al-qaida chief ayman al-zawahiri the coordinator 2015 part 19-71-caliphate-sunni-shia-14

C de Waart; CdW Intelligence to Rent [email protected] In Confidence

Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 19-71-Caliphate-Sunni-Shia-14

In The "War of the Cross, we seek a Strategy, our Enemy has one."

Consequently, in the Qur'an there are two different choices, the aggressive and the peaceful, and both of them are acceptable. There is a need for an authority, unanimously acknowledged by Muslims, that could say: From now on, only this verse is valid. But this does not—and probably will never—happen. .

It was in another time — more than 1,300 years ago — in a land known as the Islamic State that, after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, a succession crisis divided Muslims; and the widening schism continues to play out today as ISIL carves its bloody notion of a new Islamic State on the same soil these feuds were first fought, lashing out at targets both within the Muslim world and in the West. A dispute over how to replace Muhammad as the leader of the Muslim world after his death in 632 — and increasingly after the deaths of subsequent leaders — led to competing iterations of the Islamic faith, diverting followers into two major branches — the Sunni and the Shia. A study in 2009 by the Pew Research Center says there were more than 1.57 billion Muslims around the world, about

23% of the world’s population. Of those, 10 to 13 percent were Shia and 87-90 percent were Sunni.

For a country like Saudi Arabia, through its exportation of its own Islamist ideology, they’re responsible for the underlying ideology that informs al Qaeda and ISIS

Wed Dec 09, 2015 MI6 Chief Reveals S. Arabia's Doomsday Plot against ShiitesTEHRAN (FNA)- Some time before 9/11,

Prince Bandar bin Sultan, once the powerful Saudi ambassador in Washington and head of the Saudi intelligence until a few months ago, had a revealing and ominous conversation with the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove. Prince Bandar told him: "The time is not far off in the Middle East, Richard, when it will be literally 'God help the Shiite'. More than a billion Sunnis have simply had enough of them."According to Times of India newspaper, the fatal moment predicted by Prince Bandar may now have come for many Shiites, with Saudi Arabia playing an important role in bringing it about by supporting the anti-Shiite jihad in Iraq and Syria. Since the capture of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on 10 June, Shiite women and children have been killed in villages South of Kirkuk, and Shiite air force cadets machine-gunned and buried in mass graves near Tikrit. In Mosul, Shiite shrines and mosques have been blown up, and in the nearby Shiite Turkoman city of Tal Afar 4,000 houses have been taken over by ISIL fighters as "spoils of war". Simply to be identified as Shiite or a related sect, such as the Alawites, in Sunni rebel-held parts of Iraq and Syria today, has become as dangerous as being a Jew was in Nazi-controlled parts of Europe in 1940.

There is no doubt about the accuracy of the quote by Prince Bandar, secretary-general of the Saudi National Security Council from 2005 and head of General

The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.–Winston Churchill

CdW Intelligence to Rent of 11 03/05/2023

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Intelligence between 2012 and 2014, the crucial two years when al Qaeda-type Jihadis took over the Sunni-armed opposition in Iraq and Syria. Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute, Dearlove, who headed MI6 from 1999 to 2004, emphasized the significance of Prince Bandar's words, saying that they constituted "a chilling comment that I remember very well indeed".

He does not doubt that substantial and sustained funding from private donors in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to which the authorities may have turned a blind eye, has played a central role in the ISIL surge into Sunni areas of Iraq. He said: "Such things simply do not happen spontaneously." This sounds realistic since the tribal and communal leadership in Sunni majority provinces is much beholden to Saudi and Persian Gulf paymasters, and would be unlikely to cooperate with ISIL without their consent.

