Is Qatar Stabbing The U.S. In The Back?
Qatar, a member of President Obama’s coalition to fight the Islamic State, is involved behind the scenes in brokering a truce between ISIS and the Al Qaeda-inspired Al Nusra Front, which is fighting in Syria, according to senior Egyptian intelligence officials.
The reconciliation purportedly being brokered by Qatar could lead to Al Nusra joining ISIS in the fight against the U.S.-led coalition that has been targeting ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the officials told this reporter.
Qatar is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council of six Arab nations that publicly committed to Obama’s coalition to fight ISIS. Other council members are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Obama’s Arab coalition also includes Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq.
Egypt is part of the coalition as well, but Egyptian sources say the county will not be directly involved in targeting ISIS in Syria or Iraq.
Qatar is not the only coalition member with questionable ties to ISIS.According to Jordanian and Syrian regime sources, Saudi Arabia has been arming ISIS, serving as a driving force in supporting the Al Qaeda-linked group.
Not Everyone Was Sleeping
President Obama has been taking heat for claiming the U.S. intelligence community led by National Intelligence Director James Clapper underestimated the growth of ISIS and other jihadist groups in Syria.
Obama last Sunday claimed in a “60 Minutes” interview that the government “underestimated what had been taking place in Syria” during its civil war, allowing Syria to become “ground zero for jihadists around the world.”
However, the threat was not underestimated by an August 2012 Library of Congress report that received almost no media attention.
The report documented – one month before the deadly Sept. 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi – that Al Qaeda was taking advantage of the so-called Arab Spring to build a clandestine network under a new name to institute a caliphate under Islamic law.
The document warned that Al Qaeda’s new clandestine network was “highly likely to recruit and train local and foreign jihadists to be sent to Syria.”
The August 2012 document was prepared by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under an inter-agency agreement with the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office’s Irregular Warfare Support Program.
The document stated Al Qaeda “has tried to exploit the ‘Arab Awakening’ in North Africa for its own purposes during the past year.”
It continued: “Al Qaeda has established a core network in Libya, but it remains clandestine and refrains from using the al Qaeda name,” noted the report.
The document warned, “Al Qaeda’s clandestine network is highly likely to recruit and train local and foreign jihadists to be sent to Syria.”
The strategic goals of Al Qaeda’s senior leadership remain restoration of the caliphate, instituting Sharia, and ending the Western presence in Muslim lands, the document said.
“Al-Qaeda’s primary goal in Libya is to establish an Islamic emirate as part of its overall objective to re-establish the caliphate,” the report noted.
The document’s authors explained that the Libyan Revolution, supported by Obama, “may have created an environment conducive to jihad and empowered the large and active community of Libyan jihadists, which is known to be well connected to international jihad.”
Radical Cleric Predicts Major Attack On U.S.
During a radio interview Sunday, radical British Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary warned that the U.S.-led war against the Islamic State will likely result in a home front attack that will be “much more high profile” than the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks or the London bombings of July 7, 2005.
“And these guys, they love death the way that other people love life. They want to die as martyrs,” he warned.