BAGHDAD — Wearing a black turban and black robes, the leader of the self-proclaimed Islamic state that stretches across eastern Syria and much of northern and western Iraq made a startling public appearance, his first in many years, at a well-known mosque in the Iraqi city of Mosul, according to a video released on Saturday whose contents were confirmed by experts and witnesses. Until then, there had been very few photographs on the Internet of the insurgent known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. But on Friday he delivered a public sermon in a city once under American control with an audacity that even Osama bin Laden never tried.
As long as there is a ‘true Islam' there will be many willing to kill and die for its imposition. The jihadist monster feeds off the nearest, which (...)
A weekly review of world politics by one of the world’s sharpest and most outspoken political analysts. Tariq Ali is the author of numerous books, both ficti... Tariq Ali and Patrick Coburn talk about ISIS in Sept 2014; ca 30 min.
Letter in the Evening Standard 17.01.13Firstly, 'al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb' (AQIM) was, according to experts like Professor Jeremy Keenan from SOAS - the most cited academic in the world on North Africa - virtually manufactured in the region by Algerian intelligence services with clandestine US support. This short-sighted policy originated with the Algerian military junta's attempts to fabricate a justification for exterminating members of the peaceful Islamic Salvation Front after it won democratic elections decades ago. The policy was reinforced by NATO's intervention in Libya, shoring up Islamist militias with AQIM affiliations across the region.
Mokhtar Belmokhtar, also known as the Uncatchable, is said to have been passed over for several senior positions within al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Newsweek Aug 15 (via archive.org): "CIA field commander for the agency's Jawbreaker team at Tora Bora, Gary Berntsen, says he and other U.S. commanders did know that bin Laden was among the hundreds of fleeing Qaeda and Taliban members. "
by PHAM BINH on FEBRUARY 7, 2013. "Warning them of the strings imperialist powers will attach to arms shipments or funding is one thing; attaching strings to our support for their fight by means of a litmus test is another." interventioner
Professor Terje Tvedt klagar på västliga intellektuella som inte begriper att de andra är annorlunda och att de inte kommer att förena sig med oss om våra fina värden.