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The AP reported last week that "U.S. officials from the State Department and White House plan to continue a series of secret meetings with Taliban representatives." The AP report went on to say that "one member of the Taliban negotiating team has been publicly identified as Tayyab Aga [Agha], an emissary of Pakistan-based Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar." But sadly, and ironically, while the Obama administration is desperately reaching out to Mullah Omar, Mr. Omar is strengthening his resolve to kill US troops and to wreak havoc upon Afghanistan. From the Times of India: Taliban militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan...

PHOTO CAPTION - SNIPPET: "Officials believe that more members of the so-called Düsseldorf cell may still be at large." SNIPPET: "Halil S. is a man who knows his way around computers. When he went online..." SNIPPET: "German security officials allege that the 27-year-old is the fourth member of the so-called "Düsselfdorf Cell." The group is believed to be the al-Qaida cell currently active in Germany and tasked with carrying out a major attack in Europe. Three other members of the cell, Moroccan Abdeladim el-K. and two accomplices, were arrested in late April and are being held in custody. Authorities believe...

Startling revelations by French intelligence experts back David Shayler's alleged 'fantasy'about Gadaffi plot Martin Bright, home affairs editor Sunday November 10, 2002 The Observer British intelligence paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996 and thwarted early attempts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice. The latest claims of MI6 involvement with Libya's fearsome Islamic Fighting Group, which is connected to one of bin Laden's trusted lieutenants, will be embarrassing to the Government, which described similar claims by renegade MI5 officer David Shayler as 'pure fantasy'. The...

They identified him as one of Bin Laden's couriers, an aide the terror chief trusted with his life. But details were scant and agents quickly found the trail went cold. It was not until 2004, when Al Qaeda operative Hassan Ghul was captured in Iraq, that the CIA began to make progress. Ghul told the intelligence service that al-Kuwaiti was a courier and that he was close to Faraj al-Libi, Al Qaeda's operational commander, who replaced Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.The pace of the pursuit then picked when U.S. soldiers captured al-Libi. Under CIA interrogation, al-Libi admitted that when he was promoted...

WikiLeaks: Osama bin Laden Killed After Tip-Off From His Deputy The mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, who was interrogated using “torture” techniques, gave the United States the breakthrough that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden. 02 May 2011 Follow Tim Ross on Twitter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), who was repeatedly subjected to methods including “waterboarding” and stress positions, provided the CIA with the name of bin Laden’s personal courier, according to US officials. A second source – also an al-Qaeda “leader” held at Guantanamo Bay – then confirmed the courier’s identity, sparking an intense manhunt that resulted in...

(CNN) -- SNIPPET: "The charge centers around a one-way ticket that authorities allege Abdel Hameed Shehadeh purchased from Queens, New York, to Islamabad, Pakistan. Shehadeh originally told investigators that the purpose of his trip was to visit an Islamic university and attend a friend's engagement party. But he later admitted to FBI agents in Hawaii that he bought the ticket in order to join a fighting group such as the Taliban, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in New York Monday."

PHOTO CAPTION: "Banner for the Al Qaeda 313 Brigade website/forum. Pictured, from left to right, are Mustafa Abu Yazid, Abu Laith al Libi, and Ilyas Kashmiri." ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A website connected to al Qaeda's military arm in Pakistan has sprung up on the Internet in the past month. The website, called Al Qaeda Brigade 313, at www.aqbrigade313.com, was registered on June 2, 2010, and became active in early July. The site has 86 registered users and five administrators, according to a report at the Open Source Center that was obtained by The Long War Journal. The website contains a forum...

"Abu Yahya al-Libi’s Long, Lonely Journey" SNIPPET: "On 29 April 2010, Abu Yahya al-Libi penned a statement entitled, “Jihad and the Battle of Dubious Claims.” Released in early June, this essay is nothing if not one of his seminal works." SNIPPET: "I’m just not seeing how this essay is going to be rousing jihadists to action any time soon. I see in his writing a man that has been continuously reading, thinking and talking about the steep hill that global jihadist movement must trudge. But I also see a man who is growing frustrated with what he believes to be...

Hi everyone – apologies for the hiatus. I’ve been underwater lately with work and hitting the media circuit so the blog drew the short end of the stick. I’m back in the saddle and have some exciting things in the pipeline that should break soon. While you wait, here’s a long-overdue round-up of my recent antics:

SNIPPET: "Some comments • I have to assume that al-Balawi was thoroughly debriefed by al-Qaida before being sent on this mission, and I'm surprised no one has sought to correlate his "infiltration" of al-Qaida with Abu Yahya al-Libi's book released over the summer: "Guidance on the Ruling of the Muslim Spy" • See also: Al Qaida: Western Spies Multiply "Like Locusts"."

