Russian Media Report - Arabs awakening - so is Al-Qaeda

The head of UK intelligence, Jonathan Evans, says the turmoil that followed the Arab Spring allowed extremists to gain a foothold in the Arab world. Middle East peace activist, Franklin Lamb, believes that this warning is not groundless.

­The head of the MI5 Security Service, Jonathan Evans, has highlighted Yemen, Libya and Egypt as being among the countries that most concern the agency. Up to 200 young extremists from the UK, aged between 18 and 30, are thought to have joined forces with heavily armed terror groups in these countries. Evans says Al-Qaeda militants are training radical Western youths for potential attacks on Britain.

“Today parts of the Arab world have once more become a permissive environment for Al-Qaeda,” Evans said on Monday according to Reuters. “A small number of British would-be jihadis are also making their way to Arab countries to seek training and opportunities for militant activity, as they do in Somalia and Yemen. Some will return to the UK and pose a threat here.”

RT spoke to Middle East peace activist, Dr. Franklin Lamb, to get his views on the subject.

RT: Western countries supported what they called a move towards democracy in the Arab countries. But now, according to Britain's top spy, some of these states could be turning into terrorist training grounds. Is this exactly what London and its allies were bargaining for?

Franklin Lamb: Taking the case of Libya, where there was a rush to enter and to topple the regime, I think that was a classic mistake. I spent four months there, got to know a number of different factions, and it was clear Al-Qaeda was there. In some cases they were training the same militia that the British were training and the Americans and the French were training. So, when there’s an opportunity, Al-Qaeda is going to be there and they took it, and now they are increasing their ranks. Three months ago, a CIA analyst told the Congress that there were 300 maximum Al-Qaeda in Syria. Now they estimate there are 3,100. They are coming in from Jordan, they are coming in from the Gulf Co-operation Council countries, they are coming in from Lebanon and Turkey. So because NATO got this thing going in Libya, there was this opportunity – and Al-Qaeda will respond to an opportunity – that’s what we are seeing now. But there maybe a little panic by the intelligence in the UK about them coming and attacking the Olympics – who knows what evidence they have of that – but there’s no question, even here in Libya Al-Qaeda is growing and is active, and they are well-trained.

RT: What pushes people inside Western countries to get radicalized and join militant movements? There have been a few high-profile people recently who could fit that category.

FL: I think that there’s a lot more that we don’t know about who haven’t made it public. You mentioned earlier terrorist training camps. Well, of course that’s one point of view: are they terrorists or are they liberators? They have a strong program and strong ideology. But my point is why they even exist. Either for dignity and to overthrow some dictators, but when you’ve got an operation like NATO slaughtering civilians in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, of course it’s going to activate them and give them the opportunity. As you know, Al-Qaeda’s leadership has urged people to go to Syria and get training, and to go to southern Turkey and also in Libya. Libya’s become a major training center, and I saw that as a fact. And I went meeting with some of the rebel militia against Gaddafi. They used to say “One Al-Qaeda member is worth 10 of us. We admit that. And they are worth six of Mutassim [Gaddafi’s] special forces.” They are very well disciplined. Rather than lecture people, they go out there and show them how to do something. And they are very effective. So I think that the threat is real, their numbers are growing, their competence is well known, and I do think there’s a problem.

RT: Islamists have come to power in Egypt. The country was one of those named by Britain's security service chief as at risk from turning into Al-Qaeda training grounds. But how much should the West be concerned with the direction Egypt is taking?

FL: Frankly, no, not particularly. I think what we see in Egypt is, believe it or not, a government that represents the majority of the population. I think, for the first time in Egypt’s history it was a democratic election. I respect the word of people. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Egypt and there are concerns about the Brotherhood. Do they keep their word, for example? Mohamed Morsi seems to be very sophisticated – as the Brotherhood has been – at playing the political game. So I think there’s going to be some consequences that the West doesn’t like. I think we are frankly going to see the end of the Camp David agreement. I don’t think that the Israelis, who are now complaining that they can’t even rent an office for their embassy, are going to have much luck in the future – not just because of the Brotherhood, but because those values are greater, and deeper, and broader than the Brotherhood. They represent the Egyptian people. Camp David was [Egypt’s President] El-Sadat. It was a private contract between the Americans and the Mubarak family and their associates, and the Israelis. That doesn’t reflect the view of one Muslim or one Arab that I know, or anybody of good will who wants peace in the Middle East.

