Al Qaeda Supporter Sues The U.S. Because His Shackles Were Put On Too Tightly

Brennan Linsley-Pool/Getty Images

'My Shackles Were Too Tight': Al Qaeda Supporter From Brooklyn Is Suing US After Claiming Mistreatment Following His Arrest Gave Him Deep-Vein Thrombosis -- Daily Mail

Wesam El-Hanafi says he has been left him with a life-threatening condition
The former computer engineer, 38, faces up to 20 years in jail

An Al Qaeda supporter from Brooklyn is suing the US, claiming that tight-fitting shackles have given him deep-vein thrombosis.

Wesam El-Hanafi, 38, is due to be sentenced for helping terror network Al Qaeda. However, he is simultaneously suing the US, claiming that he's been mistreated since being detained and as a result has potentially life-threatening blood clots in one of his legs.

El-Hanafi, an Egyptian-American, claims that his symptoms started after his arrest in Dubai in 2010.

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My Comment: It is only a matter of time before someone will claim that this is torture.

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Al-Qaeda's Twitter Account Has Now Been Suspended

al-Qaeda's own Twitter account has been suspended

Terrorist Group Al-Qaeda's Twitter Account Has Been Suspended After Only Five Says -- Daily Mail

* The suspension comes less than a week after the account went live
* It also comes only hours after a media report saying Twitter refused to comment Saturday on why the account was still live
* Followers were mostly journalists and curious onlookers

Al-Qaeda's Twitter account has now been suspended.

After going live Tuesday under the guise of its Shamukh al-Islam website, the official website of the terror organization, the @shomokhalislam account was suspended Sunday after just under 50 tweets.

The account’s suspension came only hours after a report critical of Twitter remaining silent as to why it was allowed to remain online for so long

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My Comment: It was online for five days .... which was a surprised .... these accounts are usually suspended within hours.

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Al Qaeda Opens It's First Twitter Account

al-Qaeda has started its own Twitter account

Al Qaeda Opens First Official Twitter Account -- Washington Times/Washington Free Beacon

An official al Qaeda website that is restricted to members of the terrorist group opened its first Twitter account this week in what U.S. officials say is an effort to resolve a major split over Syria’s Islamist rebels.

The Shamukh al-Islam website, used as an official clearing house for al Qaeda members to communicate and issue propaganda statements, started its first Twitter account on Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/27/al-qaeda-opens-first-official-twitter-account/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS#ixzz2gCAayXyy
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

The first posts on the account focused on divisions between two al Qaeda rebel groups in Syria, al Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

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More News On Al Qaeda's Twitter Account

Terrorist group al-Qaeda has launched its first twitter account -- Daily Mail
Al Qaeda takes terror message to Twitter -- Herald Sun
Al-Qaeda joins Twitter bandwagon -- Times of India
Al-Qaeda is now on Twitter, and guess what they are tweeting! -- Daily Bhaskar
Al-Qaeda is on Twitter Now with ‘@shomokhalislam’ Account: Report -- Epoch Times

WNU Editor: Al Qaeda's Twitter account .... so far .... is here.

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Al Qaeda Is In A Mess

Photo: Ayman al Zawahiri. Wikipedia

Go Home Zawahiri, You’re Drunk -- Mark Stout, War On The Rocks

Ayman al Zawahiri’s latest statement, issued earlier this month and entitled “General Guidelines for Jihad” is a mess. And so is he. The guidelines illustrate two things: al Qaeda does not have and has never really had a feasible concept for conducting global insurgency and al Qaeda is now reduced to running out in front of the parade in order claim leadership of the Sunni jihadist movement.

The first sections of Zawahiri’s statement are old hat. He says that Al Qaeda’s jihad involves pursuing a strategy of exhaustion against the United States “to exhaust her and bleed her to death, so that she meets the fate of the former Soviet Union and collapses under her own weight as a result of her military, human, and financial losses.” As always for al Qaeda Central, the focus on the United States is instrumental: Weaken the United States enough and “its grip on our lands will weaken and its allies will begin to fall one after another.”