(CBS) A U.S. government official says a top al Qaeda operative has been killed in a drone attack in western Pakistan and local media says that the strike killed al Qaeda's number 3 in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi, CBS's Sami Yousafzai reports. The U.S. is still not confirming the report, CBS News has learned. Abu Yahya al-Libi is the spiritual successor to Palestinian philosopher Abu Azzam - and the inspiration for much of Bin Laden's beliefs, according to CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan. He is very powerful and believed by some to be the natural successor to...

SNIPPET: "According to one of my most trusted sources, the blurry image seen on the tape is indeed Osama bin Laden. One of the reasons that this is convincing is that the blurry image remains in the video. As Sahab, which produces al Qaeda's propaganda, is very selective in the information it releases, and rarely leaves garbage in its videos. As Sahab intentionally leaves in this clip, for reasons unknown. Does al Qaeda want to generate a buzz? Is this a hidden message? Perhaps this is a precursor to a new bin Laden tape?"

SNIPPET: "New Abu Yahya al-Libi video released on 6 OCT – I havent had a chance to blog for awhile so I thought I’d go through the transcript line-by-line, pulling out anything that I find of note, and then annotate as I go through it. One quick note: Abu Yahya is no longer wearing his pinky ring, the one that he’s been wearing since late 2005 – this is the first video that I havent seen it (although it may just be at the shop getting cleaned) – here’s a screen cap:" SNIPPET: "Wow, could I be any more right...

Rome, 7 October (AKI) - A leading Al-Qaeda militant on Wednesday called on Muslims worldwide to defend Uighurs in China's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang. He told Uighurs to prepare for a holy war or Jihad and urged a "vast media campaign" to raise awareness of their fate at the hands of "oppressive" China.

SNIPPET: "But this is the only answer I can give, because the terms of the question are out of date. If you're asking whether the United States has defeated al Qaeda, you also have to ask: Which al Qaeda are we talking about? The senior leaders operating somewhere in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan? The al Qaeda franchises around the world, most notably in Iraq, Algeria, and Yemen? Or the global ideological following, sparked by al Qaeda, calling itself al Qaeda, but not technically affiliated with al Qaeda? If you ask about winning, you have to also ask...

Just so we’re all on the same page, Abu Yahya al-Libi has an older brother. His name is `Abd al-Wahhab Qayid (Abu Idris). Remember, Abu Yahya al-Libi’s name is Hasan Qaid (transliterated differently in popular media). What makes this story significant, is that Abu Idris is one of the imprisoned senior leaders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) who recently renounced armed violence. And there’s the rub. The guy poised to take over al-Qaida has an older brother who is a senior member of the group that Abu Yahya used to be a member of who is now renouncing...

SNIPPET: "In other words, AQ thinks that democracy is being used to labotomize Islam. He proves my point in this new statement with this:" SNIPPET: "By the way, got a great look at his watch tonight, if you’re interested…"

SNIPPET: "Of course, one can't rule out that the "spy" is a real jihadi, and that the erstwhile spy-catchers are really working for Jordanian intelligence."

The Abu Yahya Show Just in case you havent been to the forums lately, here’s what you see when you log on:

Note: Photos included. SNIPPET: "The statement can be boiled down to these three questions:" SNIPPET: "In short, this was a pep talk for AQ’s supporters in Pakistan, a warning to those who oppose them, and a rallying cry to jihadists worldwide."

SNIPPET: "So, I’m finally sitting down with this 149 page-book, entitled, “The Ruling on the Muslim Spy.” Here’ s what I’ve noticed off-the-bat about Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri’s forward." SNIPPET: "But then I remembered that the big-daddy al-Zawahiri’s ‘best-of’ list can be extracted from his winding book, Exoneration. In this book, al-Zawahiri drafts his all-star list, which includes everyone above and a whole lot more. It’s a ‘who’s who’ of contemporary jihadi thought. Test yourself and see how many you can identify. There’s some little gems buried in this list… Shaykh Ahmad Shakir Shaykh Mahmud Shakir Shaykh Muhammad Ibn-Ibrahim Al al-Shaykh...