Dearlove's explosive revelation about the prediction of a day of reckoning for the Shiite by Prince Bandar, and the former head of MI6's view that Saudi Arabia is involved in the ISIL-led Sunni terrorism, has attracted surprisingly little attention. Coverage of Dearlove's speech focused instead on his main theme that the threat from ISIL to the West is being exaggerated because, unlike Bin Laden's al Qaeda, it is absorbed in a new conflict that "is essentially Muslim on Muslim". Unfortunately, Christians in areas captured by ISIL are finding this is not true, as their churches are desecrated and they are forced to flee. A difference between al Qaeda and ISIL is that the latter is much better organized; if it does attack Western targets the results are likely to be devastating.

The forecast by Prince Bandar, who was at the heart of Saudi security policy for more than three decades, that the 100 million Shiites in the Middle East face disaster at the hands of the Sunni majority, will convince many Shiites that they are the victims of a Saudi-led campaign to crush them.

Western governments traditionally play down the connection between Saudi Arabia and its Wahhabist faith, on the one hand, and Jihadism, whether of the variety espoused by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda or by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's ISIL. There is nothing conspiratorial or secret about these links: 15 out of 19 of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, as was Bin Laden and most of the private donors who funded the operation.The difference between al Qaeda and ISIL can be overstated: when Bin Laden was killed by United States forces in 2011, al-Baghdadi released a statement eulogizing him, and ISIL pledged to launch 100 attacks in revenge for his death.But there has always been a second theme to Saudi policy towards al Qaeda type Jihadis, contradicting Prince Bandar's approach and seeing Jihadis as a mortal threat to the Kingdom. Dearlove illustrates this attitude by relating how, soon after 9/11, he visited the Saudi capital Riyadh with Tony Blair.He remembers the then head of Saudi General Intelligence "literally shouting at me across his office: '9/11 is a mere pinprick on the West. In the medium term, it is nothing more than a series of personal tragedies. What these terrorists want is to destroy the House of Saud and remake the Middle East.'" In the event, Saudi Arabia adopted both policies, encouraging the Jihadis as a useful tool of Saudi anti-Shiite influence abroad but suppressing them at home as a threat to the status quo. It is this dual policy that has fallen apart over the last year. Saudi sympathy for anti-Shiite "militancy" is identified in leaked US official documents. The then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in December 2009 in a cable released by Wikileaks that "Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al Qaeda, the Taliban, LeT [Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan] and other terrorist groups."





Separating Violent and Peaceful Islam by David P. GoldmanAsia TimesDecember 11, 2015A diabolical logic prompted Donald Trump to propose a travel ban on Muslims: if the US government can't distinguish between peaceful and violent Muslims, then shut the door to all of them. Trump's instinct for political-as-reality-television buoyed his standing in Republican polls, as Americans put terrorism at the top of their concerns. According to Rasmussen, US voters support Trump's idea by a 46-40% margin. Among Republicans, the margin is 66%-24%. Americans by and large aren't bigots, but the outbreak of Instant Jihad Syndrome last week convinced them that something was broken, and that the whole mechanism of Muslim immigration should be mothballed until the problem was fixed. They know perfectly well that some Muslims want to live in peace with non-Muslims and other Muslims want to burn down the world, but they don't know how to tell the difference. As information about the couple's longstanding terror connections trickles into the press, the public doesn't trust its guardians to tell the difference, either. That was the lesson they learned from the jihadi Bonnie and Clyde of San Bernardino.

Trump chose his words carefully: "Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life." That is mischievous. The Obama administration like the Bush administration before it embraced Muslim organizations that play coy with the line between peaceful advancement of Muslim interests and terrorism. At the center of these organizations is the Muslim Brotherhood, as I reported earlier this week.

Trump knows perfectly well what the Obama administration is doing, and says in effect: "If our elected leaders can't distinguish between peaceful and violent Muslims, let's keep all of them out."I never thought the day would come when I would admonish Americans to show understanding and forbearance towards Islam. In fact, Islam is neither a religion of violence nor a religion of peace: it is an ambiguous set of doctrines from which Muslims may choose peace or violence as they will.