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My Comment: Al Qaeda and their affiliates may not have an overall plan to conduct a global insurgency .... but their actions are still causing misery and mayhem in many of the world's trouble spots.

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How al Qaeda's 'Conference Call' Of Doom Was Deciphered

An Enlisted Airman Deciphered al Qaeda's 'Conference Call' of Doom -- John Reed, Killer Apps/Foreign Policy

The mysterious "conference call" of al Qaeda leaders that led the United States to close its embassies around the Middle East in August was deciphered by a low-ranking enlisted man in the Air Force, who alerted his senior officers after finding clues about the ominous communication in the course of his regular duties.

"The warning that prompted that action [the embassy closures] came from the 70th ISR Wing, and specifically from a senior airman," Lt. Gen. Robert Otto, the Air Force chief of Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance, said at the Air Force's annual conference in Washington.

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My Comment: I suspect that there is more to this story than what they are telling us.

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Al Qaeda Sets Out Guidelines For Jihad

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri speaks from an unknown location, in this still image taken from video uploaded on a social media website June 8, 2011. REUTERS/Social Media Website via Reuters TV

Al Qaeda Leader Urges Restraint In First 'Guidelines For Jihad' -- Reuters

(Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri has issued his first specific guidelines for jihad, urging restraint in attacking other Muslim sects and non-Muslims and in starting conflicts in countries where jihadis might find a safe base to promote their ideas.

The document, published by the SITE monitoring service, provides a rare look at al Qaeda's strategy 12 years after the September 11 attacks on the United States and the nature of its global ambitions from North Africa to the Caucasus to Kashmir.

While al Qaeda's military aim remained to weaken the United States and Israel, Zawahri stressed the importance of "dawa", or missionary work, to spread its ideas.

"As far as targeting the proxies of America is concerned, it differs from place to place. The basic principle is to avoid entering into any conflict with them, except in the countries where confronting them becomes inevitable," he said.

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More News On Al Qaeda Setting Out Guidelines For Jihad

'Jihad Guidelines' Set Out By Al Qaeda Leader Ayman Al-Zawahri -- Huffington Post
Qaeda chief Zawahiri issues first ever 'guidelines for jihad' -- Business Standard
Al Qaeda leader urges restraint in first “guidelines for jihad” -- Malay Mail
Op-Ed: Al-Qaeda chief, Ayman al-Zawahri sets out guidelines for jihad -- Ken Hanly, Digital Journal
The Feed: Terrorism for dummies -- SBS

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A Chart That Shows What al Qaeda's Global Network Looks Like Today

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

Here's What al Qaeda's Global Network Looks Like Today -- Business Insider

Quilliam, a London-based think tank that focuses on counter-extremism, has released "A New Index to Assess the Effectiveness of Al Qaeda."

The report posits that the strength of the group should be judged by six main indicators of effectiveness: size, nature of Organizational design, secrecy, power of representation, interests it protects and cohesion.

Overall, al Qaeda's "regionalization, evolution, and reaction to regional conflict means it remains a threat to global stability and continues to be resilient and fluid."

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My Comment: It certainly does not look like an organization in decline.

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Report: al Qaeda Cannot Be Defeated Unless There is A Change In Strategy

Image from RT

Report: No Victory In Sight Against al Qaeda Without Change In Strategy -- Elizabeth Harrington, Washington Free Beacon

Terror org gaining traction despite decimation of top leaders.

The failure to identify the true scope of the al Qaeda network is threatening America’s interests abroad and at home, according to a report released Tuesday that concludes the United States cannot win a war against an enemy it doesn’t understand.

Throughout the war on terror, both the Bush and Obama administrations have sought core-focused campaigns against terrorist leaders, operating on theories that removing prominent figures would cause the network’s infrastructure to collapse.

However, after the deaths of thousands of al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, the terrorist network continues to gain traction throughout the Middle East.

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My Comment: Besides the usual special ops/intelligence/drone strikes/and forming alliances with other countries to combat Al Qaeda .... this is also an ideological struggle. But how can one fight an ideological foe when the White House is refusing to even official acknowledge the role that radical Islam has in fueling this movement.