A new book published by Al Qaeda shows that the terrorist group is under intense pressure and in "deathly fear" of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Pakistan, terror experts say. The 150-page book, titled "Guide to the Laws Regarding Muslim Spies," was recently posted on jihadist Web sites. It was written by a senior Al Qaeda commander, Abu Yahya Al-Libi, and features an introduction by Ayman Al-Zawahri, the No. 2 man in Al Qaeda. The book accuses some in Al Qaeda's ranks of being spies who provide intelligence, including information about Al Qaeda camps and safehouses, to U.S. forces. According to...

SNIPPET: "So, what I’m seeing here is that the death of these two Mauritanian scholars offered a convenient opportunity for al-Qaida to start co-branding Abu Yahya al-Libi and Atiyah abd al-Rahman (Attiyatallah) together as the unified tip of al-Qaida’s ideological spear. In other words, the leadership transition has begun. The heirs are no longer apparent. They have been named. It began with letters to al-Zarqawi and videotaped interviews and recorded statements and sermons. The naming continued with getting props in Exoneration and photoshoots and now joint releases. This jointly written eulogy release (I have never seen AQ release a two-authored...

Abu Yahya al-Libi circles back to Algeria today in his new video, “Algeria Between the Sacrifice of Fathers and Faithfulness of Sons.” In short, it seems like a call for direct action to the AQIM guys against Algerian military/government targets and a broader recruiting call to the broader Maghrebi jihadi population.

UK 'ignored spy's al-Qaeda fear' Hamza was spied on by Nasiri UK intelligence services were warned of the threat posed by al-Qaeda in the mid 1990s but did not act quickly enough, says a spy who infiltrated the network.The agent told the BBC he warned his handlers that al-Qaeda was better organised than was previously thought. Known by the pseudonym of Omar Nasiri, he worked for intelligence in the UK and France, and trained in Afghanistan. Mr Nasiri also claimed a senior al-Qaeda operative planted evidence to provoke the US into war against Iraq. Ibn Sheikh Al-Libi fabricated links...

Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 14 04:31 PM Age: 11 hrs By: Urged by a senior al-Qaeda ideologue to take over Pakistan, members of jihadi internet forums have begun to examine the possibility of controlling Pakistan’s nuclear weapons (al-faloja1.com, April 24). At the same time, jihadis continue to collect information on nuclear facilities around the globe, especially Israel’s nuclear projects, waiting for an opportunity to perpetrate successful terrorist attacks against these facilities after massive terrorist attacks using conventional weapons failed to give rise to the global supremacy of Islamic law (al-faloja1.com, April 22). On March 14, al-Fajr Media Center...

Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, whose real name was Ali Mohammed al-Fakheri, 46, took his own life in his prison cell, according to the Libyan newspaper Oea. Information gained from the interrogation of al-Libi was cited on several occasions by the Bush administration as justification for the war in Iraq. He told his CIA interrogators that al-Qaeda had sent two men to Iraq to seek training in chemical and biological weapons in December 2000. Classified documents added that the men did not return, so al-Libi did not know whether the training took place, and that, in any case, he was probably "intentionally...

This morning, Al-Fajr Media launched a new 29-page book by Abu Yahya al-Libi entitled, A Spear to Fight the Government and the Army of Pakistan It’s chalk full of ideo-religious stuff in order to lay a groundwork for overthrowing Islamic regimes, something that most of Islamic history declares a big no-no. This is just one more chapter in the long book of Abu Yahya’s attempt to rewrite Islam from within. It’s his attempt to labotomize the religion and cram it full of Abu Yahya’isms. In my view, ABu Yahya is Machiavellian in his ambition. Few seem to get how scary...

Special Dispatch - No. 2323 April 22, 2009 No. 2323 Al-Qaeda Commander Abu Yahya Al-Libi in New Video: There Is No Difference Between Palestine and Other Jihads – Including Al-Andalus; If Helping the Israelis Is Apostasy, So Is Helping the U.S. In a 59-minute video produced by Al-Sahab, Al-Qaeda's media wing, and posted on jihadist forums on April 22, 2009, senior Al-Qaeda commander Abu Yahya Al-Libi tries to convince Islamist clerics of Al-Qaeda's positions on fighting against the U.S. and against the regimes in Muslim countries.

The US Department of State has issued multi-million dollar rewards for two senior Taliban leaders and an al Qaeda leader and propagandist. Up to $5 million dollars has been offered "for information leading to the location and/or capture" of Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud or Taliban and al Qaeda ally Sirajuddin Haqqani. A $1 million bounty has been offered for information leading to the capture or conviction of al Qaeda propagandist and ideologue Abu Yahya al Libi.

