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Commander John
Storm just wants to be left alone to complete his DNA collection, and
explore the uncharted regions on planet
earth. But he always seems to be
in the wrong place at the wrong time.
On 31 July 2022, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the Salafi jihadist group al-Qaeda, was killed by a United States drone strike in Kabul,
Afghanistan.
Al-Zawahiri was one of the planners of the September 11 attacks against the United States. He succeeded Osama bin Laden as leader of al-Qaeda after bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in
Pakistan on 2 May 2011.
He was located and tracked by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) months before his death. After receiving authorization from U.S. President Joe Biden to initiate the strike, the CIA fired two Hellfire missiles at the balcony of al-Zawahiri's house, killing him.
The strike came nearly a year after the conclusion of the War in Afghanistan. U.S. officials called al-Zawahiri's presence in Afghanistan a violation of the agreement for the withdrawal of American forces from the country, under which the Taliban would not allow al-Qaeda members any sanctuary. Following the strike, members of the Haqqani network attempted to cover up al-Zawahiri's death, although the U.S. was able to confirm it. In response to the strike, Biden released a statement announcing al-Zawahiri's death, calling it a "deliverance of justice".
Ayman al-Zawahiri was a member of the extremist militant organization al-Qaeda and the deputy to its leader Osama bin Laden. He was one of the planners of the September 11 attacks. Subsequently, American President George W. Bush released a list of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Most Wanted Terrorists, designating al-Zawahiri as the second most wanted behind bin Laden. While bin Laden led al-Qaeda, many observers saw al-Zawahiri as being responsible for its operations. However, he consistently eluded manhunts and assassination attempts for decades, spanning the presidencies of Bush,
Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
In late 2001, bin Laden and al-Zawahiri eluded the grasp of American forces during their invasion of Afghanistan, which al-Qaeda used as a base under the rule of the Taliban. Bin Laden was killed in an American raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011, with al-Zawahiri taking over a weakened al-Qaeda. In 2016, it was reported that he had gone to extreme lengths to evade American forces, using a green screen to mask his surroundings while delivering video messages. American officials believed he was hiding in the area along the Durand Line, the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In 2020, after nearly 20 years of war, the U.S. government negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban under which the Taliban agreed not to provide a safe haven for individuals involved with al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. As American forces started withdrawing in 2021, the Taliban launched a major insurgent offensive and quickly recaptured Afghanistan.
While evacuating, the U.S. was criticized for a drone strike in Kabul that caused the deaths of ten civilians. While the U.S. initially denied the error, it was forced to acknowledge it after an exposé by The
New York
Times. Administration sources told the Times that since then they "have been taking more precautions to prevent civilian casualties in the strikes."
Six to seven months before the assassination, the U.S. Intelligence Community tracked the movements of al-Zawahiri's family. They learned that al-Zawahiri's family relocated to a safe house in Kabul after its recapture by the Taliban. Subsequently, al-Zawahiri himself joined them after relocating from
Pakistan. The building was reportedly owned by a top aide to Taliban official Sirajuddin Haqqani, and located in Sherpur, a neighborhood in downtown Kabul.
In early April 2022, Jonathan Finer, the deputy national security advisor to Biden, and Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, the Homeland Security Advisor, were the first to be briefed on al-Zawahiri's location. Biden was then briefed by national security advisor Jake Sullivan. During May and June, American officials verified the information and prepared various options for Biden to carry out the assassination.
The intelligence community tracked al-Zawahiri's movements and daily habits for months. He never left the safe house after arriving. After learning that al-Zawahiri liked to sit on the house's balcony, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's model shop constructed a scale model of the building to prepare for the strike and avoid harm to the other occupants. On 1 July, Biden was briefed on the plan and even viewed the model himself. At the meeting, Biden questioned the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency William J. Burns, the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, and the director of the National Counterterrorism Center Christine Abizaid on the details, risks, and legality of the strike. In particular,
Biden worried about how the strike could affect the status of American Mark Frerichs, a captive of the Taliban since January 2020. On 25 July, Biden received a final briefing, where all of the officials involved gave their unanimous approval of the decision to strike.