To penalize all Muslims for the actions of those Muslims who choose violence is as morally misguided as it is strategically stupid: It repudiates those Muslims who explicitly embrace a peaceful interpretation, for example the president of the largest Arab country, Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Western countries in their own self-defense need to draw a bright line between peaceful and violent Islam.It isn't hard to separate the sheep from the jihadist goats, because open war is underway between the two interpretations of Islam. The trouble is that the United States has been on the wrong side of the war: the whole US foreign policy establishment, Obama liberals and Bush neo-conservatives, believed that democracy in the Middle East would arise from political Islam and replace the old Arab dictatorships. US intelligence failed because it was fitted with political filters.

Westerners seeking to make The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

–Winston ChurchillCdW Intelligence to Rent of 11 03/05/2023



sense of Islam should consult a short book by Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, a Jesuit of Arab origin who advised Pope Benedict XVI. 111 Questions on Islam (Ignatius Press, 2008) explains that both the violent and peaceful interpretations of Islam are legitimate within Islam's own terms, and that the peculiar character of Islamic tradition makes it impossible to exclude either on purely theological grounds. Like many Arab Christians, Fr. Samir is hostile to Israel, and I abhor his view of Middle East politics. As an scholar of Islam, though, he has an important insight. He explains:Many Westerners fear Islam as a "religion of violence". Muslims often call simultaneously for tolerance and understanding as well as for violence and aggression. In fact, both options are present in the Qur'an and the sunna. These are two legitimate manners—two distinct ways to interpret, to understand, and to live Islam. It is up to the individual Muslim to decide what he wants Islam to be. . . . (p 18). . . If the Qur'an was indeed "sent down" by Allah, there is no possibility of a critical or historical interpretation, not even for those aspects that are evidently related to the customs of a particular historical period and culture. In the history of Islam, at a certain point, it was decided that it was no longer possible to interpret the text. Hence, today, even the mere attempt to understand its meaning and what message it aims to communicate in a certain context is regarded as a desire to challenge it. . . . (p. 42). . . In modern times as well, many efforts have been made in this direction but almost

always in vain. The weight of the tradition and, above all, the fear of questioning the acquired security of the text have created a taboo: the Qur'an cannot be interpreted, nor can it be critically rethought. . . . (p. 43). . . I speak about the violence expressed in the Qur'an and practiced in Muhammad's life in order to address the idea, widespread in the West, that the violence we see today is a deformation of Islam. We must honestly admit that there are two readings of the

Qur'an and the sunna (Islamic traditions connected to Muhammad): one that opts for the verses that encourage tolerance toward other believers, and one that prefers the verses that encourage conflict. Both readings are legitimate. . . . (p. 65). . . Consequently, in the Qur'an there are two different choices, the aggressive and the peaceful, and both of them are acceptable. There is a need for an authority, unanimously acknowledged by Muslims, that could say: From now on, only this verse is valid. But this does not—and probably will never—happen. . . . (p. 71)

President al-Sisi speaking before a clerical audience at Al-Azhar University last Jan. 1 demanded that Muslims repudiate violence and choose peace with non-Muslims:

The problem has never been that of our faith. The problem lies in our ideology, one that has been sanctified by us...We have to take a painful and difficult look at our current situation. It is inconceivable that the ideology that we have sanctified helps make our nation a concern, danger, killings and destruction throughout the world it is inconceivable that this ideology – I am not referring to religion, but ideology – that is to say, the corpus of ideas and texts we have sanctified in the centuries – is rendered to a point where it is almost impossible to challenge. This ideology has reached a point where it is a threat to the world. It is inconceivable that 1.6 billion Muslims want to kill the rest of humanity, or 7





billion people to live only among themselves... Let me say it again: we must revolutionize our religion. Honourable imam of the Grand Mosque Al Azhar, you wear this responsibility before God. The whole world awaits your words, because the Islamic nation is falling apart and destroy itself. It goes directly to his loss and it is we who are responsible.

