How CIA Money Went Into Al Qaeda's Pocket

President Ashraf Ghani, center, with former President Hamid Karzai, left, whose government received monthly C.I.A. payments. Credit Omar Sobhani/Reuters

New York Times: C.I.A. Cash Ended Up in Coffers of Al Qaeda

WASHINGTON — In the spring of 2010, Afghan officials struck a deal to free an Afghan diplomat held hostage by Al Qaeda. But the price was steep — $5 million — and senior security officials were scrambling to come up with the money.

They first turned to a secret fund that the Central Intelligence Agency bankrolled with monthly cash deliveries to the presidential palace in Kabul, according to several Afghan officials involved in the episode. The Afghan government, they said, had already squirreled away about $1 million from that fund.

Within weeks, that money and $4 million more provided from other countries was handed over to Al Qaeda, replenishing its coffers after a relentless C.I.A. campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan had decimated the militant network’s upper ranks.

More News On How CIA Money Ended Up In the Coffers Of Al Qaeda

Afghanistan gave CIA money to al Qaeda for diplomat's ransom: NYT -- Reuters
Afghanistan gave CIA money to Al-Qaeda to free diplomat: report -- AFP
Report: CIA money was given to al Qaeda -- CBS
Al Qaeda got $1million in secret CIA money after Afghan government used cash from fund to pay kidnapped diplomat's ransom -- Daily Mail
Secret CIA payments to Afghan officials used to free diplomat held hostage by Al Qaeda, funded group's weapons stockpile: report -- New York Daily News
'New York Times': CIA paid ransom to al-Qaeda -- USA Today
Afghanistan govt. took $1M from the CIA and used it for al Qaeda ransom: report -- Washington Times
Declassified Documents: CIA Helped Fund al Qaeda via Afghan Government -- Sputnik

Did The White House Poltiicized And Choose To Ignore The Documents Seized In The Osama Bin Laden Raid?

Stephen F. Hayes And Thomas Joscelyn, Wall Street Journal: How America Was Misled on al Qaeda’s Demise

The White House portrait of a crumbling terror group is contradicted by documents seized in the bin Laden raid

In the early-morning hours of May 2, 2011, a small team of American military and intelligence professionals landed inside the high white walls of a mysterious compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The team’s mission, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, had two primary objectives: capture or kill Osama bin Laden and gather as much intelligence as possible about the al Qaeda leader and his network. A bullet to bin Laden’s head accomplished the first; the quick work of the Sensitive Site Exploitation team accomplished the second.

It was quite a haul: 10 hard drives, nearly 100 thumb drives and a dozen cellphones. There were DVDs, audio and video tapes, data cards, reams of handwritten materials, newspapers and magazines. At a Pentagon briefing days after the raid, a senior military intelligence official described it as “the single largest collection of senior terrorist materials ever.”

WNU Editor: This Wall Street Journal commentary is under a pay-wall subscription, but if you put the title of this commentary "How America Was Misled on al Qaeda’s Demise" for Google to search and you click on the link that it finds, it will permit you to get the story to look at for only one time. As to the WSJ editorial itself .... I find it astounding that of the one and a half million documents and files that were seized from Osama Bin Laden's home .... only 17 documents have been publicized .... and that we have had to accept the White House administration's line that Al Qaeda was on the demise.

Top Pentagon Intelligence Officer: Al Qaeda Will Make Gains In Syria And Afghanistan In 2015

DIA Director Marine Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, center, testified before the House Armed Services Committee Feb. 3 about worldwide threats. Stewart joined Army Lt. Gen. William Mayville, Joint Staff director for operations, and Mark Chandler, acting director for intelligence for the Joint Staff, for the open and closed sessions. (Photo by DIA)

Thomas Joscelyn, Business Insider/The Long War Journal: High-ranking US intelligence official: Al Qaeda will make gains in Syria and Afghanistan in 2015

WNU Editor: Lt. Gen. Vincent R. Stewart's testimony can be read here. So much for President Obama's claims in 2013 that Al Qaeda was "decimated".

