Zacharias Moussaoui, the former Al Qaeda terrorist incarcerated in the Federal SuperMax Prison, has claimed that members of the Saudi royal family contributed money to Al-Qaeda.
Among the claims of Moussaoui was that he discussed the shooting down of Air Force One using a Stinger missile with a member of the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C. He also said that he created a digital database of donors at the instruction of al-Qaeda leaders which included Prince Turki al-Faisal, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan and Prince al-Waleed bin Talal.
The Saudi government quickly denounced the report.
“Moussaoui is a deranged criminal whose own lawyers presented evidence that he was mentally incompetent,” a statement from the Saudi embassy read. “His words have no credibility.”
While Moussaoui did receive a mental illness diagnosis by a psychologist on his defense team, he was found competent to stand trial for terrorism charges and sentenced to life in prison.
The statements were released as part of a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia by relatives of the 9/11 attack victims.
A report from a former vice chief of staff for the Army regarding ISIS that was mostly negative had one bright spot from a military standpoint: the top chemical weapons expert for the terror group was killed in an airstrike.
Retired General Jack Keane told new members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that Abu Malik was killed last Saturday in an airstrike near Mosul. Malik was a chemical weapons engineer for Saddam Hussein who joined al-Qaeda and then ISIS after the fall of Saddam.
“His death is expected to temporarily degrade and disrupt the terrorist network and diminish ISIL’s ability to potentially produce and use chemical weapons against innocent people,” US Central Command said in a statement.
But the news was tempered by Gen. Keane’s view that ISIS has begun to “dominate” in multiple countries.
“After U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq in 2011, ISIS emerged as a terrorist organization in Iraq, moved into Syria in 2012. Is it possible to look at that map in front of you and claim that the United States policy and strategy is working? Or that al-Qaeda is on the run? It is unmistakable that our policies have failed,” Gen. Keane said.
“In my view, we became paralyzed by the fear of adverse consequences in the Middle East after fighting two wars,” he added. “Moreover, as we sit here this morning, in the face of radical Islam, U.S. policymakers refuse to accurately name the movement as radical Islam. We further choose not to define it, nor explain its ideology, and most critical, we have no comprehensive strategy to stop it or defeat it.”
Five Islamic terrorists from Yemen have been released from Guantanamo Bay by the Obama administration and four were sent to Oman.
Oman is right next door to Yemen and it would be likely the terrorists could then simply cross the border into Yemen and return to their terror cells. The fifth terrorist was sent to Estonia.
“The United States coordinated with the Government of Oman to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures,” the DOD said.
Yemen has been in the spotlight since the terrorist attacks in Paris because the Al Qaeda affiliates located in Yemen planned the operations. Republican Senators are calling on the administration to stop the release of terrorists from Guantanamo and returning them to Middle East.
“It’s clear that we need a time out,” Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) said. “Now is not the time to be emptying Guantanamo.”
If you will be flying anywhere in the United States over the next few months, prepare for a few extra minutes in the security line.
Al Qaeda published a new “online recipe” for creating bombs that cannot be detected by the current security measures in place at airports. The result is that the TSA will be conducting random spot checks of carry on baggage at all airports.
Jeh Johnson, head of Homeland Security, met with airline officials to provide them the details of the terrorist thread. The guidelines from Al Qaeda not only included the bomb mixture but also told bombers where to sit on the planes for maximum damage.
“We have no specific, credible intelligence of an attack of the kind in Paris last week being planned by terrorist organizations in this country,” Johnson said in a statement. “But, the reasons for these measures should be self-evident to the public: the recent attacks in Paris, Ottawa, Sydney, and elsewhere, along with the recent public calls by terrorist organizations for attacks on Western objectives, including aircraft, military personnel, and government installations and civilian personnel.”
“The chief Al-Qaeda bombmaker Ibrahim Al-Asiri is innovative in his designs and isn’t to be underestimated,” security expert Ryan Mauro told FoxNews.com. “For Al Qaeda, it is still somewhat of a victory if they can get an explosive on an airliner or even just inside an airport, regardless of whether the device ignites properly.
Al Qaeda in Yemen formally claimed responsibility for last week’s terrorist attack on French newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
The spokesman for the group, Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, claimed the attack was ordered by the leadership of AQAP because the newspaper had insulted the prophet Mohammad. The group posted a video with the claim on YouTube.
“As for the blessed Battle of Paris, we…claim responsibility for this operation as vengeance for the Messenger of God,” said Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi.
The attack led by Cherif and Said Kouachi had been called an Islamic terrorist attack from the beginning after the brothers told witnesses at the site of the shooting they were connected to Al Qaeda. Western leaders downplayed the Al Qaeda connection claiming that they had no direct evidence of Al Qaeda’s guidance.
The terrorists also mocked the peace rally that took place on Sunday.