Egypt's leader walks the walk as well as talks the talk. He suppressed the violence-prone Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood, and is fighting a low-intensity civil war with Islamists in the Sinai and terrorists in Egypt's major cities. He has contained Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Brotherhood, and improved security cooperation with Israel. Al-Sisi represents a mainstream current of peaceful Islam (as opposed to some minor sects, e.g. the Turkish Sufis, who are peaceful but irrelevant).President al-Sisi spoke frankly of an "ideology we have sanctified," the ideology of jihad. That is a statement of immense courage. Islam is not necessarily violent, but it has a proclivity for violence, unlike Christianity or Judaism.

As the great Jewish theologian Franz Rosenzweig wrote nearly a century ago, "following the path of Allah means in the narrowest sense propagating Islam through holy war. In the obedient journey upon this path, taking upon one's self the associated dangers, the observance of the laws prescribed for it, Muslim piety finds its way in the world."

The Muslim Brotherhood is the elephant in the parlor. Both the George W. Bush administration and Obama onboarded Brotherhood operatives as advisors on counterterrorism and outreach to American Muslims, as Clare Lopez, a former CIA officer, documents in a report for the Gatestone Institute. Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan administration official, has produced a series of Internet videos on the subject. The Brotherhood tries to blur the line between propagating Islam through peaceful and violent means. In Egypt and Gaza, it employs violence; through its front organizations in the US, it claims to employ nonviolent methods.

As veteran defense reporter (and Asia Times contributor) Bill Gertz wrote earlier this year in the Washington Times:

President Obama and his administration continue to support the global Islamist militant group known the Muslim Brotherhood. A White House strategy document regards the group as a moderate alternative to more violent Islamist groups like al Qaeda and the Islamic State. The policy of backing the Muslim Brotherhood is outlined in a secret directive called Presidential Study Directive-11, or PSD-11. The directive was produced in 2011 and outlines administration support for political reform in the Middle East and North Africa, according to officials familiar with the classified study.

The directive outlines why the administration has chosen the Muslim Brotherhood, which last year was labeled a terrorist organization by the governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates as a key vehicle of U.S. backing for so-called political reform in the Middle East...

The UAE government also has labeled two U.S. affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim American Society, as terrorist support groups. Both groups denied the UAE claims. Egypt is considering imposing a death sentence on Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood-backed former president who was ousted in military coup in July 2013. In Egypt, the Brotherhood is fighting a bloody civil war with the al-Sisi government. That is, the Obama administration has allied itself with the embattled enemies of Muslims who propose a peaceful interpretation of Islam.Trump's approach is demagogic; Ted Cruz, by contrast, proposes a workable policy





solution. On Nov. 4 he introduced legislation "urging the Secretary of State to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization," according to a campaign press release. "The US has officially listed individual members, branches and charities of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists, but has not designated the organization as a whole."

The release adds:This bill recognizes the simple fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is a radical Islamic terrorist group. For years, American presidents of both parties have correctly designated the Brotherhood's various affiliates, such as Hamas and Ansar al-Sharia, as terrorist groups. They have designated individual Muslim Brotherhood leaders such as Shaykh Abd-al-Majd Al-Zindani, who was complicit in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, and Sami Al-Hajj, who was captured on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in 2001 running money and weapons for al Qaida, as terrorists. Now we can reject the fantasy that their parent institution is a political entity that is somehow separate from these violent activities," Sen. Cruz said. "A number of our Muslim allies have taken this common-sense step, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. As this bill details, the Brotherhood's stated goal is to wage violent jihad against its enemies, and our legislation is a reality check that the United States is on that list as well.Designating the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization along with America's Arab allies

would turn the intentionally blurred line into a bright line. Marco Rubio has attacked Cruz for opposing more authority for eavesdropping on domestic telephone calls, but this is a secondary issue. The great intelligence failure is not due to lack of data but refusal to look at the obvious David P. Goldman is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and the Wax Family Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

In a pivotal breakthrough in the Yemen civil war, Thursday, Dec. 11 the naval forces of Saudi Arabia,

