Malhama Tactical Is An Islamist Private Military Contractor That Was Known As The 'Blackwater Of Jihad'

The fate of Uzbek jihadist Abu Rofiq who started Malhama Tactical remains unclear YouTube

The Independent: Inside the 'Blackwater of Jihad': The private security company training extremists in Syria

Malhama Tactical is an Islamist private military contractor that means business and has operated across a number of states, including Syria – its name means ‘great war’ or Armageddon

They wear the latest and most advanced body armour and helmets, camouflage gear and anti-ballistic sunglasses: the fashion statement favoured by frontline private security companies across the world’s combat zones. But Malhama Tactical is not from the West like most of the others. Its fighters are in Syria training Islamists: a “Blackwater of jihad” who have found a new way of cashing in on the self-styled “caliphate”.

Blackwater became the most high-profile of Western security contractors in Iraq, gaining notoriety as the most violent and aggressive of the corporate military firms that spotted a highly lucrative trade following the “liberation” of the country in 2003. Such firms were largely immune from scrutiny or prosecution: that changed after a particularly bloody day in Baghdad.

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WNU Editor: I would love to know who "bankrolled" these guys.

Canada's Growing Islamic Jihad Problem

In this video image, a member of the so-called Toronto 18 fires a gun at a training camp outside of the city. Four people have now been convicted in the terror plot.

More Canadians Turning To Violent Jihad: Mountie -- CTV

The Mountie in charge of investigating terrorist threats says he's alarmed at the growing number of Canadians adopting violent jihad.

Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud said RCMP are aware of a number of Canadians who are currently training at Islamic terror camps.

"We have some in Pakistan, we see some in Somalia, we see them in Afghanistan," he said.

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My Comment: An ominous warning to all Canadians (myself included) .... but no one is listening.

The Jihadist Next Door

Left, Omar Hammami as a freshman in high school. Right, in a Shabab propaganda video released in March 2009. From The Hammami Family.

From The New York Times:

ON A WARM, cloudy day in the fall of 1999, the town of Daphne, Ala., stirred to life. The high-school band came pounding down Main Street, past the post office and the library and Christ the King Church. Trumpeters in gold-tasseled coats tipped their horns to the sky, heralding the arrival of teenage demigods. The star quarterback and his teammates came first in the parade, followed by the homecoming queen and her court. Behind them, on a float bearing leaders of the student government, a giddy mop-haired kid tossed candy to the crowd.

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My Comment: A sobering assessment on who the enemy can be at times.

Jihad In 2010

Stratfor’s Strategic Analysis – “Jihadism In 2010: The Threat Continues” -- Fabius Maximus

Stratfor is one of the best public sources in the public strategic analysis and forecasting field, so these reports deserve attention. However its necessary to remember that they reflect the views and interests of American’s corporate and government elites. So the detailed material here needs a more objective context. For that I recommend first reading “Shooting Gnats with a Machine Gun — The U.S. Military, al-Qaeda, and a War of Futility“, Nick Turse and Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch, 14 January 2010. At the end of this post are links to other posts about al Qaeda.

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My Comment: I have mentioned on a few occasions that FM is one of my favorite blogs. He does not disappoint in this post. Check out his links at the end of his post, they are also worthwhile to read.

Raising Future Jihadists

Jihadists Groom Children In The UK Under 10 -- Times Online

Police have identified children as young as seven being groomed for terrorism, with some expressing a wish to become suicide bombers.

Up to 10 primary school pupils, aged between seven and 10, have been placed on a government outreach programme for individuals considered at risk of being radicalised and turning to violence.

Some have taken inspiration from jihadi websites or after viewing extremist material in Islamic bookshops.

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My Comment: If there ever was a definition for child abuse .... these kids would be the poster child of any campaign.

Should The U.S. Destroy Jihadist Websites?

(ABC News Photo Illustration)

From Time Magazine:

The Internet has played a key role in radicalizing a number of key players in alleged terror plots this year. From Fort Hood accused shooter Nidal Hasan to the five young Americans detained in Pakistan this month allegedly en route to fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan, authorities claim the suspects needed no face-to-face contact with jihadist recruiters. Instead, the Internet is serving as an electronic funnel for extremists to infuse U.S.-based Muslims with a justification for jihad.