So I think we are seeing a fundamental change, but I wouldn’t put it on Al-Qaeda. I think the Arabs are awakening. They are standing up. Islam is rising, and we see that here in the Middle East, we see that in Lebanon. The Americans are diminishing, the Iranians are increasing. You see that all over in every aspect – from who is buying the real estate, who is organizing the next campaign, who is doing the training, who is supplying the arms. It’s a new era. It’s the era of resistance that we are entering, and things are going to be different.

Al-Qaida No. 2 ripped U.S. military ethics

Before he was killed in a U.S. drone strike earlier this month, al-Qaida’s second-in-command condemned what he described as “unethical” actions of U.S. soldiers in war.

The message came in a 17-minute video of Abu Yahya al-Libi that was posted on militant websites Friday. There were no details about when al-Libi spoke.

In the video, he lashes out against American troops, citing incidents earlier this year of civilians killed and the burnings of the Koran in Afghanistan, as well as the case of U.S. Marines shown urinating on dead militants.

Al-Libi was reported killed on June 4 in a U.S. drone strike in North Waziristan, Pakistan.

In the video, al-Libi says U.S. officials have apologized to “cover up these atrocities” but that “their statements are cold and apologies twisted.”

Report: U.S. considers more raids into Pakistan

WASHINGTON — Military and intelligence officials are so frustrated with Pakistan’s failure to stop local militant groups from attacking Americans in neighboring Afghanistan that they have considered launching secret joint U.S.-Afghan commando raids into Pakistan to hunt them down, officials told The Associated Press.

But the idea, which U.S. officials say comes up every couple of months, has been consistently rejected because the White House believes the chance of successfully rooting out the deadly Haqqani network would not be worth the intense diplomatic blowback from Pakistan that inevitably would ensue.

Members of the Haqqani tribe have been targeted by pilotless drones, but sending American and Afghan troops into Pakistan would be a serious escalation of the hunt for terrorists and could potentially be the final straw for Pakistan, which already is angered over what it sees as U.S. violations of its sovereignty.

The al-Qaida-allied Haqqani tribe runs a Mafia-like smuggling operation and occasionally turns to terrorism with the aim of controlling its territory in eastern Afghanistan. The Haqqanis use Pakistani towns to plan, train and arm themselves with guns and explosives, cross into Afghanistan to attack NATO and Afghan forces, then retreat back across the border to safety.

The latest round of debate over whether to launch clandestine special operations raids into Pakistan against the Haqqanis came after the June 1 car bombing of Forward Operating Base Salerno in eastern Afghanistan that injured up to 100 U.S. and Afghan soldiers, according to three current and two former U.S. officials who were briefed on the discussions. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the still-evolving debates.

The officials told AP that recent discussions of clandestine ground attacks have included Marine Gen. John Allen, the senior U.S. commander in Afghanistan, as well as top CIA and special operations officials.

Allen’s spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Brook DeWalt, said Allen “has not and does not intend to push for a cross-border operation.”

The White House and the CIA declined to comment for this story.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said the U.S. was still focused on U.S.-Pakistan cooperation.

“The key is to work together with Pakistan to find ways of fighting terrorists who threaten both the United States and Pakistan, including along the Afghan-Pakistan border, where extremists continue to plot attacks against coalition forces and innocent civilians,” he said.

The U.S. relationship with Pakistan is arguably at its lowest point over the continuation of drone strikes to hit terror targets in Pakistan, the successful Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden that was carried out without a heads-up to the country’s leaders, and the U.S. refusal to apologize for a border skirmish in which the U.S. mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani troops. On Thursday, the State Department’s inspector general accused the Pakistani government of harassing U.S. Embassy personnel.

Pakistan has done little in response to repeated U.S. requests for a crackdown on the Haqqanis, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta surprisingly voiced that frustration in a visit to Kabul this month.

He said the U.S. was “reaching the limits” of its patience with Pakistan’s failure to tackle the tribe’s safe havens. He added that the U.S. was “extraordinarily dissatisfied with the effect that Pakistan has had on the Haqqanis.” He also made fun of Pakistan’s ignorance over the bin Laden raid at a speech in India, Pakistan’s archrival.

Pakistan’s army has attacked militant strongholds across the tribal areas, except for North Waziristan, where the Haqqanis hold sway and shelter both al-Qaida and Taliban militants. Pakistani officials say that they intend to hit North Waziristan but that their army is too overstretched to move as fast as the U.S. demands.

Pakistani officials have conceded privately, however, that they have been reluctant to take on the powerful tribe for fear of retaliatory strikes.

