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CdW Intelligence to Rent -2016- In Confidence [email protected]

Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2016 Part 19-138-Caliphate-The State of al-Qaida-54- inghimasiya-3

Lately introduced new term, very old story: “inghimasiya,” Arabic for suicide fighting attacks inghimasi” (suicide fighter) and "istishhadi” (martyr). Ishtihadi op [istishhadi - martyrdom operation, ie. a suicide attack "take your Istishhadi [suicide] vest; Koran: Becoming A Martyr The act of suicide goes against Islam, but martyrdom as an act of war, does not.

“God gave me life in order to transform you into bombs.”- Abdullah Azzam

Quran (4:74) – “Let those fight in the way of Allah who sell the life of this world for the other. Whoso fighteth in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward.” (This is the basis for today’s suicide bombers.)

Feb 11 , Captured French munitions have given the Nigeria terror group affiliated with ISIS a potent new weapon.WARRI, Nigeria — Scores of bodies with bullet wounds and charred corpses littered the streets after a recent Boko Haram attack on Dalori village and two nearby camps housing 25,000 refugees, just 5 kilometers from the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.The shooting by heavily armed jihadists, and the firebombing of huts and children, had taken a toll before the military intervened effectively. By then, people had fled to the neighboring village of Gamori. And there, three female suicide bombers blew up among them. Altogether, between shooting, burning, and the blasts, at least 86 people were killed.“The sound of the bombs was so loud and their impact was so heavy that it affected people about 400 meters away,” Yusuf Mohammed, a member of the government-backed Civilian JTF vigilante group, told The Daily Beast. “These weren’t just simple bombs.”No, very probably they were not. Boko Haram’s recent deadly attacks have employed the explosives from French-made cluster bombs the group appears to have seized from government arsenals. More precisely, they use the “bomblets” that air-dropped cluster bombs disperse on tiny parachutes, a type of munition used to kill people in a wide area and, in this era of much-talked-about “smart bombs,” one of the dumbest and most indiscriminate anti-personnel weapons available.A Nigerian security official told The Daily Beast privately that the jihadists have adapted these French-made munitions for the suicide bombs used in recent attacks, especially in far north Cameroon. They have enormous explosive power, but weigh less than a newborn baby, so they are easy for young girls to carry

Feb 9 Marine Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the Islamic State will probably conduct additional attacks in Europe and then attempt the same in the U.S. He said U.S. intelligence agencies believe IS leaders will be "increasingly

“Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster”― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

CdW Intelligence to Rent of 9 01/05/2023

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involved in directing attacks rather than just encouraging lone attackers."Clapper also said al-Qaida, from which the Islamic State spun off, remains an

enemy and the U.S. In testimony before congressional committees, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and other officials described the Islamic State as the "pre-eminent terrorist threat." The militant group can "direct and inspire attacks against a wide range of targets around the world," Clapper said.

Feb 11, ISTANBUL - The Turkish military detained 34 people and seized up to 15 kg of explosives and four suicide-bomber vests as they tried to enter Turkey from Syria, Turkish media reported the army as saying on Wednesday. The private Dogan news agency and other media outlets said the group, consisting of four men, 10 women and 20 children, was detained on Tuesday night in the Oguzeli district of southeastern Gaziantep province, across the border from an area controlled by Islamic State militants

The Islamic State West Africa (ISWA), which is formerly known as Boko Haram, has exploited more than 100 women and girls as suicide bombers since June 2014, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal. The majority of these suicide bombings have occurred in Nigeria, however, the violence has spread to other countries. Despite a coordinated military offensive by Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon – which has targeted ISWA strongholds in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region – the jihadist group has maintained the ability to launch coordinated attacks and assaults throughout the region. Many of these include the use of women and/or girls as suicide bombers.

Feb 11, The African Union (AU) says the al-Qaeda-linked armed group, al-Shabab, is planning attacks in Somalia using AU troop uniforms as disguises. The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) said the uniforms were stolen by al-Shabab fighters from military camps belonging to the 22,000-strong UN-mandated mission."AMISOM has information that due to panic [al-Shabab] have plans to masquerade as AMISOM and dress in AMISOM troop's uniforms," AMISOM said in a statement on its Twitter account. "These uniforms were accessed from AMISOM camps in the past and disguised as such, AS [al-Shabab] are organising to carry out atrocities. Planned atrocities are in areas generally controlled by FGS & AMISOM in order to turn the people against AMISOM by depicting it as the enemy," AMISOM said.