Egypt and the UAR took by storm from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels the Greater Hanish island, which is part of the strategic archipelago commanding the Strait of Bab al Mandeb. This is reported exclusively by DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources.This highly strategic strait links the Indian Ocean with the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea – i.e. Africa and Asia – and is the world’s fourth busiest chokepoint for international oil traffic.Captured by Yemeni rebels last May, the island was converted by Iranian officers into an armed base and one of Tehran’s largest depots for the supply of arms to its forces and proxies in the region. A fleet of small boats and fishing vessels kept the Yemeni Houthis amply armed for fending off the Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting to restore the exiled Yemeni government.The Hanish island base also provided Iran with a commanding position for spreading its influence in Ethiopia and Eritrea on the eastern African seaboard. Taking the island was a major breakthrough for the coalition, after long months of combat that was crowned by their capture of the southern Yemeni seaport of Aden in the past three months. With the occupation of Greater Hanish, Saudi-led forces are now in position not just to cut off Iran’s weapons supplies to the Yemeni rebels, but also to break its grip on the vital strait that connects the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal.





Iran maintained on Greater Hanish Island advanced radar and electronic tracking stations for keeping an eye on military movements on the southern Saudi border with northern Yemen. They could also shadow oil tanker and other shipping passing through the Red Sea, and stake out Israel’s south- and east-bound sea traffic as it passed through the Gulf of Aqaba.DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources reveal that Saudi Arabia and Egypt finally decided that the seizure of the strategic island could not be delayed when last month, Iran won a permit to establish an air and sea base in Djibouti, the Horn of Africa nation opposite the Gulf of Aden’s entrance to the Red Sea. Djibouti derives much of its revenue from renting out tracts of land to foreign nations seeking bases of operation in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea. American and French bases are situated no more than 214 km from Greater Hanish Island.Riyadh, Cairo and the UAE agreed that they could not afford to let Iranian air and naval forces gain control of the Bab El-Mandeb Strait from its twin footholds on the island and in Djibouti. They were not the only interested parties. It may be taken for granted that their operation to take over Greater Hanish was quietly assisted by Western and Middle East interests that had been watching Iran’s takeover of these vital ocean pathways with grave concern.

Wed Dec 09, 2015 Qatar Supplying Tens of TOW Missiles to Terrorist Groups in Syria TEHRAN (FNA)- Terrorist groups in Syria said on Wednesday they have received large cargoes of TOW missiles supplied by the Qatari government.Militant groups said that Qatar has delivered 20 American TOW missiles to the Al-Qaeda's official branch in Syria, the Al-Nusra Front to help the embattled terrorist group that has been sustaining heavy defeats in the war with the Syrian army and its allies across the country, specially in Northern provinces.Meantime, other terrorist groups have also been reported to have received similar cargoes in a bid to intensify campaign against the Syrian government and stop the advances of the Syrian army and its allies before the next round of Syria talks. The terrorist groups have been retreating in several provinces, including Aleppo, Lattakia, Hama, Homs, Damascus and Daraa in the last two months, giving President Bashar al-Assad an upper hand in any talks with international actors and opposition groups.Ever since the recent defeats, the sponsors of militant groups have boosted their supply aids to reverse or, at least, stop the trend of the Syrian army victories.In mid October, a Saudi official announced that his country has supplied the militants in Syria with a new batch of TOW antitank missiles as the Syrian army forces backed by Russian warplanes continue to gain ground in the Arab country.

BBC correspondent Frank Gardner tweeted that a Saudi official confirmed the delivery of 500 TOW antitank missiles to the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA). The delivery of the TOW missiles — which have also been provided by the CIA — will allegedly increase the capabilities of the militants. TOW missiles, as Popular Mechanics notes, are guided missiles that could thoroughly damage tanks, armored carriers, and other vehicles. And, unlike other projectiles used against armored targets, such as RPGs, TOW





missiles can be used from a considerable distance.Then one month later in mid November, the Al-Nusra Front Takfiri terrorists posted a video on the Internet to thank the so-called moderate terrorist group, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), for supplying them with the US-made anti-tank TOW missiles.

