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Facebook Fatwa: Saudi Clerics, Wahhabi Islam and Social Media
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies has released the first-ever study of what radical Saudi Wahhabists are preaching to their followers about the United States and non-Muslims on social media sites.
Learn MoreAnalysis & Commentary - Thomas Joscelyn
Treasury Targets Iran’s ‘Secret Deal’ with al Qaeda
The US Treasury Department has designated six al Qaeda members who work for a terrorist headquartered in Iran. The Treasury Department explained that the six operatives are members of an al Qaeda network "headed by Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil, a prominent Iran-based al Qaeda facilitator, operating under an agreement between al Qaeda and the Iranian government." more...
A ‘Lone Wolf’ Terrorist?
American counterterrorism officials have long worried about the possibility of a “lone wolf” jihadist committing a terrorist attack. Such individuals, inspired by ideology alone, can come out of nowhere. more...
Terror Strikes Norway
Just one year ago, authorities in Oslo broke up an al Qaeda-directed bomb plot that originated in northern Pakistan. Good intelligence, including intercepted emails between an al Qaeda planner and the Oslo cell, prevented the plotters from assembling and launching their bomb. more...
Norwegian Police Dismiss Jihadist Role in Oslo Attacks
Norwegian authorities have reportedly arrested a 32-year-old man named Anders Behring Breivik in connection with Friday's terrorist attack. While his precise motives remain unclear, the police have reportedly dismissed any ties to jihadism. more...
Questioning ‘High’ Risk Gitmo Detainee Transfers
On July 1, President Obama announced that he was nominating Matthew Olsen for the position of National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) director. more...
Still Clueless About Al Qaeda in Iraq
Speaking in Iraq, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta reportedly told U.S. troops: “The reason you guys are here is because on 9/11 the United States got attacked. more...
Senior Shabaab Commander Rumored to Have Been Killed in Recent Predator Strike
A senior Shabaab commander who fought in Afghanistan and has close ties with al Qaeda is reported to have been killed in the Predator airstrike that took place in southern Somalia late last month. The report is unconfirmed. more...
Alleged Shabaab Operative to Stand Trial in New York
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced the indictment of a Somali man who allegedly worked for Shabaab and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). more...
Pakistani Intelligence Officials Implicated in Journalist’s Murder
The New York Times has published a remarkable article on the murder of Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad. It is not the story’s central allegation that makes the piece remarkable – it is all too believable that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate had Shahzad killed. more...
The al Qaeda- Taliban Connection
Joe Biden finally won an argument. President Obama’s decision to draw down U.S. forces in Afghanistan seems to move American policy toward Biden’s long-held view that the U.S. military should narrow its approach to a selective, counter-terrorism-focused mission. more...
Iran’s Proxy War Continues
June was the deadliest month in Iraq for U.S. forces in more than two years, with 15 servicemen killed. Jay Solomon of the Wall Street Journal explains why more...
NYT: Bin Laden’s Courier Tied to Pakistani-Backed Terror Group
Contacts between Harakat ul Mujahedin (HUM), a terrorist organization long sponsored by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, and Osama bin Laden's most trusted courier have been found by American intelligence officials, the New York Times reports. more...
A Brave Journalist
Syed Saleem Shahzad was a rare journalist. His reporting on the Taliban, al Qaeda, and other heads of the jihadist hydra based in Pakistan was always essential reading. He never wavered, as far as I can tell, in giving readers as complete a picture as he could. Oftentimes, that meant Shahzad reported on the nexus between the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment and the terrorist groups it helped spawn. Shahzad did this while working deep inside the heart of Pakistan – a brave rarity, indeed. more...
The Gitmo Files: Al Qaeda’s Emir of Zahedan, Iran Commits Suicide
An Afghan Guantanamo detainee named Inayatullah (Internment Serial Number 10028) committed suicide yesterday morning, according to the Department of Defense. I have been waiting for some time to see what the Gitmo files have to say about Inayatullah. His story, or at least the little we know of it, is especially intriguing. My wait has not paid off. more...
The Gitmo Files: An agent of Iran
A current Guantanamo detainee was an "agent of the Iranian Savama (Ministry of Intelligence and Security)" and "closely associated" with the Taliban, Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG), and al Qaeda, according to a recently leaked threat assessment. The detainee, an Afghan named Haji Hamidullah (Internment Serial Number 1119), joined the HIG in the early 1980s to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan and remained a member of the organization until his capture in 2003. more...
Analysis: Al Qaeda’s Interim Emir and Iran
Saif al Adel has been named the interim emir of al Qaeda in the wake of Osama bin Laden's demise, according to multiple press reports. Al Adel is a longtime member of al Qaeda's military council and has been wanted by US authorities since the late 1990s, when he was implicated in al Qaeda's attack on two American embassies in Africa. Another lesser known al Qaeda leader, Mustafa al Yemeni, will reportedly direct the group's operations. more...
Reasonable Suspicion
What did Pakistan’s military and intelligence agents know about Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts, and when did they know it? more...
Why Was Key Source on Bin Laden’s Courier Freed?
Reuters has published its account of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Like other versions of the story that have come out, this one says that the key information about the courier who unwittingly led authorities to bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound came from Hassan Ghul – an al Qaeda operative who was captured in Iraq. more...
John Brennan Is Still Wrong on Gitmo Detainee
A recently leaked threat assessment prepared at Guantanamo draws into question the Obama administration’s analysis of a detainee who was transferred to Yemen shortly before all future transfers to the unstable nation were suspended. more...
The Gitmo Files: (Shocker!) Mullah Omar meets with Pakistan’s ISI
A recently leaked threat assessment authored at Guantanamo contains this piece of intelligence: As of February 2005, Mullah Satter attended a meeting with Mullah Mohammed Omar in Quetta, PK. The meeting included high-level Taliban leaders Mullah Abdul Bari, Mullah Mohammed Nabi, Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Osmani, representatives from the Pakistani government and the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISID). more...