Posted on 03/26/2005 11:50:08 AM PST by quidnunc
In light of this issue's report on the Idarat al-Tawahhush and its view on the secondary importance of Afghanistan in al-Qaeda's global struggle, a further window into al-Qaeda's strategic thinking is provided by a Jordanian analyst Bassam al-Baddarin. Writing on March 11 for the Arabic language daily al-Quds al-Arabi, his article ‘Al-Qaeda has drawn up working strategy lasting until 2020,' puts together from the assorted writings of al-Qaeda's ‘strategic brain' Muhammad Makkawi, what appears to be a coherent long-term strategy. It seeks to explain the series of events since September 11 2001, the events in Afghanistan and Iraq, and potentially beyond.
The subject of al-Baddarin's study, Muhammad Ibrahim Makkawi, is better known as Sayf al-Adel. He was a colonel in Egyptian Special Forces before joining with the mujahideen in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet invasion. At the 1998 foundation of World Islamic Front against Crusaders and Jews (the full, official title for al-Qaeda), Sayf al-Adel was granted a pivotal role in military training, and subsequently headed the military wing, succeeding Abu Hafs al-Masri to become number three in al-Qaeda after Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri. In 2003, Iran at one point offered to extradite Sayf al-Adel, whom it claimed to have under arrest, in exchange for Mujahideen-e Khalq Organization leaders, but Washington rejected the offer.
The theory:
Al-Baddarin identifies from Sayf al-Adel's writings a core thesis explaining events — a regional war against the Americans. It aims at opening the jihadist triangle of terror, beginning with Afghanistan, passing though Iran and southern Iraq, and ending with southern Turkey, southern Lebanon and Syria. The first, achieved, step in this strategy was to regionalize the struggle with the United States. …
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at jamestown.org ...
bttt
"but that this would play into their hands by provoking another giant — the Islamic Nation — and forcing it to wake up from its slumbers. In what appears a parallel with Abu Bakr Naji's theory in "The Management of Barbarism," al-Baddarin sees in al-Qaeda's writings on the web a fore-knowledge of the course of events, that in a pre-prepared program "
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Hmm.. and where is that "Islamic Nation" now? Voting in Iraq, disarming in Libya, stopping AQ Khan's proliferation, amending Constitutions in Egypt, discussing the women's vote in SA, and overthrowing Syria in Lebanon. Yup, all according to the master plan.
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"it sacrificed the Taleban Movement and transferred a large number of its fighting strength outside Afghanistan, to Iran and Iraq."
Doesn't that go with where do you want to fight Islamic terror, in US or in Iraq? Thanks Osama.
A sizable portion of the Islamic Nation's strength has been transfered to the whorehouse heaven of the Islamic religion.
"Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale."
These were not really worthy of the title "strategists," they were muddled bullies with more weapons and money than was good for them who assumed that because nobody had hit them back so far that nobody ever would. They're terrorists who emerged from the shadows and got their butts handed to them. Now they're shrieking threats from the shadows again but they're not convincing as mighty warriors anymore, they're obvious losers who can do nothing more than threaten from the shadows and murder the weak and unwary.
They wanted a war. They got one. Now they're whimpering for a do-over. Sorry, chums, the world has changed and it's a lot less friendly now.
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