al-Qaeda

In the beginning, Salafi Islam is non-political ideology. But it’s morphed into a political and religious ideology adopted by Islamists. The Jihadis are obsessed with a confrontation with the West. But Al-Qaeda represents a thoughtful, planned approach while ISIS wants that fight, right now. What is Salafism? Salafis are fundamentalists. They want to return to […]

When in the Middle East, speaking to the average citizen, you’ll hear them refer to groups like ISIL as takfiri. But it’s seldom mentioned here in the United States. Wikipedia defines takfiri as a Sunni Muslim who accuses another Muslim of apostasy. The accusation itself is called takfir, derived from the word kafir, and is described as when […]

It seems red flags are repeatedly being missed in regards to the radical Islamic terrorists here in the US. Looking into the past of Ahmad Rahami, the latest radical Islamic terrorist to carry out a terrorist attack on US soil, he began traveling to Quetta, Pakistan and Afghanistan multiple times over the past several of years. After […]

The Muslim Brotherhood is winning seats in Jordan’s parliament. Many know terror groups as an existential threat because they commit acts of violence. However, they’re rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood dating back to the 1980’s in Egypt, where intellectuals like Sayyid Qutb began, writing, thinking and speaking out against the status quo. Osama Bin Laden […]

The feds have arrested a Queens college student who once called al Qaeda “too moderate,” saying he plotted to attack targets in New York City on behalf of the Islamic State terror group, The Post has learned. Munther Omar Saleh, 20, was busted on June 13 after he and an unidentified cohort ran towards an undercover […]

The U.S. has teams of special operations troops on the ground in Syria to support some Sunni Arab militias in fights against ISIS. Other Sunni Arab groups receive money and weapons from the U.S. In some situations, they fight alongside al Nusra militants against common enemies like ISIS.

That ambiguity will frustrate the Russians.

“The Russia would like to make it black and white, and say ‘U.S., you tell your guys to separate form Nusra.’ But I can’t see the U.S. being that black and white about it,” Lopour said.

U.S. Special Operation Forces are helping the Syrian Kurdish police known as Asayish in their task to provide security to the newly liberated town of Manbij.

The war in Afghanistan is both different and the same as Iraq. The Afghanistan theatre is seen as a righteous war. Iraq is not. The Iraqis have shown more progress than the Afghans. Empire after empire entered Afghanistan and went home empty-handed. Maybe because there’s nothing to do there. Except our Afghan war has much to […]

This year, before Duterte became president on June 30, the Pentagon announced agreements with the Philippines that will allow for more frequent rotations of American troops and joint sea and air patrols with Philippine forces in the South China Sea. The changes were seen as a way of checking China’s disputed claims to territory there, including reefs and waters belonging to the Philippines.

It’s an open secret that the Rebels receive Toyota trucks. It’s en vogue to blame the U.S. and other Western forces for training the would-be terrorist groups. This gives extremely high praise to the training and the resources they receive. Why would any force knowingly train a force to be very effective against their interests?

Brennan said that compared to al Qaeda, Daesh is a lot less “deliberate” in its planning and more “free-wheeling,” willing to carry out attacks on shorter notice.
“You look at 9/11 and other major attacks, and it was very deliberate, methodical, a lot of planning went into it. I think ISIL tries to move from idea to bang within months or within weeks,” Brennan said, using the administration’s preferred acronym for Daesh .

On the map legend, the rebels and al-Nusra are the same identifying color. It’s that hard to distinguish their operations and operating space.