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More than 3,000 U.S. military personnel have secretly returned to Iraq via Kuwait and 17,000 more are on their way in response to the civil war in Syria that has spilled over into northern Iraq, according to a report published Monday by Iran's Press TV. The news follows by four days a report from the Russian news service RT that the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower has joined the USS Iwo Jima off the coast of Syria. Both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week issued stern warnings to Syria about unspecified but serious "consequences" that would follow if...

Parallels: A mission was attacked after warnings, Americans were killed after security requests were denied, and a diplomat went on TV to explain it all — our current U.N. ambassador, after embassy bombings in 1998. 'What troubles me so much is the Benghazi attack in many ways echoes the attacks on both embassies in 1998, when Susan Rice was head of the African region for our State Department," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Wednesday after two hours with our U.N. ambassador. "In both cases, the ambassador begged for additional security." In both cases, Susan Rice was involved more than she...

It has become accepted to use the term al Qaeda when referring to any violent Islamic grouping that appears to have a broader organizational connection. To refine that definition there has been added the recognition of at least three so-called "franchises" with a national or regional orientation: al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). All have an outreach beyond their immediate geographical area. The mistake that is made, however, is to characterize al Qaeda as the overall operational director of the movement.The theoretical central control organization, al...

The U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, actually served as a meeting place to coordinate aid for the rebel-led insurgencies in the Middle East, according to Middle Eastern security officials. Among the tasks performed inside the building was collaborating with Arab countries on the recruitment of fighters – including jihadists – to target Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. The distinction may help explain why there was no major public security presence at what has been described as a “consulate.” Such a presence would draw attention to the shabby, nondescript building that was allegedly used for such sensitive purposes. [snip] The...

....Even before the attack on the U.S. compound, according to an Oct. 2, 2012 report in The Washington Post, the White House held a series of secret meetings that came out of a growing concern that "al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb" (AQIM) was gaining strength after it took control of the northern parts of the African state of Mali, where it created a new Afghan-like sanctuary. In the last year it has begun to spread its influence across the Sahara. AQIM's weaponry came from post-Gadhafi Libya, whose arsenal was boosting the arms trade from Morocco to Sinai. Israeli sources have...

This thread is to consolidate all information on the Benghazi fiasco.

The revolutions that swept the Middle East and North Africa also emptied prisons of militants, a problem now emerging as a potential new terrorist threat. Fighters linked to one freed militant, Muhammad Jamal Abu Ahmad, took part in the Sept. 11 attack on U.S. diplomatic outposts in Libya that killed four Americans, U.S. officials believe based on initial reports. Intelligence reports suggest that some of the attackers trained at camps he established in the Libyan Desert, a former U.S. official said. Western officials say Mr. Ahmad has petitioned the chief of Al Qaeda, to whom he has long ties, for...

Suspicion in last week's attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans has focused on members of a hardcore Islamist militia known for its sympathies to al-Qaida, its fierce animosity to the U.S. and its intimidation of other Muslims who don't conform to its harsh ideology. That doesn't mean Libyan authorities will move against Ansar al-Shariah soon. The group is among the most powerful of the many, heavily armed militias that the government relies on to keep security in Benghazi. In fact, it guards one of Benghazi's main hospitals. Libya's militias are a legacy of last...

Hopes that deaths of four US diplomats won't be the last The United States is positioning military forces so that it can respond to unrest in as many as 17 or 18 places in the Islamic world, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced late Friday. "We have to be prepared in the event that these demonstrations get out of control,” he said. Those words dashed hopes in Washington that the anti-US Islamist rampage by now sweeping 21 countries over a video deriding Islam had passed their peak. In fact, by their sixth day Saturday, Sept. 15,the street protests against American embassies...

The Brigades of the Imprisoned Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, which claimed the June 6, 2012, bombing of the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, released a video of what it says is the attack. In a communiqué posted on jihadist forums on June 11, the group reported that its fighters planted an explosive in the wall of the consulate, the blasting of which injured a number of guards. It added that the attack came in response to the drone strike on al-Qaeda official Abu Yahya al-Libi in North Waziristan, and also in response to American drones flying in Libyan skies.