"O God, humiliate Bush and his party, O Lord of the Worlds, degrade and defy him," Abu Yahya al-Libi said at the end of sermon marking the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr, in a video posted on the Internet.

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

Al Qaeda released Sunday on militant Web sites a new video eulogy of its top Afghanistan strategist Abu Laith al-Libi, showing his corpse for the first time. Two new tapes have been released to commemorate the death of the Al Qaeda commander, who was killed by a CIA Predator drone attack in Afghanistan in late January. The first tape is the second part of Zawahiri's Abu Laith eulogy tape. The first part was released last week.

Kuwait City, 5 Feb. (AKI) - The US air raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Abu Layth al-Libi in Pakistan is reported to have also killed three other leaders from the terrorist network. According to the Kuwaiti daily, al-Watan, two Kuwaitis and a Libyan also died in the missile attack conducted by a Predator aircraft on January 25 in Mir Ali, in North Waziristan on the border of Afghanistan. The daily said the attack was aimed at what was believed to have been an al-Qaeda summit meeting. Abu Obeida Tawari al-Obeidi and Abu Adel al-Kuwaiti were reportedly there with al-Libi.Abu Adel...

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. success in killing a top al Qaeda operative this week showed that cooperation with Pakistan can be fruitful but security analysts said there were limits to what the present strategy can achieve. Analysts said the unmanned Predator air strike that apparently killed Abu Laith al-Libi in a remote area of Pakistan demonstrated that the United States has the military reach and intelligence sources to carry out a precision attack on a specific target with Pakistani consent. But U.S. participation in a ground offensive against al Qaeda strongholds along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border is unlikely....

A leading al Qaeda member in Afghanistan, Abu Laith al-Libi, has been killed, a Web site often used by the group and other Islamists said on Thursday. A banner on the Ekhlaas.org site said Libi had fallen as a martyr, without giving further details. It was not immediately clear if Libi's death was linked to a suspected U.S. missile strike that killed up to 13 foreign militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan region this week. The attack had targeted second or third tier al Qaeda leaders, according to residents in the tribal area. Tribesmen in the area had said a deputy...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A senior al Qaeda terrorist active in operational planning and training has been killed, a Western official said Thursday. He identified the terrorist as Abu Laith al-Libbi. The official said al-Libbi is "not far below the importance of the top two al Qaeda leaders" -- Osama bin Laden and Ayman al -Zawahiri.

It is rare to get an insider's perspective on the emergence of al-Qaeda. It is also rare to get a glimpse of the world of spies and agents. To provide both is incredibly unusual. Omar Nasiri - not his real name but one chosen to protect his identity - says he spent seven years working as an agent for European intelligence services and as an al-Qaeda operative, part of the time in the UK. He provides a unique insight into how al-Qaeda was far more organised, coherent and determined in the 1990s than was appreciated at the time. Jihad militants...

New light is being shed on the 2001 anthrax attacks in a fascinating open letter to Ayman al Zawahiri of al Qaeda, written by a jihadi living in London. Numan Bin Uthman, a former leader of an armed Islamic group in Libya, provides yet more evidence that the global Islamic jihad movement is losing its resolve.  But the letter contains a startling admission. Uthman tells us of a conversation he had with al Qaeda leaders before the 9/11 attacks in which he urged them not to use WMD. From AKI News: Uthman also said that he had taken part in...

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida's No. 2 figure harshly criticized Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in a new audio tape Saturday, accusing him of being an enemy of Islam and threatening a wave of attacks against the North African country because it improved relations with the U.S. ADVERTISEMENT In the 28-minute audio tape called "Unity of the Ranks," Ayman al-Zawahri also announced that the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group was joining ranks with al-Qaida. "The Islamic nation is witnessing a blessed step ... The brothers are escalating the confrontation against the enemies of Islam: Gadhafi and his masters, the Washington crusaders," al-Zawahri said...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Fourteen suspected terrorists listed as "high-value detainees" at the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been designated as enemy combatants, placing them in line to be charged and put on trial by the U.S. military, Pentagon officials said Thursday. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of 9/11, was moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last September. The detainees -- including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States -- were moved to Guantanamo Bay by the president last September after being held in secret CIA prisons around the world....