Former Al Qaeda Operative: Saudi Princes Wanted To Shoot Down Air Force One With A Stinger Missile

Air Force One plane (Reuters / Soe Zeya Tun)

SKY News: 20th Hijacker's Plan To Take Down Air Force One

Update: ‘Saudi princes planned to down Air Force One with missile’: 9/11 terrorist gives damning testimony -- RT

WNU Editor: U.S. officials are denying these claims .... US officials: 9/11 plotter's claims Saudi royals aided al-Qaida 'inconceivable' (The Guardian) ... and they are probably right. As I had said in the previous post .... absent any hard proof, these are just wild accusations.

The Islamic State And Al Qaeda Are Now Focusing On 'Soft Targets'

FOX News: Terrorists' 'soft-target' strategy puts anyone -- and everyone -- in danger

WNU Editor: These terror groups have always focused on 'soft targets' .... nothing new here.

Former Vice Chief Of Staff Of The U.S. Army: al-Qaeda Has ‘Grown Fourfold In The Last Five Years’

PJ Media: General Tells Senators al-Qaeda Has ‘Grown Fourfold in Last Five Years’

WNU Editor: With the exception of FOX News and a few blogs .... no one is covering this incredibly important story. But the best part of Gen Keane's (Ret.) testimony today was the following ....

.... “U.S. policymakers choose to ignore the very harsh realities of the rise of radical Islam. In my view, we became paralyzed by the fear of adverse consequences in the Middle East after fighting two wars. Moreover, as we sit here this morning, in the face of radical Islam, U.S. policymakers refuse to accurately name the movement as radical Islam. We further choose not to define it, nor explain its ideology, and most critical, we have no comprehensive strategy to stop it or defeat it.”

Yup .... ever since I started this blog 7+ years ago .... I still do not understand what is the U.S. strategy to combat radical Islamic groups like Al Qaeda and their affiliates ... and neither does former Gen. Keane himself who spent years waging war against these groups.

Al-Qaida's Chief Of Global Operations Killed In Raid In Pakistan

Al-Qaida's Chief Of Global Operations Killed In Raid, Pakistani Military Says -- Times of India

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's military has claimed to have killed a top al-Qaida commander in the wee hours of Saturday in a ground raid in the country's northwestern tribal region, close to the border with Afghanistan.

Adnan el Shukrijuma, a Saudi national and senior al-Qaida commander was killed along with his associate and a local facilitator in Wana, the headquarters of restive South Waziristan tribal region," said Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), a military's media arm, in a statement.

The FBI describes him as al-Qaida's global operations chief, a post once held by the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Read more ....

More News On Al-Qaida's Chief Of Global Operations Killed In A Raid In Pakistan

Al-Qaeda chief Adnan el Shukrijumah 'killed in Pakistan' -- BBC
Pakistan kills top Al Qaeda leader involved in NYC bomb plot -- CSM/AP
Pakistan military kills al-Qaeda leader wanted in U.S. -- Reuters
Al-Qaida’s chief of global operations killed in army raid in Pakistan -- The Guardian
Al-Qaida commander behind NY and London terror plots killed, Pakistan military says -- UPI
Al-Qaeda operative linked to NYC subway bomb plot killed -- CBC/AP
Pakistan army kills al-Qaeda commander -- Al Jazeera
Senior al-Qaeda commander in Pakistan killed in raid -- Irish Times
Pakistani Military Kills Al-Qaeda Chief of Global Operations: Reports -- Sputnik
Profile: Adnan el Shukrijumah -- BBC

Al Qaeda Wants To Close The World's Oil Choke Points

Al Qaeda’s Next Target: American Oil Tankers -- Sarah Kaufman & Saar Fresco, Vocativ

The group's newest publication talks about attacking U.S. supertankers and screwing up the oil supply chain

Al Qaeda discusses strategic attacks on chokepoints of oil shipments from the Middle East to the West in its first issue of “Resurgence,” an English-language propaganda magazine posted to al Qaeda online forum Shamikh1.info. In a 117-page issue produced by As-Sahab, a new South Asia al Qaeda media branch, the group lays out the American oil flow system in detail and suggests the interruption of that flow with attacks.