Full title: Judicial Watch Obtains ‘4 to 5 inch Stack’ of ‘Overlooked’ CIA Records Detailing Meetings with bin Laden Filmmakers Obama Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications: Obama White House ‘trying to have visibility into the UBL (Usama bin Laden) projects.’ (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained records from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Department of Defense (DOD) regarding meetings and communications between government agencies and Kathryn Bigelow, the Academy Award-winning director of The Hurt Locker, and screenwriter Mark Boal in preparation for their film Zero Dark Thirty, which details the capture...

"We need answers on this. Not defensive BS. Real answers." In email exchanges with subordinates in February and March 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder and the department's second-highest official expressed growing concern that something might have gone wrong in a federal gun-smuggling probe called Operation Fast and Furious. Two of Holder's emails and one by Deputy Attorney General James Cole were among documents the Justice Department showed Tuesday to Republican and Democratic staffers of the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee in an effort to ward off a criminal contempt vote against the attorney general. The full contents of the...

Al Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate has released a new English-language training manual that offers American would-be jihadis details on what to expect when they join al Qaeda, but recommends that they consider staying home and "attacking America in its own backyard." Written by U.S.-raised al Qaeda propagandist Samir Khan, who was killed in a 2011 drone strike, "Expectations Full" tells Western recruits what hardships they can expect to encounter when they arrive at training camps in Yemen and other Muslim countries, from physical training and outdoor living to dealing with wounds.

The CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, The Associated Press has learned.

Mohamed al Zawahiri and seven others were cleared of terrorism charges by an Egyptian military court, according to Reuters. Zawahiri is the brother of Al Qaeda's current leader, Ayman al Zawahiri, who acted as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man for years before bin Laden's death. The court overturned an earlier conviction of Zawahiri and the others based on charges of "committing terrorist crimes, harming national security, and planning to overthrow the state," lawyer Mamdouh Ismail told Reuters. The case was 14 years old, and also involved another prominent person, Mohamed al Islambouli, the brother of Khalid al Islambouli, the man...

Osama Bin Laden's deputy led U.S. troops to the Al Qaeda leader's hideout so he could take over the terrorist group, it was claimed today. Egyptian Ayman Al Zawahiri, who has been touted widely as the man who will succeed Bin Laden as the head of Al Qaeda, turned his back on his terrorist leader following a prolonged power struggle, according to a Saudi newspaper. The plot to get rid of Bin Laden began when Zawahiri’s faction persuaded bin Laden to leave the protection of the tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Al Qaeda's Egyptian faction then hatched a plan...

Warren Weinstein, pictured above, is a 70-year-old Jewish American and former USAID worker who was kidnapped from his bed late August in Pakistan. Now, a newly released audio message from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri claims responsibility for Weinstein’s disappearance and says the militant Islamist group is holding the man hostage. This supports a U.S. official’s claim that ”it’s entirely possible that al Qaeda or one of its militant allies may be holding Mr. Weinstein.” In the 30-minute long statement, which is reportedly circulating on jihadi-websites, al-Zawahiri states: “I tell the captive soldiers of al Qaeda and the Taliban and...

Our treacherous regime at work. This is one of scores of subversive and dangerous appointments by an adminstration at war with America. Taliban Defense Attorney now No. 3 at Obama DOJ In a scary development, a major Obama fundraiser who defended a convicted al Qaeda terrorist will become the third highest ranking official at the Department of Justice (DOJ), which, ironically, is charged with defending the interests of the United States. Northern California lawyer Tony West has been named Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, making him the No. 3 guy at the agency. In 2009 West, who helped...

Egypt arrested on Wednesday senior al-Qaeda operative, Seif al-Adel, at Cairo airport. Security officials and state television reported the arrest, but they did not say why the Egyptian militant flew to Cairo. Adel was reported to have briefly taken over the militant network's leadership after Osama bin Laden's death. He is also on the FBI's most wanted list with a reward of up to $5 million dollars for his capture. An airport official said Seif al-Adel, also known as Muhamad Ibrahim Makkawi and Ibrahim Madani, arrived on an Emirates flight from Pakistan with a stop over in Dubai. Security officials...

The Philippine military says it has killed three senior militants from al-Qaeda-linked groups in a raid in the south of the country. The air raid took place on Thursday in an area known as a militant stronghold. Officials said two Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leaders and one Abu Sayyaf leader were among a total of 15 people killed. Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, or Marwan, who was on the US FBI's most wanted list with a $5m (£3.2m) reward offered for his capture, was reported killed. According to the military, the militants were killed in the town of Parang on Jolo island,...