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Jihadist Media Unit Urges Fighters to Strike Egyptian Army

The Ibn Taymiyyah Media Center (ITMC), a jihadist media unit tied to the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem, yesterday called for jihadists to strike the Egyptian army.

In the communique, translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, the jihadist media group claimed that Egyptian soldiers recently committed a “massacre” in the Sheikh Zuweid area. The ITMC appeared to be referencing an incident from Sept. 13 that, according to the jihadist group Ansar Jerusalem (Ansar Bayt al Maqdis), resulted in the deaths of seven civilians, including four children.

The statement further denounced efforts by Egyptian security forces to stem the flow of goods and people in and out of Gaza. “[T]he criminal butcher Abdel Fattah el Sisi” has increased the siege on Gaza, the statement charged.

The ITMC statement also criticized the Muslim Brotherhood. “He [Mohammed Morsi] gave no indications, neither he nor the Brotherhood, that they wish to establish an Islamic State where the rule is for Allah,” the ITMC said.

09/23/2013 · No Comments Continue Reading →

Ansar al Sharia in Libya Criticizes Muslim Brotherhood

On Aug. 20, Ansar al Sharia in Libya released a statement that criticized the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt for participating in the democratic process, and for failing to implement sharia, or Islamic law. The statement, which was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, is very similar to criticisms leveled by al Qaeda’s emir, Ayman al Zawahiri, and by Shabaab, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia.

09/23/2013 · No Comments Continue Reading →

Abdullah Azzam Brigades Claims Responsibility for Rocket Attack on Israel

In a statement posted to jihadist forums yesterday, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades took official responsibility for the Aug. 22 rocket attack on Israel from Lebanon. In the statement, which was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, the group said that fighters from its Ziad Jarrah Battalions fired four Grad rockets towards the northern Israeli cities of Acre and Nahariya.

“This operation comes within the series of our jihadi work directed at the Jews,” the statement said.

08/27/2013 · No Comments Continue Reading →

Shabaab Urges Egyptian Muslims to ‘Pick Up Arms and Defend Yourself’

In a series of tweets posted to its official Twitter account today, Shabaab commented on the ongoing crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The jihadist group had previously chastised the Muslim Brotherhood on Twitter following the ouster of Mohammed Morsi in early July.

08/19/2013 · Comments Off Continue Reading →

Israel Thwarts Hamas Terror Plots Involving Qatar-based Terrorist

Today Israeli authorities announced the arrest of a Hamas operative in the West Bank who was “planning to carry out terror attacks involving shooting and kidnapping Israelis.” Baker Atallah Samiach Saad, a resident of Ramallah, was helped in planning his attacks by a Hamas terrorist released in the exchange for Gilad Shalit in October 2011. According to the Israel Defense Forces, Saad met Qatar-based Hisham Abed Elkader Ibrahim Hajaz in April in Jordan.

Hajaz was exiled to Qatar as part of the exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in October 2011. Prior to being exiled, Hajaz had been given 10 life sentences for his role in terror attacks against Israelis between 2001 and 2003.

During the April meeting in Jordan, Hajaz encouraged Saad to carry out terror attacks against Israelis, including kidnappings. Saad was also asked to recruit more people to carry out additional attacks.

06/13/2013 · Comments Off Continue Reading →

Argentine Prosecutor Accuses Iran of Establishing Terror Network in Latin America

On May 29, Alberto Nisman, the Argentine prosecutor who investigated the 1994 AMIA bombing, issued a 500-page indictment that accused Iran of establishing terror networks throughout Latin America since the 1980s. The Iranian regime infiltrated “several South American countries by building local clandestine intelligence stations designed to sponsor, foster and execute terrorist attacks, within the principles to export the Islamic revolution,” a two-page summary of the report obtained by The Long War Journal stated.

