On August 6, 2006 Al Jazeera broadcast a video in which Ayman al-Zawahiri claimed that al-Gamaa al-Islamiya (Egyptian Islamic Group Gamaa Islamiya) had joined Al-Qa'ida. The video also included Muhammad Khalil al-Hakaymah, a player in Egyptian Islamist movements since 1979 swearing allegiance to Al-Qa'ida on behalf of the Egyptian group. Despite al-Zawahiri's star power, al-Hakaymah's claims were subsequently disputed by members of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, which had formally renounced violence in...
Topics: DTIC Archive, Fishman, Brian, MILITARY ACADEMY WEST POINT NY COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER,...
Although they worked together nominally, the central Al Qaeda network, as led by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist group in Iraq held vastly different conceptions of jihad. The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq minimized the magnitude of that ideological clash, enabling Zarqawi's limited cooperation with Al Qaeda in the Iraqi arena. Although they used each other for tactical support, publicity, and recruiting purposes, their doctrinal...
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Topics: DTIC Archive, Fishman, Brian, MILITARY ACADEMY WEST POINT NY COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER,...
On October 15, 2006 al-Qa'ida in Iraq (AQI) and its allies declared an independent Islamic State across a swath of Western Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) was widely scorned by Western counterterrorism experts, many of whom rightly concluded that the ISI would never be capable of developing the material and bureaucratic infrastructure widely expected of a modern state. The ISI has not been embraced in the Mideast either. More secularist elements of the Iraqi insurgency condemn it. Most...
Topics: DTIC Archive, Fishman, Brian, MILITARY ACADEMY WEST POINT NY COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER,...
On July 18, 2007, GEN Kevin Bergner confirmed suspicions that the Emir of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) -- Abu Umar al-Baghdadi -- is fictitious. The information was provided by Khalid al-Mashadani, who was the Minister of Information within the ISI before he was captured by U.S. forces on July 4, 2007. If al-Mashadani's information is accurate, the al-Baghdadi deception underscores the fact that al-Qa'ida in Iraq (AQI) made a major strategic mistake when it established the ISI in October...
Topics: DTIC Archive, Fishman, Brian, MILITARY ACADEMY WEST POINT NY COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER,...
This report is the second by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point to assess the demographics, procedures, finances, and leadership of al-Qa'ida's foreign fighters, especially those currently fighting in Iraq. This report analyzes al-Qa'ida in Iraq's (AQI) operations from spring 2006 to summer 2007 and is being issued with a trove of AQI documents captured by coalition forces near Sinjar, Iraq. The documents include almost 600 AQI personnel records for foreign fighters crossing into...
Topics: DTIC Archive, Fishman, Brian, MILITARY ACADEMY WEST POINT NY, *TERRORISTS, *IRAQ, *TERRORISM,...