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My Comment: My short answer is yes. The U.S. should destroy/close down Jihadist Websites. My rational is equally simple .... using the same argument that others use in shutting down websites that promote childhood pornography .... one can say exactly the same thing with sites that promote Islamic terrorism/Jihad.

The Jihadist 5th Column

Gordon England, then deputy secretary of defense, is shown in 2006 at a convention that focused on issues facing American Muslims and their evolving role and identity in the U.S. AP

Penetration Even At The Pentagon: Muslim Spies Setting Muslim Policy -- Investor.com

The internal threat from Muslim extremists in the military extends to high-level Defense Department aides who have undermined military policy. In fact, one top Muslim adviser pushed out an intelligence analyst who warned of the sudden jihad syndrome that led to the Fort Hood terrorist attack.

An honored guest of the Ramadan dinner at the Pentagon this September was Hesham Islam, who infiltrated the highest echelons of the Ring despite proven ties to U.S. terror front groups and a shady past in his native Egypt.

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My Comment: Read it all .... and start to be afraid .... very afraid.

'I Was Groomed For Jihad In Britain'

From Times Online:

A Muslim teenager in London gives the first inside account of how extremists are luring recruits.

A TEENAGER has revealed how he was recruited by Al-Qaeda-inspired extremists and groomed to carry out suicide attacks in Britain.

In the first insider account of how radicals are preying on vulnerable Muslim youths, the teenager describes being approached by Islamists at a mosque in south London that was used by the failed 21/7 bombers, and indoctrinated at a secret network of squats.

Aged 15, he was the youngest of about 50 recruits who were shown “martyrdom” videos and encouraged to travel to Pakistan to receive terrorist training.

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My Comment: Multiply this thousands of times .... and we now know the scope of the problem.

Radical Jihadists Are Now Quoting West Point And The Rand Corporation

Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi

Credentials Challenged, Radical Quotes West Point -- New York Times

BEIRUT, Lebanon — He has been mentor to some of the most brutal terrorists on earth. But Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, a prominent cleric and theorist of jihad living in Jordan, has grown tired of hearing younger extremists accuse him of going soft.

So in a recent Internet post to his followers, Mr. Maqdisi defended his hard-line credentials by invoking a higher authority: the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.

“Credit is due to the testimony of enemies,” Mr. Maqdisi wrote, as he directed his readers to a recent journal article by Joas Wagemakers, a Dutch scholar of jihadism, and the “Militant Ideology Atlas,” both published by the center. Both identified Mr. Maqdisi as a dangerous and influential jihadi theorist, he noted.

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My Comment: When a leading Jihadist uses West Point and the Rand Corporation to justify his credentials .... that is when you know that Policy Centers and Think Tanks in the West are beginning to understand the mindset of the leaders and thinkers behind the more violent factions of militant Islam.

Can Jihadis Be Rehabilitated?

Young Saudi men released from Guantánamo Bay as well as prisons in Iraq and Saudi Arabia listen to a Muslim cleric during a course at a rehabilitation center near Riyadh
Hassan Ammar / AFP / Getty

From Time Magazine:

It's been described as the Betty Ford Center for terrorists: Saudi Arabian officials boast that the Care Rehabilitation Center, outside Riyadh, has successfully deprogrammed scores of former jihadis, including more than 100 ex-inmates of the U.S.'s Guantánamo Bay military prison. As recently as last fall, Saudi officials claimed the program had a 100% success rate.

That claim was dashed last week, when two alumni of the rehab program proudly announced to the world that they had returned to the jihad. In a video posted online, Saudi nationals Said al-Shihri and Abu al-Hareth al-Oufi — former detainees at Guantánamo Bay — boasted that they had become leaders of al-Qaeda in Yemen.

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My Comment: 62 former Guantanamo inmates have returned to terror. Of those who have not gone back to terror .... I am sure that if it came to being pushed and shoved, most of them would go back to jihad.

So .... can Jihadists be rehabilitated? Hmmm ... can a devout Muslim renounce his faith?