RESPONSE
As of February 2023, al-Qaeda has yet to either confirm the killing of al-Zawahiri or publicly name his successor. On 23 December 2022, they even released "a new recording by Zawahiri", though it did not contain indications of when it was made, and his image continues to be used across their publications.
Al-Qaeda's muted response is widely considered by analysts to be a sign that the group is further decentralizing. The group was highly centralized with a clear hierarchy when it was first created. Its international expansion, the War on Terror, and bin Laden's assassination accelerated decentralization. Even before al-Zawahiri's death, an example of this decentralization could be seen in the decision of the regional affiliate al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) to support the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in its opposition towards the Pakistani state, which ran counter to the then goals of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Its regional affiliates, particularly those in
Africa, such as Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam al-Muslimin (JNIM) in West Africa, al-Shabaab in Somalia, and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) still pose significant threats as of 2023.
In February 2023, the United Nations reported that many member countries believed Saif al-Adel to be the de-facto successor of al-Zawahiri, but al-Qaeda had not formally named him probably due to avoid acknowledging the Taliban giving shelter to al-Zawahiri, as well as al-Adel living in Shia-majority Iran, which Sunni al-Qaeda has long viewed as apostate.
TALIBAN
The Taliban did not confirm al-Zawahiri's death, and condemned the operation as a strike on an empty residential house. The organization was reported to be in a political dilemma, balancing its need for international recognition and internal calls to retaliate against the U.S.
Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban's political office in Doha, said that they were not aware of the presence of al-Zawahiri in Kabul and an investigation was underway to verify the allegations. Zabiullah Mujahid, the chief spokesperson of the Taliban, assured that Afghanistan would not become a refuge for terrorism against any country and insisted that the organization would honor the withdrawal agreement, while warning the U.S. to stop violating it. He later claimed that they did not find a body at the site.
A spokesman for the Taliban said: "Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the United States of America,
Afghanistan and the region".
LIAR,
LIAR - The Senate Report on Iraqi WMD Intelligence highlighted significant failures in the intelligence-gathering and analysis process. Here are some key points:
Background:
- After the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq agreed to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction
(WMD) programs.
-
UN inspection teams were supposed to verify compliance, but there were complaints of non-cooperation from Iraq.
-
In 1998, President Bill Clinton threatened airstrikes due to Iraq’s noncompliance.
2002 Assessments.
-
On October 1, 2002, the CIA delivered a classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq’s WMD threat.
-
Three days later, CIA Director George Tenet published an unclassified white paper on Iraq’s WMD capabilities.
False Claims:
Despite intelligence suggesting otherwise, the Bush administration claimed Iraq had WMDs and fabricated a connection between Iraq and
al-Qaeda. No nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons were found after the invasion.
Impact:
The flawed intelligence misled policymakers and the public, leading to the invasion.
The second phase of the investigation, addressing how senior policymakers used the intelligence, was published in 2007.
In summary, the Iraq invasion was influenced by inaccurate intelligence, and the subsequent lack of WMD discovery raised serious questions about the decision-making process.
The September 11 terrorist attacks were a major turning point in Bush's presidency. That evening, he addressed the nation from the Oval Office, promising a strong response to the attacks. He also emphasized the need for the nation to come together and comfort the families of the victims. Three days after the attacks, Bush visited Ground Zero and met with Mayor Rudy Giuliani, firefighters, police officers, and volunteers. Bush addressed the gathering via a megaphone while standing on rubble: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon."
Okay
so you invaded Iraq and executed me. But how is it you have not invaded
Russia, China or North Korea, since both Kim
Jong Un, Jinping and Putin have terrible human rights records. It is
because my country was a walkover, easy prey. I don't understand why
there is one rule for the powerful and another for the weak. Iraq was an
easy target, and you did not like me trying to unite the Arab world,
which would then be much stronger and harder for the West to manipulate.