Feb 9 For the first time, the Islamic State (IS, former ISIS, ISIL) has targeted France’s right-wing National Front (FN) party and its supporters in a statement on the pages of its French-language propaganda magazine. In the latest issue of Dar al Islam, the jihadists published a photo of an FN rally with the caption “prime targets.”“The question is no longer whether France will be hit again by attacks like those of November… The only relevant question is the next target and the date,” the text read, as cited by Le Figaro. A photo of an FN rally with the accompanying quote was tweeted by Romain Caillet, an Islamist expert and historian of global jihadist movements.

Feb 11, Suicide bombers “affiliated” with Nayf Salam Muhammad Ujaym al Hababi, a senior al Qaeda leader based in Afghanistan have been “tasked to attack Afghan bases and Coalition convoys in Afghanistan” since 2012. In early 2013, Hababi “and his battalion intended to take control of Kunar Province, Afghanistan and establish a base to launch external operations on behalf of al Qaeda.”As of 2015, he has been the “emir for the Eastern Zone of Afghanistan” and, in that





capacity, has been “responsible for finding a new sanctuary for al Qaeda.” In his “key leadership role,” Hababi “is responsible for planning attacks

against US and Coalition forces in Afghanistan, contributing to al Qaeda’s external operations planning, and fundraising on al Qaeda’s behalf.” External operations means terrorist plots in the West or against Western interests.Indeed, “Hababi planned to carry out attacks in the West, including in the United States and other Western countries” as “revenge for the deaths of senior al Qaeda leaders.” He has been “consulting on al Qaeda operations worldwide” since 2011.

DEBKAfile February 10, 2016, More than 65 people were killed and over 100 were injured when two car bombs exploded in northern Nigeria on Wednesday. More than 10 people were killed and dozens were wounded in northern Cameroon on Wednesday morning when two people wearing suicide vests blew themselves up during a funeral in the area of Nguetchewe near the Nigerian border.

Feb 9, A car bomb struck close to a market and a police club in the north of the Syrian capital Damascus on Tuesday, causing casualties, state media reported. SANA news agency said at least three people were killed and 14 injured in a "terrorist car bomb" attack near a vegetable market in Masaken Barzeh district. "The attack also caused material damage to the nearby building of the General Establishment for Mills," it added. State TV said the blast occurred near a police officers' club, inflicting casualties. The club and the market are next to one another.Syrian TV, quoting a source in the interior ministry, reported that a car had tried to ram into the police officers' club in the area, but was stopped by guards. "A suicide bomber then detonated his explosives, causing deaths and injuries," the TV report added, citing the source, without giving further details on the toll. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least eight people were killed and 20 wounded in the attack.Car bombs have been used regularly in Syria's conflict. While the capital has been largely spared, a multiple bomb attack near the Sayyida Zeinab shrine outside the city killed at least 71 people last month.

WASHINGTON – Feb 9 Islamic State is likely to "increase the pace and lethality" of its transnational attacks, US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Vincent Stewart said on Monday. Speaking to a security conference, Stewart linked his warning to the extremist movement's establishment of "emerging branches" in Mali, Tunisia, Somalia, Bangladesh and Indonesia. "And it wouldn't surprise me to see them further extend" operations from the Sinai Peninsula deeper into Egypt, he said.

Congress gets first-hand account of war against ISFeb 9, US lawmakers will get a firsthand account of the war in Syria this week as President Barack Obama's envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition briefs them on his recent trip there. Brett McGurk will discuss "the way forward in Syria and Iraq" in a closed session of the Senate Foreign Relations panel on Feb. 9, his first visit to Congress since returning from a short visit to Kobani and other areas in northern Syria. He is scheduled to talk to the House Foreign Affairs Committee in an open hearing Feb. 10, with an added focus on IS expansion to Libya and beyond.IS is also expected to be a key focus when CIA Director James Clapper and Defense Intelligence Agency chief Vincent Stewart testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on "worldwide threats" Feb. 9. And the House Foreign Affairs panel on





terrorism holds a hearing Feb. 10 on "the future of IS-inspired attacks."