To make up for Pakistan’s inaction, the CIA’s covert drone program has targeted Haqqani leaders, safe houses, bomb factories and training camps inside Pakistan, and special operations raids have hit Haqqani targets on the Afghan side of the border, but that has failed to stop Haqqani attacks on U.S. and Afghan troops and civilian targets.

The officials say Allen expressed frustration that militants would attack and then flee across the border in Pakistan, immediately taking shelter in urban areas where attacking them by missile fire could kill civilians.

The officials say options that have been prepared for President Obama’s review included raids that could be carried out by U.S. special operations forces together with Afghan commandos, ranging from air assaults that drop raiders deep inside tribal areas to hit top leaders to shorter dashes only a few miles into Pakistan territory.

The shorter raids would not necessarily be covert, as they could be carried out following the U.S. military principle known as “hot pursuit” that military officials say entitles their forces to pursue a target that attacks them in Afghanistan up to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) inside a neighboring country’s territory.

The U.S. has staged two major raids and other minor forays into Pakistan’s tribal territory before during the George W. Bush administration; the most contentious was in September 2008 when Navy SEALs raided an al-Qaida compound. The operators killed their target, but the ensuing firefight triggered a diplomatic storm with Pakistan.

Rather than fly in, which U.S. military planners at the time feared would alert the Pakistanis, the SEALs marched across the mountainous border, arriving later than planned because of the harsh terrain and just as the fighters were waking for morning prayers, according to one current and one former U.S. official. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the clandestine operation.

Everyone inside the targeted compound opened fire on the SEALs, including the women, one of whom lightly wounded one of the American operators. The firefight also woke the entire village, which joined in the battle, so the SEALs had to call for strafing runs by Black Hawk helicopters to beat them back.

At least one woman and one child were among the many dead.

Al Qaeda Flees

In the last week, al Qaeda has pulled its remaining gunmen from most of the towns and villages it had been occupying for the last year. The major al Qaeda strongholds, Jaar and Zinjibar, are now occupied by police. There are no more known al Qaeda strongholds in Abyan province, which has long been the center of al Qaeda power in southern Yemen.

At its peak, al Qaeda has over 10,000 armed followers in the south. Most of these were allied tribesmen, who were seeking autonomy for their tribes and southern Yemen. The pro-terrorist tribesman eventually noted that many of their fellow southerners were hostile to al Qaeda, and that hostility spread as al Qaeda tried to impose its usual lifestyle adjustment in the few areas it took control of. Although many of the southern tribesmen are conservatives, they don't like being pushed around by a bunch of self-righteous religious fanatics. Earlier this year the Yemeni government got rid of long-time leader (and irritant) Ali Abdullah Saleh and united the armed forces. The southern separatists and their al Qaeda allies had lost their edge. For the last few months it's been downhill for the al Qaeda/separatist tribes' alliance. The tribes are making peace and the remnants of al Qaeda are deserting or looking for a new sanctuary.  There aren't many options. Somalia has become more hostile to al Qaeda in the last few months. The Pakistani military still maintains an Islamic terrorist sanctuary in North Waziristan. Getting there is difficult, but there are smugglers who, for a price, can get anyone or anything from Yemen to Pakistan. Counter-terrorism forces from numerous nations are interested in preventing terrorist escapes from Yemen.

The army began its final offensive on May 12th. The subsequent heavy fighting cost al Qaeda 429 dead, even more wounded and an unknown number of desertions. The security forces lost 78 soldiers, 26 pro-government tribesmen and 34 civilians. The senior al Qaeda leadership had earlier fled for more remote villages in eastern Yemen, where tribal leaders offered sanctuary. How long this sanctuary will last if the army comes after these guys is unknown. Some of the tribes that backed al Qaeda in the south have already switched sides and all have been warned of retribution if they offer sanctuary to the fleeing al Qaeda. That's one reason for al Qaeda's defeat in the last few weeks. While the army was able to bring more troops south, if was the addition of over a thousand more tribal militia that spelled the end for al Qaeda. Speeding the defeat was the American UAVs, recon satellites, electronic surveillance and bombing missions. This American assistance was acknowledged in the last few days, although it was always an open secret.

The UN is threatening family, friends and allies of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh with individual sanctions if they do not halt efforts to retain their corrupt privileges. The Saleh supporters are attempting to maintain some of their power, and this often means interfering with the post-Saleh government.

Foreign aid groups are complaining about theft of aid and attacks on aid workers. In some southern provinces, foreigners representing aid providers are not allowed in and must deliver food and other aid via Yemeni groups. This often leads to aid being stolen. Three foreign aid executives have been kidnapped recently and three others have been shot. Many more have been threatened. There is still a major need for food and other aid, but armed and hostile Yemenis keep getting in the way.