The video shows an Al-Nusra Front field commander thanking the FSA commanders for giving his forces TOW missiles. For several months, the Al-Nusra Front and the FSA have colluded together at almost every single battle in Aleppo, Lattakia, Hama, and Idlib Governorates of Syria and they formed an alliance of the militant groups known as Jeish al-Fath (Army of Conquest).Thru Jeish Al-Fath, several militant groups like Al-Nusra Front and the Ahrar al-Sham movement have been given access to FSA's US-made heavy weaponries that have been supplied to the militant group by the US, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.The Al-Nusra Front and the Free Syrian Army are very close to each other as they coordinate on the battlefield and share the same trenches; they even share control over the villages they capture together. The Russian fighter jets' continued operations against the terrorist positions across the coastal province of Lattakia in November led to the killing of Basel Zimmo (Abu Hamza) a senior commander known as the King of US TOW antitank missiles along with 40 other militants in an airstrike. The Russian warplanes targeted the hideout of the militant commanders in Jabal al-Akrad area by several missiles, in which at least 40 terrorists were killed and many others were injured. Abu Hamza, a defected captain and Chief of Staff of Coastal Division, was trained by the US forces in Turkey to operate the US-made antitank missiles against the government forces in Syria.Zimmo targeted many army tanks in Syria by TOW missiles and trained many militants to work with the TOW missiles.

Dec 08, 2015 Iranian Army Readying to Stage Anti-ISIL DrillsTEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Ground Force Commander Brigadier General

Ahmad Reza Pourdastan announced on Tuesday that his forces are slated to conduct military exercises in the capital, Tehran, to show their preparedness for confrontation against any possible threat by the ISIL terrorist group. "The Ground Force will conduct counterterrorism drills on (combat against) the threat of ISIL near the city of Tehran in the coming days," General Pourdastan told reporters today.

He pointed to the importance of boosting the country's defense capabilities, and said, "We will use any weapon except nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons to defend our country," General Pourdastan said. The Iranian Ground Force commander reiterated that any potential threat against Iran will receive crushing response.General Pourdastan also pointed to military cooperation between Iran and Russia, and said, "The Russian military experts will travel to Iran in the future and our experts will also visit Russia." He said that Iran and Russia have a contract on S-300 air defense system, adding that "purchase of Russia's T-90 tanks is also on Tehran's agenda".On November 22, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari announced that Iranian forces have several times defused attempts by the ISIL terrorist group to stir insecurity in the country."The ISIL has long wanted to stoke insecurity in Iran but it has failed," General Jafari told





reporters in Tehran. He underlined the IRGC and other security and intelligence forces' superiority over the terrorists, and said, "These groups have different logistical networks and recently one of them was dismantled and other groups are also being fully monitored and will come under raid in due time."On November 21, officials in Tehran announced that security and intelligence forces have traced and dismantled two terrorist groups in Iran's bordering provinces in the Southeast and Northwest. "Following a series of intelligence operations by security forces in cooperation with the brave people settling along the country's Eastern borders, a team of terrorists were dismantled in the Southeastern Sistan and Balouchestan province," Iran's deputy intelligence minister for domestic security said.The deputy minister, who was speaking to the state-run TV, indicated that the terrorists have been sent to the country by the US and certain regional reactionary states, and said they had "10 ready-to-blast bombing devices made of 150kg of explosive materials" and "intended to disrupt security along the roads in the bordering region between Rask and Iranshahr" in Sistan and Balouchestan province.He also said that the intelligence ministry traced and dismantled another terrorist cell in the Northwestern province of West Azarbaijan, adding that the terrorists were affiliated to "anti-revolutionary groups and infiltrated the country to stage terror and sabotage operations". The official explained that the terrorists had also staged terror attacks on the lives of teachers and government employees.Iranian Intelligence Minister Seyed Mahmoud Alavi disclosed on November 17 that the country's intelligence and security bodies had cracked down on 10 ISIL cells who were preparing to wage a wave of terrorist attacks across the country last month.