In a 31-page summary report obtained by The Long War Journal, Nisman said that Iran’s “clandestine intelligence stations and operative agents … are used to execute terrorist attacks when the Iranian regime decides so, both directly or through its proxy, the terrorist organization Hezbollah.” Nisman also warned that Iran could seek to use sleeper cells. While presenting the indictment on May 29, Nisman reportedly said that members of the sleeper cells “[s]ometimes … die having never received the order to attack.”

Iran has set up intelligence bases in a number of South American countries, according to Nisman, including, but not limited to: Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname. Nisman, the summary stated, plans to send his indictment “to the pertinent judicial authorities” in the various countries. A copy of the indictment is also being sent to US authorities.

05/30/2013 · Comments Off Continue Reading →

Boston Bombing Investigation Exposed Successes, Failures of Surveillance Tech

Despite multiple photos and surveillance video images of two suspects involved in the Boston Marathon bombings last month, as well as state-of-the-art facial-recognition software and two government databases, investigators were unable to identify the two suspected perpetrators, even after releasing several of the images to the public.

It was only after one suspect was shot in a showdown with police and was fingerprinted on his way to the hospital that authorities finally had a name to go with a face — Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a Chechen youth who was already on two U.S. terrorist watch lists after Russian authorities warned the U.S. that he had become “radicalized.”

The watch lists were supposed to alert authorities if Tsarnaev attempted to travel overseas, but they failed as well, even after he returned last year from a six-month trip to Russia. The databases contained a misspelling of the suspect’s name — “Tsarnayev” instead of Tsarnaev — and two incorrect dates of birth.

The facial-recognition system failed because none of the images captured of the suspects at the bombing site were full-frontal shots that the system’s algorithms could recognize.

These are two of the technology failures discussed in a new documentary about the bombing manhunt produced by NOVA and airing on PBS stations tonight.

05/29/2013 · Comments Off Continue Reading →

Rise of Al-Qaida Sahara Terrorist

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — After years of trying to discipline him, the leaders of al-Qaida’s North African branch sent one final letter to their most difficult employee. In page after scathing page, they described how he didn’t answer his phone when they called, failed to turn in his expense reports, ignored meetings and refused time and again to carry out orders.

Most of all, they claimed he had failed to carry out a single spectacular operation, despite the resources at his disposal.

The employee, international terrorist Moktar Belmoktar, responded the way talented employees with bruised egos have in corporations the world over: He quit and formed his own competing group. And within months, he carried out two lethal operations that killed 101 people in all: one of the largest hostage-takings in history at a BP-operated gas plant in Algeria in January, and simultaneous bombings at a military base and a French uranium mine in Niger just last week.

The al-Qaida letter, found by The Associated Press inside a building formerly occupied by their fighters in Mali, is an intimate window into the ascent of an extremely ambitious terrorist leader, who split off from regional command because he wanted to be directly in touch with al-Qaida central. It’s a glimpse into both the inner workings of a highly structured terrorist organization that requires its commanders to file monthly expense reports, and the internal dissent that led to his rise. And it foreshadows a terrorism landscape where charismatic jihadists can carry out attacks directly in al-Qaida’s name, regardless of whether they are under its command.

05/28/2013 · Comments Off Continue Reading →

Al Qaeda ‘Running’ from Pakistan, Again

The good news is Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik seems to have dropped the charade that newly appointed Taliban chief Hakeemullah Mehsud is dead. The bad news is we’re going to be bombarded with more of the “Taliban is collapsing” rhetoric.

09/29/2009 · Comments Off Continue Reading →

Iran Continues to Arm the Taliban

FOX News reports that another shipment of Iranian weapons has been confiscated in western Afghanistan:

Afghan and NATO forces uncovered the weapons cache on Aug. 29 in Herat. It included a small number of Iranian-made “explosively formed penetrators,” hyper-powerful roadside bombs similar to the weapons used to kill U.S. forces in Iraq, a senior U.S. Defense Official told FOX News.Also seized during the raid were 107 Iranian-made BM-1 rockets and dozens of blocks of Iranian C4 plastic explosives.

Iran has been using the same playbook it used in Iraq, but is a little bit more low-key in Afghanistan.

09/10/2009 · Comments Off Continue Reading →