June 17, 2012: Some al Qaeda gunmen continue to hold out inside Azzan, in southeastern Shabwa province. This is the last al Qaeda held town.

In eastern Yemen, terrorists attached a bomb to a police vehicle, which killed three policemen.

June 16, 2012: The army has the last al Qaeda held town (Azzan) surrounded. Tribal leaders are trying to negotiate a withdrawal by al Qaeda fighters. Many of the al Qaeda men are willing to go, and have been selling their weapons and other possessions (some came to Azzan with the intention of staying a while) and are leaving with many other civilians. Some al Qaeda refused to surrender and preparing to fight to the death. That's why many civilians are fleeing the town, at least until the al Qaeda men can get themselves killed and things quiet down.

June 15, 2012: The last al Qaeda stronghold in Abyan province, the port town of Shaqra, was taken by the army.

June 12, 2012: The major al Qaeda strongholds of Jaar and Zinjibar were cleared of Islamic radicals by advancing troops.

U.S. declassifies attacks in Yemen, Somalia

The White House is partially lifting the lid of secrecy on its counterterrorism campaign against al-Qaida in Yemen and Somalia by formally acknowledging for the first time that it is conducting lethal attacks in those countries, officials said Friday.

The White House’s semiannual report to Congress on the state of U.S. combat operations abroad, delivered Friday, mentions what has been widely reported for years but never formally acknowledged by the administration: The U.S. military has been taking “direct action” against members of al-Qaida and affiliates in Yemen and Somalia.

The report does not elaborate, but “direct action” is a military term of art that refers to a range of lethal attacks, which in the case of Yemen and Somalia include attacks by armed drones. The report does not mention drones or other weapons.

The report applies only to U.S. military operations, including those by special operations forces — not those conducted by the CIA.

The report does not provide details of any military operations in either Yemen or Somalia. It merely acknowledges they have happened. Killings of terror suspects overseas are acknowledged by the administration, but it does not mention the involvement of drones. The CIA and military have separate drone fleets.

The decision by President Obama to declassify the existence of the counterterror actions in those two countries amounts an incremental move toward greater openness about the use of U.S. force overseas. It does not reflect any change in the intensity or basic character of the U.S. campaign to defeat al-Qaida.

A previous step in the direction of greater official transparency came in April when the White House’s counterterrorism chief, John Brennan, made the first formal confirmation that the U.S. uses armed drones against terrorists. But he did not mention their use in specific countries.

The new information in Friday’s report comes amid outcries from some in Congress about leaks to the news media about details of classified activities such as the existence of a White House “kill list” of targeted al-Qaida militants. The accusation, mostly by Republicans, is that the White House has orchestrated the leaks to improve Obama’s re-election chances, an allegation the president has rejected as “offensive” and “wrong.”

Three administration officials who briefed The Associated Press on the decision to declassify the existence of the military’s counterterrorism campaigns in Yemen and Somalia said Obama determined that the time was ripe, in part because the U.S. has built closer relations with the Yemeni government and with governments interested in eliminating extremist elements in Somalia. Somalia has not had a fully functioning government since 1991.

The officials said the declassification of further details in future reports to Congress would remain under White House review.

Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the White House is required to report to Congress every six months on U.S. combat operations abroad. Friday’s report includes a secret attachment with classified details, which was not released publicly.

The last report, on Dec. 15, 2011, made no mention of Yemen or Somalia. Instead it said that in relation to efforts against al-Qaida, the U.S. was working with partners “with a particular focus on countries within the U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility,” which is a broad swath of territory that includes the entire Middle East and Central Asia.

Friday’s report was more explicit. It said that in Somalia the U.S. military has worked to counter the terrorist threat posed by al-Qaida and al-Qaida-associated elements of a militant group called al-Shabaab.

“In a limited number of cases, the U.S. military has taken direct action in Somalia against members of al-Qaida, including those who are also members of al-Shabaab, who are engaged in efforts to carry out terrorist attacks against the United States and our interests,” it said.

It said the U.S. military also has been working closely with the Yemeni government to “operationally dismantle and ultimately eliminate” the terrorist threat posed by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.

It called AQAP “the most active and dangerous affiliate of al-Qaida today.”

“Our joint efforts have resulted in direct action against a limited number of AQAP operatives and senior leaders in that country who posed a terrorist threat to the United States and our interests,” the report said.