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن, romanized: Usāma bin Muḥammad bin ʿAwaḍ bin Lādin; 10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi Arabian-born Islamist dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda from 1988 until his death in 2011. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, he participated in the Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union and supported the activities of the Bosnian mujahideen during the Yugoslav Wars. Bin Laden is most widely known as the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Twin Towers and Pentagon.
Bin Laden was the organizer of the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. This resulted in the United States invading Afghanistan, which launched the war on terror. Bin Laden became the subject of nearly a decade-long multi-national manhunt led by the United States. During this period, he hid in several mountainous regions of Afghanistan and later escaped to neighboring Pakistan. On 2 May 2011, Bin Laden was killed by US special operations forces at his compound in Abbottabad. His corpse was buried at the
Arabian Sea and he was officially succeeded by his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri on 16 June 2011.
Bin Laden grew to become an influential ideologue who inspired several Islamist organizations. He was considered a war hero due to his role in successfully opposing the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and offered an articulate voice and organizational structure to many across the Islamic region harboring grievances against Western imperialism, often having approval ratings in some countries higher than those of national leaders. Nonetheless, his justification and orchestration of attacks against civilian targets in the United States, including the September 11 attacks, have made him a highly reviled figure in the West and the rest of the World, where public opinion largely views Bin Laden as a symbol of terrorism and mass murder.
According to former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer, who led the
CIA's hunt for Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader was motivated by a belief that US foreign policy has oppressed, killed, or otherwise harmed Muslims in the Middle East. As such, the threat to US national security arises not from al-Qaeda being offended by what the US is but rather by what the US does, or in the words of Scheuer, "They (al-Qaeda) hate us (Americans) for what we do, not who we are." Nonetheless, Bin Laden criticized the US for its secular form of governance, calling upon Americans to convert to Islam and reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling, and usury, in a letter published in late 2002.
Bin Laden believed that the Islamic world was in crisis and that the complete restoration of Sharia law would be the only way to set things right in the Muslim world. He opposed such alternatives as secular government, as well as pan-Arabism, socialism, communism, and democracy. He subscribed to the Athari (literalist) school of Islamic theology.
These beliefs, in conjunction with violent jihad, have sometimes been called Qutbism after being promoted by Sayyid Qutb. Bin Laden believed that Afghanistan, under the rule of Mullah Omar's Taliban, was "the only Islamic country" in the Muslim world. Bin Laden consistently dwelt on the need for violent jihad to right what he believed were injustices against Muslims perpetrated by the United States and sometimes by other non-Muslim states. In his "Letter to the American people" published in 2002, Bin Laden described the formation of the Israeli state as "a crime which must be erased" and demanded that the United States withdraw all of its civilians and military personnel from the Arabian Peninsula, as well as from all Muslim lands.
His viewpoints and methods of achieving them had led to him being designated as a terrorist by scholars, journalists from The New York Times, the BBC, and Qatari news station Al Jazeera, analysts such as Peter Bergen, Michael Scheuer, Marc Sageman, and Bruce Hoffman. He was indicted on terrorism charges by law enforcement agencies in Madrid, New York City, and Tripoli.
Bin Laden supported the targeting of American civilians, in retaliation against US troops indiscriminately attacking Muslims. He asserted that this policy could deter US military from targeting Muslim women and children. Furthermore, he argued that all Americans were complicit in the crimes of their government due to majority of them electing it to power and paying taxes that fund the US military. According to Noah Feldman, Bin Laden's assertion was that "since the United States is a democracy, all citizens bear responsibility for its government's actions, and civilians are therefore fair targets."
Two months after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Bin Laden stated during an interview with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir:
"According to my information, if the enemy occupies an Islamic land and uses its people as human shields, a person has the right to attack the enemy. ... The targets of September 11 were not women and children. The main targets were the symbol of the United States: their economic and military power. Our Prophet Muhammad was against the killing of women and children. When he saw the body of a non-Muslim woman during a war, he asked what the reason for killing her was. If a child is older than thirteen and bears arms against Muslims, killing him is permissible."
