CTC Sentinel Objective

OCTOBER 2011 . VOL 4 . ISSUE 10 COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER AT WEST POINT CTC Sentinel OBJECTIVE . RELEVANT . RIGOROUS Contents Insights from Bin Ladin’s FEATURE ARTICLE 1 Insights from Bin Ladin’s Audiocassette Audiocassette Library in Library in Kandahar By Flagg Miller Kandahar REPORTS By Flagg Miller 5 India’s Approach to Counterinsurgency and the Naxalite Problem By Sameer Lalwani 9 Evaluating Pakistan’s Offensives in Swat and FATA By Daud Khattak 12 The Enduring Appeal of Al-Àwlaqi’s “Constants on the Path of Jihad” By J.M. Berger 15 The Decline of Jihadist Activity in the United Kingdom By James Brandon 17 Understanding the Role of Tribes in Yemen By Charles Schmitz 22 Al-Shabab’s Setbacks in Somalia By Christopher Anzalone 25 Recent Highlights in Terrorist Activity 28 CTC Sentinel Staff & Contacts s the world waits for the After the tapes were reviewed by U.S. declassification of documents intelligence agencies shortly after their from Usama bin Ladin’s acquisition, the collection was sold to the Abbottabad residence in Williams College Afghan Media Project APakistan, an earlier archive shedding run by American anthropologist David valuable light on al-Qaìda’s formation Edwards. This author began cataloguing under Bin Ladin is slowly being and archiving the collection in 2003, as released. Acquired by the Cable News soon as the tapes arrived at the college, Network in early 2002 from Bin Ladin’s and is currently writing a book about the About the CTC Sentinel Kandahar compound, more than 1,500 figuration of Bin Ladin’s leadership and The Combating Terrorism Center is an audiocassettes are being made available al-Qaìda through the archive. The initial independent educational and research to public researchers by Yale University.1 results of the findings are presented in institution based in the Department of Social Dating from the late 1960s through this article. Sciences at the United States Military Academy, 2000, the vast majority of tapes in this West Point. The CTC Sentinel harnesses collection are in Arabic and feature the Center’s global network of scholars and lectures, sermons and conversations practitioners to understand and confront among more than 200 speakers from er in this article is the author’s estimate to date. As Yale contemporary threats posed by terrorism and across the Islamic world. At least 22 University archivists repair damaged tapes that could not other forms of political violence. recordings feature Bin Ladin himself, only be listened to and conduct a more exhaustive survey, these one of which has been published to date.2 numbers will change. The author should also note that only a few of the tapes are duplicates, and handwriting on The views expressed in this report are those of cassette cartridges suggest provenance from diverse us- the authors and not of the U.S. Military Academy, 1 To access the recordings, visit http://digitalcollections. ers. In its prime, the archive was most likely a continuous- the Department of the Army, or any other agency of the U.S. Government. library.yale.edu/islamic-fund/index.dl. ly changing and collaboratively assembled audio-library 2 The number of audiocassettes mentioned for each speak- for those who gathered in Bin Ladin’s house. 1 OCTOBER 2011 . VOL 4 . ISSUE 10 For understanding al-Qaìda’s With regard to the militant faction, the around Kandahar. Dozens of other emergence as an organization and its collection contains at least eight tapes lectures on militancy, recorded in camps intellectual leverage in a more embryonic by Abu Musàb al-Suri and six by Abu and guesthouses of diverse persuasions, era of pre-9/11 militant jockeying, the al-Walid al-Masri, most of them lectures suggest origins in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kandahar audiocassette collection may on guerrilla warfare and the history the Palestinian Territories, Sudan, prove incomparable. of modern Muslim militancy. Other Somalia, India and Chechnya. militants include (in addition to Bin Operations and Propaganda in Context Ladin himself), Àbdallah Àzzam (at The preponderance of the collection To date, analysts trying to assess Bin least 72 tapes found to date), Àbd al- features the intellectual heavyweights Ladin’s intellectual formation have had Salam Faraj (three tapes), Abu al-Harith of Arab Salafist and jihadist movements to rely on his own public statements, al-Urduni (two tapes), Sayf al-Àdl before 9/11. Offering invaluable insight documents of his views or the views (one tape), Abu Hafs al-Libi (one tape), into the “propagandist” faction of al- of others garnered from scattered Abu Hafs al-Mauritani (one tape), 9/11 Qaìda, the legacy of such recordings locations across the world as well as hijacker Hamza al-Ghamdi (one tape) is made complex by the fact that many the internet, and reports about him speakers not only had little or no by those who knew him or others who connection with al-Qaìda itself, but have spoken with his associates. The “The Kandahar were in some cases, especially by the value of