ISIS is conducting online bomb-making tutorials for impressionable youths in Mumbai, it has been emerged.Captured terrorist suspects have reportedly made the admission during interrogations in India, indicating the militants are stepping up efforts to recruit potential suicide bombers from the country.ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is said to be personally conducting training sessions for young men and women in India using Skype and other private messenger services, Zee News reported. Mumbai 31 Jan : Some shocking claims have been made by ISIS terror suspects during interrogation by Mumbai's Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) officials. According to Mumbai ATS, the ISIS terror suspects nabbed by them have revealed that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been conducting training for Mumbai youths to make them suicide bombers. Baghdadi conduct these classes online through video conferencing. Baghdadi and his other terror accomplice use Skype and other video calling softwares to conduct training for youths in Mumbai and other regions of India about how to become suicide bomber.Also, Mumbai ATS has said that these classes are being attended by females as well. Head of Iraq's Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri said the leader of the ISIL terrorist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is now hiding in Iraq.

"Al-Baghdadi is in Iraq," Ameri said on Jan 27, Earlier reports said in November that al-Baghdadi had moved from the Syrian city of Albu Kamal to the Iraqi city of Mosul in Nineveh province. Later reports in December said he had moved to the Libyan town of Sirte after he was wounded in an Iraqi airstrike. "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as moved from Turkey to Libya to escape the hunt operation of the Baghdad Intelligence Sharing Center





after he was traced down and allegedly targeted a number of times in Iraq and the Syria," sources said on December 8. While reports earlier this year said

the ISIL leader was always on the move between Iraq's Mosul and Syria's Raqqa - the self-proclaimed capital of the terrorist group - tips and intel revealed in November that Al-Baghdadi had moved from the Syrian city of Albu Kamal to the Iraqi city of Mosul in Nineveh province. Then in October, Iraq's air force bombed his convoy as he was heading to Al-Karable to attend a meeting with ISIL commanders. 25 other ISIL militants were killed in the special operation that was the product of the Baghdad Intelligence Sharing Center where the latest intel arrives from Iranian, Russian, Iraqi and Syrian spy agencies round the clock. The notorious terrorist leader escaped the attempt on his life narrowly, but with fatal injuries. Few hours after the assault, the spokesman of Iraq's joint forces declared that Al-Baghdadi was injured in the Iraqi airstrike on his convoy and was taken away from the scene by his forces. The terrorist leader was first transferred to Raqqa, where surgeons saved his life but failed to give him a thorough treatment due to a lack of specialized medical equipment. Sources disclosed a few days later that the ISIL leader had been taken to Turkey for treatment through a series of coordination measures by the CIA. "The CIA has done the coordination with the Turkish intelligence service (MIT) for transferring al-Baghdadi to Turkey," the Arabic-language al-Manar TV quoted unnamed sources as saying. Al-Baghdad has, thus far, escaped several attempt on his life, making him suspicious of his team of bodyguards. "While everyone is looking for him in Iraq and Syria, no one expects him to be in Sirte," the Libyan source said, adding, "If he is to be exposed to danger, Sirte would be the last place on Earth for his life to be endangered as it is the safest Takfiri stronghold in the world."