I'M
PROTECTED & REWARDED BY A CORRUPT SYSTEM - Sir John Chilcot delivered a devastating critique of Tony Blair’s decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003, concluding that Britain chose to join the US invasion before “peaceful options for disarmament” had been exhausted. His report, which amounts to arguably the most scathing official verdict given on any modern British prime minister, concludes:
- Tony Blair exaggerated the case for war in Iraq
- There was no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein
- Britain’s intelligence agencies produced "flawed information"
- George Bush largely ignored UK advice on postwar planning
- The UK military were ill-equipped for the task
- UK-US relations would not have been harmed had the UK stayed out of the war
Bin Laden's overall strategy for achieving his goals against much larger enemies such as the Soviet Union and United States was to lure them into a long war of attrition in Muslim countries, attracting large numbers of jihadists who would never surrender. He believed this would lead to economic collapse of the enemy countries, by "bleeding" them dry. Al-Qaeda manuals express this strategy. In a 2004 tape broadcast by Al Jazeera, Bin Laden spoke of "bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy".
Bin Laden was heavily anti-Semitic, stating that most of the negative events that occurred in the world were the direct result of Jewish actions. In a December 1998 interview with Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai, Bin Laden stated that Operation Desert Fox was proof that Israeli Jews controlled the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom, directing them to kill as many Muslims as they could. In a letter released in late 2002, he stated that Jews controlled the civilian media outlets, politics, and economic institutions of the United States. In a May 1998 interview with ABC's John Miller, Bin Laden stated that the Israeli state's ultimate goal was to annex the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East into its territory and enslave its peoples, as part of what he called a "Greater Israel". He stated that Jews and Muslims could never get along and that war was "inevitable" between them, and further accused the US of stirring up anti-Islamic sentiment. He claimed that the US State Department and US Department of Defense were controlled by Jews, for the sole purpose of serving the Israeli state's goals. He often delivered warnings against alleged Jewish conspiracies: "These Jews are masters of usury and leaders in treachery. They will leave you nothing, either in this world or the next." Shia Muslims have been listed along with heretics, the United States, and Israel as the four principal enemies of Islam at ideology classes of Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization.
Bin Laden was opposed to music on religious grounds, and his attitude towards technology was mixed. He was interested in earth-moving machinery and genetic engineering of plants on the one hand, but rejected chilled water on the other.
Bin Laden also believed climate change to be a serious threat and penned a letter urging Americans to work with
President Barack Obama to make a rational decision to "save humanity from the harmful gases that threaten its destiny".
PROTECTED
& REWARDED BY A CORRUPT SYSTEM - Don't worry old boy, we'll
brainwash the public as usual. We must strike back at terrorists no
matter how illegally. We write history as we want it to appear.
THE GUARDIAN 6 JULY 2016 - THE IRAQ WAR INQUIRY HAS LEFT THE DOOR OPEN FOR TONY BLAIR TO BE PROSECUTED
Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry has not, in his words, “expressed a view on whether military action [in Iraq] was legal”. That question, he said, could be resolved only by a court. Still less does his report deal with the question of whether Tony Blair or others should face legal action.
However, the Chilcot inquiry did find that the circumstances in which the Blair government decided that there was a legal basis for military action were “far from satisfactory”. The report said that
Lord
Goldsmith, the attorney general, should have been asked to provide written advice to the cabinet on 17 March 2003 explaining the legal basis on which the UK could take military action and setting out the risks of legal challenge.
In fact, Goldsmith started to give ministers an oral explanation, based on a written answer to a parliamentary question which was handed round the cabinet table, and the discussion then moved on.
Section 5 of the report – nearly 170 pages – is devoted to a detailed analysis of the legal advice given by Goldsmith and how it developed over time. Chilcot concluded that the cabinet was not misled by the attorney general on 17 March.