"The ISIL is a protégé of the US and Israel," Alavi said, and added, "Thanks to its vigilance and full intelligence superiority, the Islamic Republic of Iran has blocked any move by them in such a way that more than 10 terrorist cells were discovered and dismantled in the (lunar) month of Moharram (October 15-November 12)."The intelligence minister, who was addressing Muslim scholars in the Western Kurdistan province, reiterated that the present security is the result of cooperation of security, intelligence, military bodies (Army and IRGC) and the judiciary, and said, "Many of the enemies' plots have been defused in cooperation with people." Moharram is the first month of the year on the lunar calendar and marks worldwide Shiite mournings on the martyrdom anniversary of their third Imam and grandson of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), Imam Hossein Ibn Ali (AS). A day later on November 18, the IRGC also declared in a statement that it had seized a substantial stockpile of weaponry and military equipment following a raid in the Western province of Kermanshah, dismantling a terrorist group during the raid. The public relations office of Kermanshah province's Nabi Akram Corps announced in the statement that the IRGC and security forces' intelligence and efforts resulted in capturing members of a terrorist team in the province's bordering areas."During the operations to disband the terrorist team, some military equipment was also seized," the statement added. Iraq's Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari informed earlier that his country had alerted Iran, France and the US of imminent terrorist attacks by ISIL in these countries before the Paris blasts and shootings took place.

Dec 14, TEHRAN (FNA)- The Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission in a statement on Monday condemned the "barbaric" massacre of the oppressed Shiites of Nigeria in Zaria city, Kaduna State.





Regards Cees ***

In the many strategies proposed to defeat the Islamic State (IS) by presidential candidates, policymakers, and media pundits alike across the American political spectrum, one common element stands out: someone else should really do it. The United States will send in planes, advisers, and special ops guys, but it would be best — and this varies depending on which pseudo-strategist you cite — if the Arabs, Kurds, Turks, Sunnis, and/or Shias would please step in soon and get America off the hook. The idea of seeing other-than-American boots on the ground, like Washington’s recently deep-sixed scheme to create some “moderate” Syrian rebels out of whole cloth, is attractive on paper. Let someone else fight America’s wars for American goals. Put an Arab face on the conflict, or if not that at least a Kurdish one (since, though they may not be Arabs, they’re close enough in an American calculus). Let the U.S. focus on its “bloodless” use of air power and covert ops. Somebody else, Washington’s top brains repeatedly suggest, should put their feet on the embattled, contested ground of Syria and Iraq. Why, the U.S. might even gift them with nice, new boots as a thank-you. Is this, however, a realistic strategy for winning America’s war(s) in the Middle East?

"What is our strategy to get Sunnis in Iraq to be willing to fight [IS]?" asked the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. "What is the concrete, clear plan to make that happen?"

"This is where we have a problem: The Iraqi government has authorized many more Shia than Sunni [units], Carter said. "We need them to authorize more Sunni [units] and we are prepared to train them." "So we find alternatives; we find people who will act, if the people that we're dealing with are not capable of that," "Because we have to act. And we will find such forces that are capable."- Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

The war in Syria and Iraq is not going to go away. And it probably won’t be solved by the “big powers” posturing about in conference halls. There are tens of thousands of ISIS fighters. They rule over a territory with an estimated population of up to 10 million. The same way that Sunni ISIS cannot hold Kurdish and Shia territory, the Sunni lands that ISIS control will not accept Shia government from Damascus or from Baghdad, and submission to leaders like Assad, or indeed Malaki, both of whom have dropped cluster munitions on Sunni civilian populations and, in the case of Assad, much, much worse.

If bombs alone could erase the Islamic State group, it would never have existed. Yet the ideology they were intended to vaporize endures.




al-qaida chief ayman al-zawahiri the coordinator 2015 part 19-71-caliphate-sunni-shia-14

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