The full report .... The al Qaeda Network: A New Framework for Defining the Enemy .... can be read here.

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President Obama's Boasts Of ‘Decimating’ al Qaeda During Last Years Election Campaign Undermined By Intel Briefings

Election-Year Shock: Obama Boasts Of ‘Decimated’ al Qaeda Undermined By Intel Briefings -- Washington times

Agencies warned administration the group was expanding, not ‘on the run’

As President Obama ran to election victory last fall with claims that al Qaeda was “decimated” and “on the run,” his intelligence team was privately offering a different assessment that the terrorist movement was shifting resources and capabilities to emerging spinoff groups in Africa that posed fresh threats to American security.

Top U.S. officials, including the president, were told in the summer and fall of 2012 that the African offshoots were gaining money, lethal knowledge and a mounting determination to strike U.S. and Western interests while keeping in some contact with al Qaeda’s central leadership, said several people directly familiar with the intelligence.

The gulf between the classified briefings and Mr. Obama’s pronouncements on the campaign trail touched off a closed-door debate inside the intelligence community about whether the terrorist group’s demise was being overstated for political reasons, officials told The Washington Times.

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My Comment: Now they tell us.

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Al-Qaeda's Leadership Has Assigned Cells Of Engineers To Find Ways To Shoot Down, Jam Or Remotely Hijack U.S. Drones

Reuters

U.S. Documents Detail al-Qaeda’s Efforts To Fight Back Against Drones -- Washington Post

Al-Qaeda’s leadership has assigned cells of engineers to find ways to shoot down, jam or remotely hijack U.S. drones, hoping to exploit the technological vulnerabilities of a weapons system that has inflicted huge losses upon the terrorist network, according to top-secret U.S. intelligence documents.

Although there is no evidence that al-Qaeda has forced a drone crash or interfered with flight operations, U.S. intelligence officials have closely tracked the group’s persistent efforts to develop a counterdrone strategy since 2010, the documents show.

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More News On Al Qaqeda's Attempts To Stop The U.S. Drones

Here's How Al-Qaeda Tried to Sabotage American Drones -- The Atlantic Wire
Leaked document shows al-Qaeda's interest in grounding U.S. drones -- Foreign Policy
Al Qaeda reportedly seeking ways to target US drones -- FOX News
Secret US documents show al Qaeda set up anti-drone cells: Report -- Express Tribune/AFP
Government documents: Al-Qaida seeking ways to bring down drones -- Salon
Al Qaeda working on anti-US drone strategy since 2010 - report -- Al Bawaba
Al-Qaeda Engineers Take Aim at Drones: Secret File -- Newser
Al-Qaeda fights back against drones -- The Telegraph

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Al Qaeda Denies U.S. Claims That They Are Plotting Massive Attacks

Al-Qaeda In Yemen: US Claims On Attack Plots ‘Nonsense’ -- Middle East Online

Al-Qaeda in Yemen: US claims on attack plots ‘nonsense’

DUBAI - Al-Qaeda in Yemen has denied US allegations it is plotting massive attacks that prompted the closure of Western missions in the country this month, in a statement posted online.

The extremist network also denied reports confirmed by Yemen's President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi that US intelligence services had intercepted a conversation between Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, head of the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

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Update: Al Qaeda in Yemen denies US claims on attack plots -- Global Post/AFP

My Comment: This report is a few days old, but I am still intrigued that Al Qaedea would actually go through all the trouble of making it public that they are not responsible for these attack plots. In the past they would have been proud and be boasting about it to everyone .... even if they were not responsible for it. This makes you wonder if maybe .... just maybe .... these U.S. worldwide terror alert was exaggerated or based totally on wrong information.

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New Al Qaeda Video Shows Young Children Being Trained To Be Fighters

 

The Taliban Terror Tot: Grinning Al-Qaeda Fighter Trains TODDLER To Fire Handgun In Sickening Video Shot In War-Torn Afghanistan -- Daily Mail 

* The youngster is instructed how to use a pistol to deadly effect
* Al-Qaeda trains children, many of them orphans, to be terrorists
* Shocking footage also shows a burka-clad woman with a rocket launcher

A little boy laughs as a smiling adult helps him aim a semi-automatic pistol at a target, his first steps to becoming a terrorist hell-bent on war with the West.

