Just in:
Lisboeta Macau’s world first LINE FRIENDS PRESENTS CASA DE AMIGO and BROWN & FRIENDS CAFE & BISTRO has officially opened // Hope for Respite as UAE Endorses UN Plea for Gaza Truce // Melco Style Presents “SANRIO CHARACTERS STUDIO CITY CARNIVAL” – Explore a SANRIO World of Unlimited Love and Cuteness // German Job Market Resilience Bodes Well for Economic Recovery // Arvind Kejriwal Was Used By BJP In 2011 Movement To Take On The Congress // Ingdan Announces 2023 Annual Results // AIA Hong Kong Wins More Than 20 Accolades at MPF Ratings MPF Awards, BENCHMARK MPF of The Year Awards and Bloomberg Businessweek Top Fund Awards // Infineon and HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering jointly develop ship electrification technology // Sharjah Chamber Breaks Ground on Final Expansion with New HQ Pact // First-Ever Fortune Innovation Forum Draws Top Global Leaders to Hong Kong, Promoting Agendas On Collective Cross-Sector Advancement // New Nylon Constant Torque Hinge From Southco Provides Position Control In A Compact Package // Emirati Aid Reaches Ukraine as Food Shortages Bite // Universal Language for Healthcare: General Authority Embraces Global Coding System // Ajman Celebrates Conclusion of Ramadan Activities with Grand Ceremony // U.S. Compliance Takes Center Stage at OKX Following Industry Jitters // No running of govt from jail, says Delhi Lt Governor // Experience Ultimate Shopping Freedom at 4.4 Shopee Spree: Don’t Worry, Shop Shopee! // Following the Money Trail: US and UK Investigate $20 Billion in USDT Transfers Tied to Sanctioned Russian Exchange // Samsung Partners National Heritage Board to Bring a Slice of Singapore’s Cultural Heritage to Samsung The Frame TV // Sunshine’s Debut Features Leave Tech World Scratching Its Head //
HomeNewsboxProtest of U.S. Terror Listing Offers a Glimpse at Qaeda Strategy

Protest of U.S. Terror Listing Offers a Glimpse at Qaeda Strategy

18Nusra facebookJumbo

Photo

Nusra Front fighters in Idlib Province, Syria, in 2015. In what analysts say is a calculated move to hide ties to Al Qaeda, the Nusra Front recently rebranded itself and changed its name to Jabhat Fath al-Sham, or the Levant Conquest Front.

Credit
Ammar Abdullah/Reuters

American officials accuse him of being part of the “inner leadership circle” of Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, most widely known as the Nusra Front, and of raising as much as $5 million for the terrorist group while signing up thousands of fighters, American officials say.

But Abdallah Muhammad al-Muhaysini insists that he could not be more surprised to learn that the United States Treasury Department had designated him as a terrorist and ordered his funds frozen.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Today, Syrians are shocked to find that the United States has put on the terror list a person whom they consider to be a national symbol,” Mr. Muhaysini said in a Skype interview with The New York Times last week. “It’s a very bizarre thing,”

“Abdallah al-Muhaysini is an independent figure,” he added. “How can the American State Department describe Abdallah al-Muhaysini as belonging to Fath al-Sham?” he said, using a version of the Nusra Front’s new name.

‘A Lack of Understanding’

Until now, Mr. Muhaysini, a 31-year-old Saudi-born cleric who said he was calling from Aleppo, Syria, had not been the type to contact Western publications.

That he is doing so is most likely a reflection of how the Nusra Front is trying to buy itself some flexibility by publicly rebranding — even if no one in counterterrorism circles believes it is truly changing. In the contest within the jihadist world for recruits and resources, and to try to evade military reprisals from foreign powers, public relations efforts have become paramount.

In what analysts say is a calculated move to hide its ties to Al Qaeda, the Nusra Front recently rebranded itself as a local insurgency against the government of Bashar al-Assad, declaring that it no longer intended to target the West and changing its name — to Jabhat Fath al-Sham, or the Levant Conquest Front.

ADVERTISEMENT

But experts and intelligence officials say the group is still an essential part of Al Qaeda, committed as ever to competing with the Islamic State for territory and support and leaving the fight against pro-Assad forces a lower priority.

Colin P. Clarke, an analyst at the RAND Corporation, argues that the Nusra Front is actually the biggest of Al Qaeda’s branches, with approximately 10,000 fighters. And he characterized the group’s public split from Al Qaeda as “simply a feint,” a way for the group to hunker down and rebuild as the Islamic State gets pounded by airstrikes.

“It has been used to give themselves a little bit of breathing room,” Mr. Clarke said.

Just as officials and analysts were not buying the Nusra Front’s attempt to rebrand, they will not be trusting Mr. Muhaysini’s protests that he is merely a religious scholar with no stake in the jihadist competition in Syria.