AQAP publishes insider’s account of 9/11 plotBY THOMAS JOSCELYN | February 10, 2016 Sometime before his death in a US drone strike in June 2015, Nasir al Wuhayshi recorded an insider’s account of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. As the aide-de-camp to Osama bin Laden prior to the hijackings, Wuhayshi was well-placed to know such details. And al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which Wuhayshi led until his demise, has now published a version of his “untold story.”A transcript of Wuhayshi’s discussion of the 9/11 plot was included in two editions of AQAP’s Al Masra newsletter. The first part was posted online on Jan. 31 and the second on Feb. 9. The summary below is based on the first half of Wuhayshi’s account.Wuhayshi began by explaining al Qaeda’s rationale for attacking America. Prior to 9/11, the jihadists’ cause was not supported by the Muslim people, because the mujahideen’s “goals” were not widely understood. The jihadists were divided into many groups and fought “tit-for-tat” conflicts “with the tyrants.” (The “tyrants” were the dictators who ruled over many Muslim-majority countries.)While the mujahideen had some successes, according to Wuhayshi, they were “besieged” by the tyrants until they found some breathing room in Afghanistan. The “sheikhs” studied this situation in meetings held in Kabul and Kandahar, because they wanted to understand why the jihadists were not victorious. And bin Laden concluded they should fight “the more manifest infidel enemy rather than the crueler infidel enemy,” according to a translation obtained by The Long War Journal. Wuhayshi explained that the former was the “Crusader-Zionist movement” and the latter were the “apostates” ruling over Muslims.While waging war against the “apostate” rulers was not likely to engender widespread support, no “two people” would “disagree” with the necessity of fighting “the Jews and





Christians.” If you fight the “apostate governments in your land,” Wuhayshi elaborated, then everyone – the Muslim people, Islamic movements, and even

jihadists – would be against you because they all have their own “priorities.” Divisions within the jihadists’ ranks only exacerbated the crisis, as even the mujahideen in their home countries could refuse to fight.Wuhayshi then cited Abu Muhammad al Maqdisi, a prominent pro-al Qaeda ideologue, who warned that the “capability” to wage “combat” in Muslim-majority countries did “not yet exist.” So, for instance, if al Qaeda launched a “jihad against the House of Saud,” then “many jihadist movements” would oppose this decision. Al Qaeda’s fellow travelers would protest that they were “incapable” of defeating the Saudi government. And these jihadists would complain they did not want to “wage the battle prematurely,” or become entangled “in a difficult situation.”For these reasons and more, according to Wuhayshi, bin Laden decided to “battle the more manifest enemy,” because “the people” would agree that the US “is an enemy” and this approach would not sow “discord and suspicion among the people.” Bin Laden believed that the “Islamic movement” would stand with al Qaeda “against the infidels.”Wuhayshi’s explanation of bin Laden’s reasoning confirms that attacking the US was not al Qaeda’s end goal. It was a tactic, or a step, that bin Laden believed could unite the jihadists behind a common purpose and garner more popular support from “the people.”Not all jihadists agreed with bin Laden’s strategy. In February 1998, bin Laden launched a “Global Islamic Front for Waging Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders.” Wuhayshi claimed that a “majority of the groups agreed to” the initiative, but some, like the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), opposed it. (However, some senior LIFG members were folded into al Qaeda.)Gamaa Islamiya (IG), an Egyptian group, initially agreed to join the venture, but ultimately rejected it. As did other groups in the Arab Magreb, according to Wuhayshi. (Some senior IG leaders remained close to al Qaeda and eventually joined the organization.) Although Wuhayshi claimed that a “majority” of jihadist organizations agreed with bin Laden’s proposal, only three ideologues joined bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri in signing the front’s infamous first fatwa.In August 1998, just months after the “Global Islamic Front” was established, al Qaeda struck the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. According to Wuhayshi, bin Laden held a series of meetings around this time, as he sought to convince as many people as possible that attacking America was the right course. Some jihadists objected, believing it would ensnare them in a trap. But bin Laden pressed forward, telling those who didn’t agree that they wanted to fight “lackeys” without confronting “the father of the lackeys.” Al Qaeda’s path “will lead to a welcome conclusion,” Wuhayshi quoted bin Laden as saying.The “initiative against the Crusaders continued” after the US Embassy bombings, Wuhayshi said, and the number of people who supported it increased “dramatically.” During this period, the “Global Islamic Front” launched operations against the “Crusaders” on the ground and at sea, but the idea to strike “from the air with planes” had not yet been conceived.The origins of the 9/11 plot. Wuhayshi traced the genesis of the 9/11 plot to both Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), who would come to be known as the “mastermind” of the operation.But he also credited Abdullah Azzam for popularizing the concept of martyrdom in the first place. Azzam was killed in 1989, but is still revered as the godfather of modern jihadism. After the mujahideen had defeated the Soviets in Afghanistan, they considered “hitting the Americans,” Wuhayshi claimed. Azzam “spoke harshly about the Western