However, he said that ministers were being asked to confirm a decision that the diplomatic process was at an end and that the Commons should be asked to endorse military action. “Given the gravity of the situation,” says the report, “cabinet should have been made aware of the legal uncertainties.”
The report points out that no minister asked Goldsmith why the advice he had given 10 days earlier – that the safest legal course was to seek a second UN resolution – had changed. “There was little appetite to question Lord Goldsmith about his advice and no substantive discussion of the legal issues was recorded,” Chilcot finds. Goldsmith should have been asked to explain how it could be said that Iraq had reached the point at which it had failed to take the final opportunity offered by UN resolution 1441.
Publication of the Chilcot report is unlikely to put an end to calls for Blair and others to be prosecuted before the international criminal court (ICC). It’s argued that Blair should be charged with the crime of aggression, which includes a military attack or invasion not permitted under the UN charter.
More than a decade ago, the former ICC prosecutor explained that he had a mandate to examine conduct during the Iraq war “but not whether the decision to engage in armed conflict was legal”. Luis Moreno-Ocampo added: “I do not have the mandate to address the arguments on the legality of the use of force or the crime of aggression.” Since then, the crime of aggression has been defined in the ICC’s governing statute. However, this provision has not yet been brought into effect and will not be applied retrospectively. So there is no prospect of anyone facing charges of aggression arising from the Iraq war.
The ICC also has jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by UK nationals after June 2002. The current prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, announced in 2014 that she was reopening a “preliminary examination” into allegations that British officials were responsible for “war crimes involving systematic detainee abuse in Iraq from 2003 until 2008”.
In her latest update last November, Bensouda said that in assessing whether “the alleged crimes fall within the jurisdiction of the court and were committed on a large scale or pursuant to a plan or policy”, she would take into account the findings of the relevant investigations conducted by the UK authorities.
A preliminary examination is not the same as an investigation. Its aim is to decide whether an investigation should be opened. The ICC prosecutor has said she will consider the Chilcot report before deciding whether to open a formal investigation. Announcing this on Monday, Bensouda said that a claim in the Sunday Telegraph that she had “ruled out putting Tony Blair on trial for war crimes” was inaccurate.
Bensouda has been kept informed on the progress of investigations by Ihat, the Iraq historic investigations team, and will take its findings into account. This is of immense importance because the ICC steps in only where the state concerned is “unwilling or unable genuinely to carry out the investigation or prosecution”. This is known as the principle of complementarity.
Ihat has nearly 150 staff, including Royal Navy police and civilian investigators. No prosecutions have yet been brought as a result of their work but prosecutors considered bringing charges against two soldiers.
Latest figures supplied to me this week indicate that, by the end of May 2016, Ihat had received 3,363 allegations of potential criminal behaviour. After sifting out cases that did not amount to criminal offences, Ihat is now considering – or has considered – 325 allegations of unlawful killing and 1,343 allegations of ill-treatment, ranging from serious sexual assault to common assault. The figures refer to alleged victims.
Of these 1,668 allegations considered so far, 72 cases of unlawful killing and 18 cases of alleged ill-treatment have been – or are about to be – completed. Ihat has released details of some of its initial decisions. Ihat tells me that the allegation of criminal behaviour was “not sustainable” in 70 of the 72 cases of unlawful killing it has considered.
One allegation of unlawful killing by a soldier has so far been referred to the Service Prosecuting Authority, which takes charging decisions in the same way as the Crown Prosecution Service. The director of service prosecutions, Andrew Cayley QC, decided that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. A second allegation of unlawful killing was referred to the RAF police for further investigation. Allegations of ill-treatment were also found to be unsustainable in 16 of the 18 cases considered.
One ill-treatment case was referred to the director of service prosecutions, who again decided that there was insufficient evidence to proceed. Another soldier who admitted ill-treatment was referred to his commanding officer for disciplinary action and fined £3,000. Video footage of an incident which showed him abusing an Iraqi man was provided to investigators by the Mail on Sunday.