This horrific scene is played out in a propaganda video posted online by Al-Qaeda terrorists in strife-hit Afghanistan.

The chilling footage, posted on Youtube, also shows a woman wearing a burkha aiming a rocket-propelled grenade and an exploding car.

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My Comment: Continuing the cycle of hate.

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Intercepting A Courier Is How U.S. Intelligence Learned Of Al Qaeda's Recent Conference Call

Exclusive: Courier Led U.S. to al Qaeda Internet Conference -- Eli Lake and Josh Rogin, Daily Beast

U.S. officials followed the Internet trail of an al Qaeda courier to learn the details of an electronic conference between more than 20 of the organization’s top officials.

Prior to the worldwide security alert that temporarily shuttered U.S. embassies throughout the Middle East earlier this month, authorities captured an al Qaeda courier who had in his possession a recording of a seven-hour Internet-hosted meeting between more than 20 senior al Qaeda leaders from around the globe, U.S. intelligence officials said.

On August 7, The Daily Beast first reported that intelligence officials had learned of a remote conference between senior al Qaeda leaders, as well as representatives from al Qaeda branches in Iraq, the Maghreb, and Southeast Asia. The conversations that occurred on the conference, put together with other communications intelligence, prompted the Obama administration to take drastic security precautions to address a vague but seemingly imminent threat on Western interests being planned by the terrorist organization.

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My Comment: This is what U.S. intelligence is leaking to the Daily Beast .... so one can only speculate if this news is accurate or not.

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How Does Edward Snowden And Al Qaeda Avoid NSA Detection

Edward Snowden And Al Qaeda Both Know How To Avoid NSA Detection -- Business Insider

People who know what they're doing — like renegade National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden and professional terrorists at Al Qaeda — find it relatively easy to avoid detection.

From the Associated Press:

Jihadist technology may now be so sophisticated and secretive, experts say, that many communications avoid detection by National Security Agency programs that were specifically designed to uncover terror plots.

And why is that?

From AP:

[Because] Al-Qaida leaders ... [use] ... a multi-layered subterfuge to pass messages from couriers to tech-savvy underlings to attackers.

... over the past decade [jihadists] have developed systems that blend encryption programs with anonymity software to hide their tracks ...

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Update: Al-Qaeda fighters turn to secretive chat rooms and encrypted message boards to plan attacks -- AP

My Comment: An excellent review from the AP .... a report that I am sure the NSA is not happy to see being publicized.

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Al Qaeda's Top Bomb Maker Injured In A Drone Strike?

Asiri has achieved a terrorist breakthrough designing bombs that can pass undetected through airport security Photo: Reuters

Drone Strike Reportedly Wounds Al Qaeda Master Bomb Maker -- Washington Free Beacon

Bomb maker reportedly behind ‘Underwear Bombing’ plot in 2010

A Saudi national known to be a key al Qaeda bomb maker was wounded during a U.S.-led drone strike in Yemen, according to a Yemeni news report.

Ibrahim al Asiri, the bomb maker, was targeted during a missile strike launched from a U.S.-operated armed drone in southern Yemen that killed two other al Qaeda terrorists, the online Yemeni news outlet Al Watan reported Sunday.

A U.S. official had no public comment but urged caution regarding claims that al Asiri was dead.

The drone attack took place in Yemen’s southernmost Lahij Governorate that borders the Gulf of Aden. Covert, U.S. military-operated drones carried out the strike. The United States operates a drone base located in southern Saudi Arabia.

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Update: Yemen's hunt for master bomber Ibrahim al-Asiri -- The Telegraph

My Comment: Time calls him The World's Most Dangerous Terrorist .... and for good reason. Al Qaeda is saying nothing about his injuries .... but his demise would be a good thing.

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al Qaeda’s New General Manager

Yemeni Al Qaeda leader Nasser al-Wuhayshi. Ebonybay.com

Meet al Qaeda’s New General Manager: Nasser al-Wuhayshi -- Daily Beast

He was once Osama bin Laden’s personal secretary, a bodyguard in Tora Bora, and even a Yemeni Steve McQueen. But with his promotion last week, he’s now a big U.S. target.