“Look at how they gathered, rallied and supported each other; strengthening their weakness and dressing their wounds,” it said of Western leaders who attended the event.
“Look carefully at their gathering. They are the same who fought us in Afghanistan and Caucasus, in Gaza, the Levant, Iraq, Somalia and Yemen.”
The gunmen responsible for the Islamic terrorist attack on a French satirical magazine are dead after a raid by French police.
The raid ended a standoff where the two Islamic terrorists said they wanted to “die as martyrs” rather than surrender.
Cherif and Said Kouachi, 32 and 34, repeated their connections to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Military experts who viewed unedited footage of the attack on the magazine Charlie Hebdo say it’s clear the men had military training.
U.S. intelligence sources confirmed that Cherif Kouachi went to Yemen in 2011 and was seen at an Al Qaeda training camp.
The raid that took out the Kouachis was 25 miles from Paris. At the same time, a raid in Paris took out a fellow terrorist who had taken hostages at a kosher market.
Amedy Coulibaly is reportedly the man who killed a Paris police officer on Thursday as she was working a routine traffic stop. Police say Coulibaly and his girlfriend Hayat Bourneddiene were the suspects of the police killing. She remains at large.
All the men involved in the attack were confirmed to be disciples of Djamel Beghal, a terrorist arrested in the United Arab Emirates after admitting he was conspiring to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
An American journalist that Al-Qaeda threatened to kill Saturday died during a rescue attempt by U.S. led forces.
U.S. Special Forces discovered the location where the Islamic terrorists were holding Luke Somers, 33, and a South African hostage, Pierre Korkie, 56, in the village of Dafaar. The raid just after midnight also left 13 terrorists dead.
Al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula has been establishing itself in Yemen and has been gaining support among Sunnis in the nation.
The group has also been publicly denouncing ISIS but intelligence officials say that the groups are quietly working together behind the scenes. The group has two other western hostages that they are reportedly demanding cash ransom for their release.
Compounding the tragedy are reports from South Africa that the terrorists had agreed to release Korkie on Sunday, the day after the failed raid. The family said they hold no ill will toward the U.S. for their loved one’s death and said they “choose to forgive. We choose to love.”
The al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen has threatened to kill an American hostage.
The captive has been identified at 33-year-old Luke Somers, a British-born man who became an American citizen. Somers was working for the Yemen Times as a photojournalist.
Journalists throughout Yemen have been calling on the government to work for the journalist’s release, saying the kidnapping was an attempt to intimidate the country’s media.
The terrorists reportedly have made demands that have to be met in three days or they will kill Somers.
The terrorist group has already killed a hostage this week, former Yemeni Intelligence official Rashid al-Hebshi, whose body was found on Thursday.
Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby admitted there was a failed rescue attempt last month.
Security experts are raising the alarm over an Al-Qaeda plot to blow up at least five passenger airliners on Christmas in a 9/11 style coordinated attack.
The threat is so serious in the minds of British officials that they had considered a total ban on all carry on luggage as a way to thwart the plot.
“We’ve been told that five planes are being targeted in a high profile hit before Christmas. They’ve been waiting for the big one,” an airport security source told the London Express. “We have many scares but this one nearly got hand baggage pulled from all airlines. The threat is still alive and real.”
The source says the plot is aimed at European airports because U.S. security measures have increased significantly compared to their counterparts around the world.
The plot reportedly would include radicalized Britons who have returned to the country from being a part of the battles in Syria and the middle east. Some have received terrorist training in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Crime profiling shows that white, middle class women, who are better than averagely educated, are susceptible to the terrorist narrative,” terrorism expert Dr. Sally Leivesley told the Express. “They see themselves at the forefront of attempts to change the world and are represent a very dangerous tool for the terrorists. These sleepers will have been from ordinary and not very religious families and not only is the threat from them here but also when they return battle hardened from Syria and Iraq.”
The Islamic caliphate of ISIS head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi now has at least 12 militarized allies including nine outside of Iraq and Syria.
NYMag.com reported that the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium identified 12 groups that have pledged to back ISIS although they acknowledged other groups could be supporting ISIS without making a formal announcement.
The report shows that ISIS is taking a large part of the Al-Qaeda terror network.
Taliban splinter group Jundallah has joined other Tehrik-i-Taliban affiliates in Pakistan in aligning with ISIS. The Taliban leaders had long been aligned with Al-Qaeda, so the breakaway parts of the organization joining ISIS are a sign that the former world terror group is losing significant power in the Islamic terrorism community.
One group has been announced inside the Gaza Strip. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which fired rockets into Israel this summer during the terrorist campaign against Israelis, has pledged their support to ISIS and changed their named to al-Dawla al-Islamiyya or The Islamic State.
Groups have also announced their allegiance in Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Philippines, Lebanon, Indonesia and Jordan.
