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"In August 1998, the detainee traveled to Pakistan with a member of Iraqi Intelligence for the purpose of blowing up the Pakistan, United States and British embassies with chemical mortars."  U.S. government "Summary of Evidence" for an Iraqi member of al Qaeda detained at Guantanamo Bay, CubaFOR MANY, the debate over the former Iraqi regime's ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network ended a year ago with the release of the 9/11 Commission report. Media outlets seized on a carefully worded summary that the commission had found no evidence "indicating that Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or...

A few weeks ago, the US Central Command announced that an air raid had killed an ISIS chemical weapon expert in Mosul. The ISIS operative, Iraqi engineer Mahmoud al-Sabawi, used to work at Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons program before he joined al-Qaeda in Iraq after the 2003 US led invasion. The idea that ISIS terrorists have access to chemical weapons brings back images of the genocide inflicted on the Kurds by Saddam Hussein in the late 1980’s. The Halabja Massacre killed up to 5,000 and injured between 7,000 and 10,000 more. If ISIS jihadists have a stash of chemical weapons,...

The Long War Journal: Al Douri forms nationalist Sunni coalition; 1920s Revolution Brigades denounces al Qaeda Written by Bill Roggio on October 4, 2007 11:34 AM to The Long War Journal Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/10/al_douri_forms_natio.php The Sunni insurgency continues to fracture as US and Iraqi forces are on the offensive in central and northern Iraq. Izzat Ibrahim al Douri, the most wanted Baathist and leader in the Sunni insurgency, has formed a new insurgent front which is willing to negotiate, while a faction of the 1920s Revolution Brigades openly denounced al Qaeda. A grouping of 22 Sunni insurgent groups have...

Image that accompanied Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's audiotape announcing the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. The flag was originally al Qaeda in Iraq's banner, but has been adopted by other al Qaeda affiliated and associated groups. Image from the SITE Intelligence Group. The emir of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), Abu Bakr al Baghdadi (also known as Abu Dua), has announced a new brand for his organization's efforts: the "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant." The new name replaces all previous brands used by al Qaeda's affiliates in Iraq and Syria, including the...

Fresh off Rachel Maddow's ludicrous claim that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was "not all that well known" until he was killed by the US military in 2006 and allegedly elevated in death beyond what he was in life, Time magazine published a special issue titled "The End of bin Laden." The cover of the magazine, which can be seen here, shows an illustration of bin Laden crossed out with a prominent red "X" -- as in, buh bye. Turns out this is only the fourth time in Time's history that the magazine has gone with the "X" cover. Prior to bin...

Former British PM Tony Blair testified in front of another Iraq inquiry today and for the second time this year he testified about the very real danger of Iran and al-Qaeda working together. Of course the storyline by the British papers, the biased MSM, and the lefty blogosphere, is regarding the regret offered by Blair over the loss of life: At the end of his evidence this afternoon he said it had never been his meaning. "Of course I regret deeply and profoundly the loss of life," I'm sure everyone else would cheer the loss of life huh? I...

SNIPPET: "Since 2006 Lopez Royo has also posted more than 1,500 entries in a restricted-access web forum in which he praised al-Qaeda and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi..." SNIPPET: "The Moroccan, Fath Allah Sadaq, is charged with using Lopez Royo's drawings to accompany Islamic terror attack videos he posted on the internet."

On October 15, the State Security Court of Jordan imposed jail sentences of 15 to 20 years on 12 alleged Jordanian members of al-Qaeda accused of attacks against a church in the Kingdom last year (Al-Ghad [Amman], October 16; Al-Rai [Amman], October 16). In a reaction similar to those seen in trials of Salafi-Jihadis, plot leader Shaker al-Khatib and the rest of the convicted group prostrated themselves, thanking Allah as a sign of defiance against the court (al-Jazeera, October 15). Al-Khatib and four others in the group, aged between 19 and 28, received the death penalty, but the court commuted...

Note: Photos included. A Jordanian Wedding Turns into a Massive Show of Support for Al-Qaeda; Al-Zarqawi's Circle Identified TO VIEW THIS CLIP AND OTHERS YOU MUST LOG IN/REGISTER FOR MEMRI TV, AT http://subscriptions.memri.org/content/en/member_registr_tv.htm. REGISTRATION IS FREE OF CHARGE. To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1988.htm.

AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordanian authorities on Wednesday released Jordanian Sheikh Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi, a leading al-Qaeda mentor, after several years imprisonment without trial, security sources said. They said Maqdisi, who was regarded as the spiritual mentor of slain al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been in solitary confinement since he was rearrested in July 2005 following his acquittal at a trial of al Qaeda sympathizers. "He was released," said one security source without elaborating on the circumstances of the release of Maqdisi. The militant Jihadi shared a cell block with Zarqawi for four years between 1995 and...

“I am a ring on your finger.” — Al Qaeda in Iraq member Abu Anas to Abu Musab Al ZarqawiSince Abu Musab Al Zarqawi formed the Al Qaeda in Iraq franchise, the terrorist group that destroyed the World Trade Center has fought American soldiers and what they call the near enemy, fellow Muslims, instead of civilians in the homeland of the far enemy, the United States. This may be good for Americans, but it has been a catastrophe for Iraqis – especially in Baghdad, Ramadi, and Fallujah. I had lunch with several Iraqi Police officers and spoke to them afterward...

Program/TIVO alert. This is an original showing on the History Channel International. I expect an explosive ending. (Just a hunch)Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Bumper sticker designs: "9/11 executed by Islamic terror group Al Qaeda." "Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi: leader of Al Qaeda operating freely in Iraq since 6/2002." "Saddam Hussein: up to 500 tons of WMD unaccounted for in Iraq in February, 2003." "Sargat: Al Zarqawi's Al Qaeda training camp in Iraq tested positive for ricin and botulinum on 4/4/2004." "Democratic majority leaders to let Al Qaeda have Iraq." "U.S. Flag: This is not the flag of a quitter." "Pacifism will turn us all into victims. Pacifists get conquered." "Pacifism gets U.S. blown up: Lusitania - 1915, Pearl Harbor - 1941, WTC -...

WASHINGTON — President Bush, trying to defend his war strategy, declassified intelligence Tuesday asserting that Usama bin Laden ordered a top lieutenant in early 2005 to form a terrorist cell that would conduct attacks outside Iraq — and that the United States should be the top target. Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser, said the intelligence bolsters the Bush administration's contention that Al Qaeda wants to use Iraq as a staging area to launch terrorist attacks around the world, including the United States. In January 2005, bin Laden tasked Al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was...

TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Deep in a violent and lawless slum just north of this coastal city, 12 men whose faces were shrouded by scarves drilled with Kalashnikovs. In unison, they lunged in one direction, turned and lunged in another. “Allah-u akbar,” the men shouted in praise to God as they fired their machine guns into a wall. The men belong to a new militant Islamic organization called Fatah al Islam, whose leader, a fugitive Palestinian named Shakir al-Abssi, has set up operations in a refugee camp here where he trains fighters and spreads the ideology of Al Qaeda. He has...

Deep inside the heart of the "Green Zone", the heavily fortified administrative compound in Baghdad, lies one of the most carefully guarded secrets of the war in Iraq. It is a cell from a small and anonymous British Army unit that goes by the deliberately meaningless name of the Joint Support Group (JSG), and it has proved to be one of the Coalition's most effective and deadly weapons in the fight against terror. The JSG was formed in the '80s to tackle the IRA Its members - servicemen and women of all ranks recruited from all three of the Armed...

Associated Press The slain terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi purportedly believed that Iraq's Shiite Muslims were more dangerous than U.S. forces and more evil than dictator Saddam Hussein, according to a posthumous interview published Friday on the Internet. The 33-page interview, conducted sometime before a U.S. fighter bomber killed the former al-Qaida in Iraq leader in June, could not be immediately authenticated. It was posted on a Web site known to be a clearing-house for al-Qaida material. The posting, which comes amid ongoing sectarian violence in Iraq, said the interview had been kept in al-Qaida's archive but did not explain...

The Iraqi army captured a man said to have worked as the personal cameraman for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the late leader of the al-Qaida in Iraq, the country's most feared insurgent group, the defense ministry reported on Saturday. Spokesman Mohammed al-Askari, told al-Iraqiyah television Khalid al-Hayani was captured by Iraqi army troops in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad. He declined to say when al-Hayani was captured or give his nationality to avoid what he called future operations against terrorists. He would only add that video tapes and documents were found in al-Hayani's possession.

A court on Thursday sentenced an Iraqi woman and six other people to death for their roles in the triple hotel bombings that killed 60 people in Jordan's capital last year. The 35-year-old woman, Sajida al-Rishawi, is the only defendant in custody. She confessed on Jordanian television shortly after the blasts that she intended to carry out a suicide attack on one of the Western hotels. Six others, including another Iraqi woman, were sentenced in absentia and remain at large. They are believed to be hiding in Iraq. The late al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had claimed...