is not often seen in public and uses audio-recorded messages to communicate with his troops. Emulating, perhaps, Osama bin Laden. He made his home in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates -- living there since 2008, with his wife and children.

He belongs to a tribe from the northern regions of Somaliland. He won a scholarship from a Saudi Arabian religious foundation to study economics in Pakistan. The perfect country to be introduced to violent jihad. And to be trained in the execution of his duties as a pious Islamist jihadist. He received additional military training in Afghanistan.

Labels: Al-Qaeda, Islamism, Somalia, Terrorism

posted by Pieface @ Monday, September 30, 2013