The extremists have recently taken a back seat in western media to their more evil counterparts, ISIS, but they are still plotting the destruction of America. In an article called, “On Targeting the Achilles Heel of Western Economies,” Hamza Khalid writes that the way for al Qaeda to weaken the U.S. is to carry out a “multi-pronged strategy that focuses not only on attacking American military presence in the Muslim world, but also targeting the super-extended energy supply line that fuels their economies and helps to sustain their military strength.” al Qaeda is going straight for American oil chokepoints, like the Straits of Gibraltar, the Straits of Hormuz, the Suez canal, or the Bab El Mendeb Strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Some spots are narrow enough for insurgents to lurk in the bushes and launch RPG attacks on passing ships.

Read more ....

My Comment: Plotting to cause an immense environmental catastrophe makes no sense to me .... but to those who support Al Qaeda .... this is a smart strategy.

The Islamic State Is Eclipsing Al Qaeda

Image from Insite Blog

Islamic State Challenging Al-Qaeda for Leadership -- Bloomberg

The radical Islamic State’s advances in Iraq are strengthening its challenge to al-Qaeda in a contest for the leadership of the global jihadi movement, according to five U.S. intelligence officials.

Its territorial gains and declaration of a caliphate spanning parts of Syria and Iraq, reinforced by its use of social media to broadcast its accomplishments in many languages, are attracting recruits and even drawing defections from the leadership of the core al-Qaeda group and some affiliates, the officials told reporters at a briefing today. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence assessments.

The U.S. intelligence community thinks the Islamic State has an incentive to conduct a major terrorist strike against U.S. or European targets, in part to further assert itself as the true leader of radical Islam, the officials said. There’s evidence that the group is establishing cells beyond Iraq and Syria, they said.

Read more ....

My Comment: The Islamic State has now reached a stage of achievement that Al Qaeda could only dream about. A safe haven in both Iraq and Syria .... access to billions of dollars from looted banks, oil reserves, an industrial base to tax revenues from .... a sophisticated media campaign that dwarfs what Al Qaeda can produce,and a Sunni population that is supportive of their goals. From my vantage point .... The Islamic State has already eclipsed Al Qaeda .... especially in the eyes of the young Islamic radical.

Kidnapping And Ransoming Hostages Has Become Big Business For Al Qaeda

MEMENTOS FROM CAPTIVITY: Items saved by Harald Ickler, a Swede living in Germany, from his 54 days as a hostage in 2003. He was on what he thought would be a four-week adventure vacation when he was kidnapped in the Algerian desert by jihadists who would soon become an official arm of Al Qaeda. Credit Gordon Welters for The New York Times

Ransoming Citizens, Europe Becomes Al Qaeda’s Patron -- New York Times

BAMAKO, Mali — The cash filled three suitcases: 5 million euros.

The German official charged with delivering this cargo arrived here aboard a nearly empty military plane and was whisked away to a secret meeting with the president of Mali, who had offered Europe a face-saving solution to a vexing problem.

Officially, Germany had budgeted the money as humanitarian aid for the poor, landlocked nation of Mali.

In truth, all sides understood that the cash was bound for an obscure group of Islamic extremists who were holding 32 European hostages, according to six senior diplomats directly involved in the exchange.

Read more ....

My Comment: It's always about the money.

U.S. Justice Department: Al Qaeda Preparing To Lauch Cyber Warfare Against The U.S.

Al Qaeda Targeting U.S. Infrastructure for Digital 9/11 -- Bill Gertz, Washington Free Beacon

Terrorists, nation states, criminal groups have capability of causing significant damage

ASPEN, Colo.—Al Qaeda, nation states, and criminals are preparing for major cyber attacks against U.S. infrastructure that could be comparable to the devastating September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, a senior Justice Department official said on Thursday.

“We’re in a pre-9/11 moment, in some respects, with cyber,” said John Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security in the Justice Department.

Carlin also said during remarks at a security conference that China’s government dared the Obama administration to provide court-level evidence of Chinese military hacking against the United States.

The dare resulted in the May 1 indictment of five members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) hacking group known as Unit 63198, he said.

Read more ....

My Comment: This report on Al Qaeda planning cyber warfare against the U.S. is coming from the U.S. Justice Department .... so much for the White House line from two years back that Al Qaeda was on the run.