military camp.” Azzam also “introduced” the jihadists to a “new tactic.” Wuhayshi recommended that people listen to Azzam’s “final speech,” in

which he reportedly said: “God gave me life in order to transform you into bombs.”Years later, on Oct. 31, 1999, bin Laden watched as the co-pilot of EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed the jet into the Atlantic Ocean, killing more than 200 people on board. Bin Laden, according to Wuhayshi, wondered why the co-pilot didn’t fly the plane into buildings. After this, Wuhayshi claimed, the basic idea for 9/11 had been planted in bin Laden’s mind.In reality, the EgyptAir crash came after the outline of the 9/11 plot had been already sketched. For instance, the 9/11 Commission found that KSM “presented a proposal for an operation that would involve training pilots who would crash planes into buildings in the United States” as early as 1996. “This proposal eventually would become the 9/11 operation.” In March or April 1999, according to the Commission’s final report, bin Laden “summoned KSM to Kandahar…to tell him that al Qaeda would support his proposal,” which was referred to as the “planes operation.” Indeed, Wuhayshi recounted how KSM and his nephew, Ramzi Yousef, plotted to attack multiple airliners in the mid-1990s. In the so-called Bojinka plot, KSM and Yousef even conceived a plan to blow up as many as one dozen airliners. Wuhayshi recalled how Yousef placed a bomb on board one jet as part of a test run. Their plot failed and Yousef was later captured in Pakistan. Yousef has been incarcerated for two decades after being convicted by an American court for his role in Bojinka and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Wuhayshi prayed for his release. Wuhayshi told a story that, if true, means KSM had dreamed of attacking the US since his youth. When he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait, KSM wrote a play in which a character “ponders how to down an American aircraft.” Wuhayshi claimed to have searched for this play online, but he and another “brother” failed to find it. Still, Wuhayshi insisted that KSM wrote the play, showing he was already thinking of ways to strike America as a young man. Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for The Long War Journal.

Major Investigation Reveals Disturbing Connection Between U.S. Intelligence and Al Qaeda Since 9/11All divs have been put onto one line because of whitespace issues when rendered inline in browsers Seasoned journalist Andrew Cockburn's major report in Harper's should have gotten a lot more attention than it did.By Sarah Lazare / AlterNet January 29, 2016Over the past year and a half, the United States and other military coalition members have launched nearly 10,000 strikes in Iraq and Syria. Zooming out, the United States military has spent nearly the entire 21st century engaged in an amorphous war on terrorism, in which the whole world is a potential battlefield, from Yemen to Somalia to the now-expanding war in Afghanistan. Lurking beneath the surface of the seemingly endless series of military campaigns is the contradictory U.S. historical legacy of direct support for some of the very extremist combatants the war on terror is allegedly predicated on fighting.A recent in-depth investigation published in Harper’s by journalist Andrew Cockburn finds that the U.S. is “teaming up with Al Qaeda, again," suggesting that this sinister legacy is alive and well and raising disturbing questions about the logic underlying over 15 years of continuous war. Cockburn is not the first to point out the United States' role in backing such forces, and some prominent voices are even openly calling for the U.S. to embrace Al Qaeda. But what his account does offer is a devastating illustration of the historical symmetries, from Afghanistan in the 1980s to Syria in the 21st century,





underlying what he calls the U.S. government’s “cold-blooded” calculations.Cockburn writes: In the wake of 9/11, the story of U.S. support for

militant Islamists against the Soviets became something of a touchy subject. Former CIA and intelligence officials like to suggest that the agency simply played the roles of financier and quartermaster. In this version of events, the dirty work — the actual management of the campaign and the dealings with rebel groups — was left to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). It was Pakistan’s fault that at least 70 percent of total U.S. aid went to the fundamentalists, even if the CIA demanded audited accounts on a regular basis.