Families of troops who died in the Iraq war are reported to be taking legal advice on whether Blair and others might face action in the civil courts. On Tuesday, General Sir Michael Rose, who has been advising the families, said action might be taken for what he called “malfeasance in a public office”.
Misconduct in public office is, in fact, a common law offence. The crime, which dates back to the 18th century, has recently been criticised for vagueness by the government’s law reform advisers. It may be committed when a public officer, acting as such, wilfully misconducts himself to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public’s trust in him and does so without reasonable excuse or justification.
Although parliament ratified the government’s decision to join the US-led invasion of Iraq, Blair comes in for heavy criticism from Chilcot. Blair presented judgments about Iraq’s capabilities “with a certainty that was not justified”. His conclusions about the aftermath of invasion “did not require the benefit of hindsight”. His omissions “reduced the likelihood of achieving the UK’s strategic objectives in Iraq”.
Blair did not establish clear ministerial oversight of post-conflict strategy. He did not ensure that ministers took the necessary decisions to integrate military and civilian contributions. He did not seek adequate assurances that the UK was in a position to meet its likely obligations in Iraq. He did not ensure that the UK’s strategic objectives were sufficiently tested. He did not press President Bush for assurances about US post-conflict plans. He did not consider whether the absence of such plans was a threat to UK strategic objectives or make post-conflict planning a condition of participation in military action.
Blair’s critics may believe that this amounts to the sort of wilful misconduct envisaged by the judges. On the other hand, authorisation by parliament must surely count as a “reasonable excuse or justification”.
Whether or not the courts would be willing to entertain a prosecution of a former prime minister for what may be seen as political failings, we can be sure that actions such as these were not in the minds of the judges when they developed the crime of misconduct in public office.
Tony
Blair was advised of an aircraft anti-terrorist system, a British Patent application,
but did nothing to investigate the possibilities of such a system with the
military of civilian aviation authorities. He did though reply to a letter
advising of the proposed development, that may be useful against other aggression,
such as the September 11 2001, Al
Qaeda attack on the Pentagon and Twin Towers.
[On
top of that, the public may consider that the British honour system,
sanctioned by the State, with the Queen as the Head of State, calls into
question the level of corruption that Parliament has allowed to creep into
the non-constitution that allows the Royals to sway the Courts, as surely as
if they were sitting in the chamber with the Judges, saying nothing, but
nevertheless, watching as a way of steering the so-called independence of
the British Justice system. Reference: R v Sussex Justices, ex parte
McCarthy 1924]
PROTECTED
& REWARDED BY A CORRUPT STATE - More than half a million people have called on the government to rescind the knighthood given to Sir Tony Blair, but Keir Starmer has defended the former prime minister, saying the honour was deserved.
Is Tony Blair a worthy recipient of the Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter? There is good and bad in all of us. Without doubt, Blair accomplished a good deal of things one might count as political successes, but he failed to tackle planning crime, and the judicial system is as unjust now as it was in his day. Equally, he failed to bring the law up to date to provide British subject with an Effective Remedy. And then, he pulled the flanker of all time, in effect lying to parliament and the people about the reasoning behind launching an attack on Iraq.
If that is rewarded with honours, then there is something seriously wrong with Britain and the thinking of those at the helm. And it is high time for a constitutional revolution, to get UK policies in line with the thinking of the electorate. The reason the Pilgrim Founding Father's striking out in the Mayflower, for America, was to rid themselves of European and British cruelties. As UK citizens cannot strike out like that for a fresh start, the only alternative is to disinfect our societal shortcomings, starting at the top for a national cure, working backwards or local authorities. This must be achieved via political means, by the voter, voting for change. And, to make that happen, we need honest candidates with decent policies. We need fresh faces, with high ideals, untainted by cronyist contact with the evils and comforts of the present system.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62387167
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62387167
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