While President Obama has overseen a largely secret war that has killed dozens of top al Qaeda commanders since 2009, one master terrorist has managed to elude U.S. forces: Nasser al-Wuhayshi.

Today, Wuhayshi is a top target for the United States, after intelligence agencies monitored a conference call last week that served as a virtual board meeting for al Qaeda’s central leadership and the group's global affiliates—and in which the Yemeni-born jihadist was promoted to the position of general manager for al Qaeda operations. At the request of its sources, The Daily Beast is withholding details about the technology al Qaeda used to conduct the conference call. U.S. intelligence officers say Wuhayshi is leading an attack plan that could call on resources from al Qaeda’s franchises across North Africa, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia.

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My Comment: I am betting that we will be reading his obituary within a year.

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New Details Emerge That Al Qaeda's 'Conference Call' Last Week Was Anything But A Conference Call

Nasir al Wuhayshi, the Yemeni leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

Details Emerge About Talk Between al Qaeda Leaders -- CNN

New details are emerging about some of the communication between al Qaeda leaders that prompted so much concern among U.S. officials about an imminent terror threat they decided to close nearly two dozen embassies in the Middle East and Africa.

CNN has previously reported U.S. officials intercepted a message between al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and a top ally in Yemen, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, with al-Zawahiri telling al-Wuhayshi to "do something" - an inference to a terror plot.

Now, two U.S. officials tell CNN that in his communication with al-Zawahiri, al-Wuhayshi, who is the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), laid out a plan for a plot; then, al-Zawahiri acknowledged the communication. Al-Wuhayshi, the officials said, was not asking for permission from al- Zawahiri - but rather informing him of his plans.

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My Comment: And this is why 19 U.S. diplomatic posts were closed, terror alerts sent out, and a series of drone strikes initiaited in Yemen ?!?!?! There has to be more to the story than just this.

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The Evolution Of Al Qaeda

The rise in prominence of Nasir al Wuhayshi, shown in this 2009 still from a video, the head of al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, underscores the transformation that has taken place in the al Qaida in the past few year | Jihadist Website/IntelCenter/Zuma Press/MCT

New Vision Of Al Qaida Rises From U.S. Embassy Closings -- McClatchy News

WASHINGTON — The rise in prominence of Nasir al Wuhayshi, the Yemeni head of al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, underscores the transformation of al Qaida from a relatively small group led by one charismatic man into a diffuse global organization with many branches that pursue local objectives but follow a single ideology, according to counterterrorism analysts and officials.

The change has undermined the Obama administration’s boast that U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have “decimated” what’s been called core al Qaida, according to veteran al Qaida watchers. Instead, the organization, no longer dependent on the leadership of a single personality, is growing, with authority now spread among leaders not just in Yemen but also in Iraq, Somalia, Syria and Egypt’s Sinai. The branches that operate in those regions aren’t affiliates, the experts say, they’re al Qaida.

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My Comment: I concur with this analysis. The next generation of Al Qaeda leaders are now coming to the forefront of the organization, and they are not like Osama Bin Laden or Zawahiri.

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Did Al Qaeda's Top Leaders Have A 'Conference Call'?

It Turns Out The Reported 'Legion Of Doom' Conference Call Wasn't Over The Phone -- Business Insider

Yesterday Eli Lake and Josh Rogin of The Daily Beast reported, citing three intelligence officials, that the "crucial intercept that prompted the U.S. government to close embassies in 22 countries was a conference call between al Qaeda’s senior leaders and representatives of several of the group’s affiliates throughout the region."

The report immediately set off skeptical reactions around the world, as people questioned whether terrorist leaders would really have an important conversation on a medium that the U.S. government has been surveilling so aggressively.

It turns out, according to one of the authors, that the "conference call" wasn't over the phone:

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My Comment: As I had mentioned in a previous post, there are too many questions that still need to be answered .... questions that I will hazard a bet will not be answered.

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