his Kandahar tape collection audiocassette collection is late 1990s, outspoken critics of the derives from its origination inside group and specifically Bin Ladin. From his personal compound, a building central to understanding this perspective, the collection formerly located just across from the Taliban’s al-Qaìda’s emergence as housed under Bin Ladin’s roof would Foreign Ministry building. Although have served much as an audio “library” he and his family spent most of their an organization before the that offered users a diverse range of time at the Tarnak airport complex 9/11 attacks.” viewpoints, not all of them coordinated outside Kandahar, his city residence or synonymous with Bin Ladin’s own and guesthouse was the most important ideological leadership. site for retiring and regrouping after meetings with top Taliban officials as well as several dozen unidentified Strains of Religious Inspiration next door. Other guesthouses in the speakers. On these tapes, strategies and The intellectual heavyweights in city were reserved for the rank-and- tactics for striking U.S. interests in the the collection are largely Saudi file. The well-known “Arabic House,” Islamic world are formulated explicitly, jurisprudents and religious scholars, for example, accommodated recruits with special attention to lessons from many of them from similar educational from an increasingly diverse range of earlier modern Muslim experiences. backgrounds. The top 10 include, in backgrounds, some of them English- order of frequency, À’id al-Qarni (80 speaking, as they prepared themselves In general, the tapes argue that tapes), Muhammad Bin Ùthaimin (67 for courses in weapons training and targeting American and Jewish tapes), Salman al-Àwda (54 tapes), special operations in camps outside the interests can help win public support Muhammad al-Munajjid (27 tapes), Sa`d city. The Foreign Ministry compound by identifying a common enemy, using al-Barik (27 tapes), Safar al-Hawali (25 was of a higher intellectual order. examples from previous anti-colonial tapes), Nasir al-Ùmar (24 tapes), Àbd struggles in Algeria and Egypt. Syria is al-Rahman al-Dawsari (21 tapes), Saìd In the 2007 volume Cracks in the mentioned as a valuable lesson for how Bin Musaffar al-Qahtani (21 tapes), and Foundation: Leadership Schisms in Al- to cast the interests of ruling elites as Àbdalla al-Hamad (18 tapes). Roughly Qaìda from 1989-2006, Vahid Brown “Westernized.” The tapes also suggest half of the Saudi legal specialists of the Combating Terrorism Center that those seeking to expel U.S. soldiers identified (and 30% of all speakers at West Point argued that al-Qaìda from their homelands need not only presently identified) were trained was long marked by two “factions.” review lessons on trenched warfare and or taught in Riyadh at some point in One faction consisted of operational pitched combat against the Soviet Union their lives. As a bastion for the Saudi specialists such as Abu al-Walid al- in Afghanistan, but—in a romantic vein state’s most prestigious scholars and Masri and Abu Musàb al-Suri, while appealing to transnational recruits— establishment authorities, many of these the other of propagandists such as Bin they also need to envision themselves figures held scant regard for Bin Ladin’s Ladin and Ayman al-Zawahiri. The as nomadic warriors under the World stripe of jihadism, especially after 1990 latter, argued Brown, have presented War I Saudi Shaykh Àbd al-Àziz ibn when Saudi Chief Jurisprudent Àbd a more dangerous front given their Rashid, who might defy state attempts to al-Àziz ibn Baz (nine tapes) defended ability to brand al-Qaìda as a movement humiliate them through settlement and King Fahd’s decision to host U.S.-led seeking global unity among disparate subjection. “Mobility,” concluded Abu al- coalition forces in the country in efforts movements engaged in violent Islamic Walid al-Masri on tape #1189, “has long to drive Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. resistance. Cassettes in the collection played a key role in Islamic conquests.” offer much material for unpacking the In dialogue as well as in sometimes relation between these factions and The bulk of this material was recorded heated opposition to such figures are their changes over time. in training camps in Afghanistan and prominently featured representatives of Pakistan, notable among them the al- the Saudi “awakening” (sahwa) movement Faruq camp in Khost and in camps that emerged during the 1970s and 2 OCTOBER 2011 . VOL 4 . ISSUE 10 grew to a crescendo in the early 1990s. contexts, or, often exiled from their home for lectures and diverse publications on They rallied around scholars such as countries, they used their experiences matters of ritual observance, theology, Muhammad Qutb (12 tapes), Safar al- to strike out for other countries and ethics gives him currency among Hawali, Àbd al-Rahman al-Dawsari, that welcomed their transnational Muslims from across the Middle East Salman al-Àwda, À’id al-Qarni and perspectives.

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