I do not think so.

The State of Jihad: 2008

Image from The Liberal

From The Long War Journal:

The past year has seen significant developments in the Long War. Pakistan teeters on a civil war and a potential war with India after Taliban gains and an attack launched on Mumbai from within Pakistan. India has emerged as a central battlefield in the war. Iraq has dealt major defeats to al Qaeda and the Mahdi Army, and is moving towards reconciliation. Afghanistan experienced the worst year since the US invasion to oust the Taliban in 2001. A “surge” in Afghanistan will take place this year. Iran is close to developing a nuclear weapon, and the West has no plan to avert the crisis. Al Qaeda is poised to retake control of Somalia. Yemen remains an al Qaeda sanctuary.

The battles continue in lesser known theaters. The US struck a senior al Qaeda leader in Syria while Imad Mugniyah was assassinated in Damascus. The Philippines made progress against its Islamic insurgency and dealt blows to Abu Sayyaf and the radical Rajah Solaiman Movement. Indonesia has driven Jemaah Islamiyah underground. Algeria fought a low-intensity terror insurgency with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Below is an overview of the major developments in the most active theaters across the globe in the Long War.

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My Comment: An excellent review that summarizes the state of jihad in the world today. It is a must read.

Where the Jihad Lives Now

A view of destruction caused by a bomb explosion at hotel in Islamabad.
Photo: AP

From Newsweek:

Islamic militants have spread beyond their tribal bases, and have the run of an unstable, nuclear-armed nation.

Benazir Bhutto was worried she would not survive the day. It was, for her, to be a moment of joyous return after eight years of exile, but also an hour of great peril. Just before she left Dubai for Pakistan on Thursday, Oct. 18, Bhutto directed that a letter be hand-delivered to Pervez Musharraf, the embattled Pakistani autocrat with whom she had negotiated a tenuous political alliance. If anything happens to me, please investigate the following individuals in your government, she wrote, according to an account given to NEWSWEEK by her husband, Asif Ali Zardari. Bhutto, Pakistan's former prime minister, then proceeded to name several senior security officials she considered to be enemies, Zardari said. Principal among those she identified, according to another supporter who works for her Pakistan People's Party, was Ejaz Shah, the head of Pakistan's shadowy Intelligence Bureau, which runs domestic surveillance in somewhat the way M.I.5 does in Britain. Shah, a longtime associate of Musharraf's, is believed by Bhutto supporters to have Islamist sympathies. And Bhutto had boldly challenged Pakistan's Muslim extremists, declaring before her arrival that "the terrorists are trying to take over my country, and we have to stop them."

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My Comment: Pakistan can be everyone's worst nightmare if the jihadists with their radical ideology take over the country.

Jihad As An Ideology Is Dying In Saudi Arabia

Atop the Kingdom Tower in Riyadh

Why Jihad's Waning in Bin Laden's Homeland
-- Time Magazine

For an adoptive New Yorker, to spend the 9/11 anniversary in Osama bin-Laden's hometown felt eerie — doubly so because Riyadh has come to be known as the city of two towers. The Al-Faisaliyah and the Kingdom Tower, gleaming glass and steel skyscrapers, are less than a decade old, but already they have acquired iconic status: on Arabic news TV, the image of either or both towers is used to signal the viewer that a story's dateline is in Saudi Arabia.

Two nights earlier, while taking in the glittering lights of Riyadh from the viewing deck of Al-Faisaliyah, I felt a sudden chill despite the warm desert air when remembering how, on my first visit to New York nearly 14 years ago, I had bundled up against the icy winds swirling around the deck of the World Trade Center's South Tower.

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My Comment: Permitting thousands of their fanatics to go to Iraq and get killed by U.S. forces helped a tremendous amount. This does not include the thousands who came back wounded, maimed, and crippled from losing the many battles that they had against U.S. and Iraq military forces.

I will also wager that the men and mullahs who sent these young fanatics to die in Iraq for jihad are still walking the streets in Riyadh whole and untouched from the war in the north. I am also sure that the families and their neighbors who lost love ones are noticing this, and are probably not pleased by this development.