CAIRO, Egypt: An al-Qaida commander who escaped from a U.S. prison called on Pakistanis in a new Web video to overthrow President Gen. Pervez Musharraf as revenge for the killing of a pro-Taliban cleric in the Red Mosque showdown. The video was issued by Abu Yahia al-Libi, who broke out of the Bagram Air Base prison north of Kabul in 2005 and who Western and Afghan intelligence officials believe has since worked training suicide bombers in a camp in eastern Afghanistan. "O people of jihad (Holy War) in Pakistan ... hurry up and get rid of this corrupt and tyrannical...

Excerpt - CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A purported al-Qaida in Afghanistan commander claimed in an audiotape released early Friday the group is willing to swap prisoners with the United States, Britain and other countries. The audiotape's authenticity could not independently be confirmed but it was posted on a website commonly used by Islamic militants. It opened with a short section that said it was produced by as-Sahab, the al-Qaida media production wing. It was accompanied by two still photos of a bearded man identified as Abu Laith al-Libi, a Libyan al-Qaida operative believed to be behind a suicide bombing that...

FORT BLISS, Texas - A man once considered a top al-Qaida operative escaped from a U.S.-run detention facility in Afghanistan and cannot testify against the soldier who allegedly mistreated him, a defense lawyer involved in a prison abuse case said Tuesday. Omar al-Farouq was one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants in Southeast Asia until Indonesian authorities captured him in the summer of 2002 and turned him over to the United States. A Pentagon official in Washington confirmed Tuesday evening that al-Farouq escaped from a U.S. detention facility in Bagram, Afghanistan, on July 10. The official spoke on condition of...

CAIRO, EGYPT - In a new video posted Thursday on the Internet, an al-Qaida militant who escaped from a U.S. prison in Afghanistan urged Sunni militants in Iraq to join the terror group and claimed the U.S. military's security plan for Baghdad has failed. Abu Yahia al-Libi, who broke out of the U.S. prison at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul in 2005, said it was the sacred duty of all mujahedeen, or holy warriors, to "stand steadfast together." He called on militant groups known as Ansar al-Sunnah, the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Army of the Mujahedeen to...

The metamorphosis of Condoleezza Rice from the chrysalis of the protégé into the butterfly of the State Department has not been a natural evolution but has demanded self-discipline. She has burnished an image of the ultimate loyalist, yet betrayed her mentor, George H.W. Bush's national security advisor Brent Scowcroft. She is the team player, yet carefully inserted knives in the back of her predecessor, Colin Powell, climbing up them like a ladder of success. She is the person most trusted on foreign policy by the president, yet was an enabler for Vice President Cheney and the neoconservatives. Now her public...

Laura Mansfield discloses that As Sahab will release a new Al Qaeda video tape soon. "According to banners placed on several Arabic language message boards, it appears that Al Qaeda's media production arm, As Sahab, will be releasing a new video tape 'soon.' This tape does not show either Osama Bin Laden or Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri, but instead features an address by Abu Yahya al Libi." UPDATE: ABC News reports that al Libi, who escaped from a US prison at Bagram, Afghanistan in 2005, will honor Umar Faruq, who was killed in Iraq by British troops in September. See...

June 28, 2006 - The capture of Ibn Al-Shaykhal-Libi was said to be one of the first big breakthroughs in the war against Al Qaeda. It was also the start of the post-9/11 mythologizing of the terror group. According to the official history of the Bush administration, al-Libi (a nom de guerre meaning "the Libyan")

WASHINGTON - Before he was captured last spring, Osama Bin Laden's top operational commander was solely focused on killing President Bush and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharaff, the Daily News has learned. The capture last May of Al Qaeda's No. 3 leader, Abu Faraj Al-Libi, apparently thwarted plots to assassinate the two partners in the global war on terror, said a senior Pakistani official, whose information was corroborated by two senior U.S. counterterrorism officials. "Al-Libi had one mission: Kill Bush and Musharraf," the Pakistani official told The News. "He wanted to kill Bush in the White House, preferably." "It was...

WASHINGTON - Before he was captured last spring, Osama Bin Laden's top operational commander was solely focused on killing President Bush and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharaff, the Daily News has learned. The capture last May of Al Qaeda's No. 3 leader, Abu Faraj Al-Libi, apparently thwarted plots to assassinate the two partners in the global war on terror, said a senior Pakistani official, whose information was corroborated by two senior U.S. counterterrorism officials. "Al-Libi had one mission: Kill Bush and Musharraf," the Pakistani official told The News. "He wanted to kill Bush in the White House, preferably." "It was...