Fast-forwarding to more recent history, Cockburn notes that U.S. officials have been eager to blame transgressions on allies: [I]n 2014, in a speech at Harvard, Vice President Joe Biden confirmed that we were arming extremists once again, although he was careful to pin the blame on America’s allies in the region, whom he denounced as “our largest problem in Syria.” In response to a student’s question, he volunteered that our allies “were so determined to take down Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens, thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad. Except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra and Al Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.”But Cockburn cites specific examples in which U.S. involvement was far more direct.In the spring and summer of last year, a coalition of Syrian rebel groups calling itself Jaish al-Fatah — the Army of Conquest — swept through the northwestern province of Idlib, posing a serious threat to the Assad regime. Leading the charge was Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch, known locally as Jabhat al-Nusra (the Nusra Front). The other major component of the coalition was Ahrar al-Sham, a group that had formed early in the anti-Assad uprising and looked for inspiration to none other than Abdullah Azzam. Following the victory, Nusra massacred twenty members of the Druze faith, considered heretical by fundamentalists, and forced the remaining Druze to convert to Sunni Islam. (The Christian population of the area had wisely fled.) Ahrar al-Sham meanwhile posted videos of the public floggings it administered to those caught skipping Friday prayers.This potent alliance of jihadi militias had been formed under the auspices of the rebellion’s major backers: Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar. But it also enjoyed the endorsement of two other major players. At the beginning of the year, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had ordered his followers to cooperate with other groups. In March, according to several sources, a U.S.-Turkish-Saudi “coordination room” in southern Turkey had also ordered the rebel groups it was supplying to cooperate with Jaish al-Fatah. The groups, in other words, would be embedded within the Al Qaeda coalition.A few months before the Idlib offensive, a member of one CIA-backed group had explained the true nature of its relationship to the Al Qaeda franchise. Nusra, he told the New York Times, allowed militias vetted by the United States to appear independent, so that they would continue to receive American supplies. When I asked a former White House official involved in Syria policy if this was not a de facto alliance, he put it this way: “I would not say that Al Qaeda is our ally, but a turnover of weapons is probably unavoidable. I’m fatalistic about that. It’s going to happen.”

And in another example, Cockburn writes: The determination of Turkey (a NATO ally) and Qatar (the host of the biggest American base in the Middle East) to support extreme jihadi groups became starkly evident in late 2013. On December 6, armed fighters from Ahrar al-Sham and other militias raided warehouses at Bab al-Hawa, on the Turkish border, and seized supplies belonging to the Free Syrian Army. As it happened, a meeting





of an international coordination group on Syria, the so-called London Eleven, was scheduled for the following week. Delegates from the United States,

Europe, and the Middle East were bent on issuing a stern condemnation of the offending jihadi group.The Turks and Qataris, however, adamantly refused to sign on. As one of the participants told me later, “All the countries in the room [understood] that Turkey’s opposition to listing Ahrar al-Sham was because they were providing support to them.” The Qatari representative insisted that it was counterproductive to condemn such groups as terrorist. If the other countries did so, he made clear, Qatar would stop cooperating on Syria. “Basically, they were saying that if you name terrorists, we’re going to pick up our ball and go home,” the source told me. The U.S. delegate said that the Islamic Front, an umbrella organization, would be welcome at the negotiating table — but Ahrar al-Sham, which happened to be its leading member, would not. The diplomats mulled over their communiqué, traded concessions, adjusted language. The final version contained no condemnation, or even mention, of Ahrar al-Sham.Cockburn’s piece underscores the seemingly obvious point that there is a contradiction between the U.S. government’s supposed war on terror and its backing of such forces.The Syrian war alone has killed nearly a quarter of a million people. According to a report released by the United Nations this summer, one out of every 122 people on the planet has been forcibly displaced by war and persecution. Meanwhile, many from within the region have argued that, in the wake of the Arab Spring, the U.S. and allies like Saudi Arabia played a profoundly counter-revolutionary force against grassroots movements seeking real, democratic alternatives to authoritarian regimes. In the past year and a half, ISIS has expanded to over 20 countries. The Global Terrorism Index, produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace, estimates that global terrorist incidents have significantly increased since the U.S. war on terror began.As Iraqi-American activist Dahlia Wasfi told AlterNet over the phone, "The people who live in these countries that the U.S. has determined will be the battlefield—those are the people who are suffering.” If the dealings Cockburn highlights in his report stem from well-thought-out and calculated policies, they are extremely dangerous. If they are merely the product of incoherence, we are already seeing who pays the price.




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