Experts on the Nusra Front agree with American and European officials in considering Mr. Muhaysini to be a senior leader in the group, with deep ties to Al Qaeda’s international network. And in his public communications up to now, Mr. Muhaysini himself has left little room between his positions and Al Qaeda’s, appearing in social media posts eulogizing dead Qaeda leaders and encouraging suicide bombers. His biography has even appeared in the Qaeda magazine Al Risalah.

Over a Skype interview on Friday, from a room illuminated by a single fluorescent bulb, Mr. Muhaysini seemed relaxed, often breaking into a toothy grin as he insisted that he posed no threat to the West.

When asked, he acknowledged having contacted Ayman al-Zawahri, the global chief of Al Qaeda. “In 2014, yes, I talked to Ayman Zawahri because he is an old and generous sheikh and I asked him to speak about Daesh because he has a huge audience,” he said, using a derogatory acronym for the Islamic State. “I wanted him to talk about Daesh to prevent the youth from joining.”

He describes the images that have appeared of him with other well-known Qaeda leaders, and the comments he has made about them, as similar to photographs that might emerge from a summit meeting in which President Obama is seen sitting next to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. “It doesn’t mean that they share an ideology,” he said.

After he was listed by the Treasury Department, Mr. Muhaysini contacted The Times via an intermediary. To confirm his identity, The Times compared his image on Skype to his official portrait, as well as his voice to previous recordings issued by him. He further interacted with The Times using his official Twitter account — which, with over 60,000 followers, has become a reference point for jihadists in Syria.

“I am very well known. I am like a sheikh,” he said, saying he was Skyping from a location in Aleppo Province — a detail that could not be confirmed. “People around me told me to hide my location. But I can’t hide anything because I’m known to everyone. I couldn’t be working secretly for anyone.”

Thomas Joscelyn is an analyst who has been tracking Mr. Muhaysini since 2013 and has documented his close ties to Al Qaeda. Among the signs that Mr. Joscelyn says point to Mr. Muhaysini’s allegiance to Al Qaeda is the fact that he tried to play a mediating role after the Islamic State began clashing with Al Qaeda in Syria. After Al Qaeda’s leadership disowned the Islamic State in 2014, Mr. Muhaysini took to his popular Twitter feed to tell Islamic State members to defect to the Qaeda group, referring to Al Qaeda’s leader as “the sheikh of the mujahedeen.”

Mr. Muhaysini’s description of himself as an independent observer is part of Al Qaeda’s strategy of not broadcasting its allegiance, and of using local groups as a fig leaf to obscure its real goals, Mr. Joscelyn said.

“We consider this be to be a play out of Al Qaeda’s playbook,” he said. “They want to have ambiguity about their organizational affiliations, because it makes it more difficult for them to achieve their goals if they are known as Al Qaeda — so we don’t take these denials at face value.”

Continue reading the main story

NYtimes

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT
Just in:
Global Audience to Witness Thrill of Dubai World Cup // Sunshine’s Debut Features Leave Tech World Scratching Its Head // New Nylon Constant Torque Hinge From Southco Provides Position Control In A Compact Package // Andertoons by Mark Anderson for Thu, 28 Mar 2024 // Melco Style Presents “SANRIO CHARACTERS STUDIO CITY CARNIVAL” – Explore a SANRIO World of Unlimited Love and Cuteness // French Leaders Gather for Interfaith Iftar Dinner // Infineon and HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering jointly develop ship electrification technology // 2024 Lok Sabha Elections Will Be The Costliest One Till Now In The Whole World // Sharjah Chamber Breaks Ground on Final Expansion with New HQ Pact // AIA Hong Kong Wins More Than 20 Accolades at MPF Ratings MPF Awards, BENCHMARK MPF of The Year Awards and Bloomberg Businessweek Top Fund Awards // Following the Money Trail: US and UK Investigate $20 Billion in USDT Transfers Tied to Sanctioned Russian Exchange // No running of govt from jail, says Delhi Lt Governor // Lisboeta Macau’s world first LINE FRIENDS PRESENTS CASA DE AMIGO and BROWN & FRIENDS CAFE & BISTRO has officially opened // Emirati Aid Reaches Ukraine as Food Shortages Bite // Konica Minolta is named ASEAN 2023 Market Leader in Colour Light and Mid Digital Production Printers // German Job Market Resilience Bodes Well for Economic Recovery // Hope for Respite as UAE Endorses UN Plea for Gaza Truce // Ingdan Announces 2023 Annual Results // Sharpening the Focus: Sharjah Health Department Refines Evaluation Criteria for “Healthy Schools Programme” // First-Ever Fortune Innovation Forum Draws Top Global Leaders to Hong Kong, Promoting Agendas On Collective Cross-Sector Advancement //