CTC Sentinel 3:4 (2010)

JUNE 2010 . VOL 3 . ISSUE 6 COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER AT WEST POINT CTC SEntinEL OBJECTIVE . RELEVANT . RIGOROUS Contents AQAP’s Growing Security FEATURE ARTICLE 1 AQAP’s Growing Security Threat to Threat to Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia By Caryle Murphy By Caryle Murphy REPORTS 4 Assessing AQI’s Resilience After April’s Leadership Decapitations By Myriam Benraad 8 The Return of Moqtada al-Sadr and the Revival of the Mahdi Army By Babak Rahimi 11 Indoctrinating Children: The Making of Pakistan’s Suicide Bombers By Kalsoom Lakhani 13 The Third Way: A Paradigm for Influence in the Marketplace of Ideas By Scott Helfstein 18 Still Fighting for Revolution: Greece’s New Generation of Terrorists By George Kassimeris 20 Recent Highlights in Terrorist Activity 24 CTC Sentinel Staff & Contacts Prince Nayif reviews security units after AQAP’s threat to kidnap Saudi princes and Christians. - Photo by Hamad Olayan/AFP/Getty Images n march 2010, a Saudi security The episode is a useful indicator of where sweep netted 113 alleged al-Qaìda the battle between Saudi Arabia and its in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) extremist opposition stands. During sympathizers. Among them was the past seven years, the government IHayla al-Qusayir, an AQAP operative has largely uprooted the clandestine al- held in high esteem by her fellow Qaìda network that burst into public militants due to her knowledge of Islam, view with spectacular suicide bombings enthusiasm for fighting Saudi security at three residential Riyadh compounds forces, and for allegedly sending more in May 2003. Al-Qaìda’s subsequent 1 About the CTC Sentinel than $293,000 to AQAP. Her importance defeat in Saudi Arabia was due to several The Combating Terrorism Center is an to AQAP was highlighted when the factors, including public disgust at its independent educational and research terrorist group’s deputy leader, former violence. Just as important to its defeat, institution based in the Department of Social Guantanamo Bay detainee Said al-Shihri, however, was the government’s double- Sciences at the United States Military Academy, threatened to kidnap Saudi princes and pronged response to the threat. Riyadh West Point. The CTC Sentinel harnesses Christian residents of Saudi Arabia to launched a tough, well-funded security the Center’s global network of scholars and use in a prisoner swap for al-Qusayir’s and police offensive against the al-Qaìda 2 practitioners to understand and confront release. network in the country, and at the same contemporary threats posed by terrorism and time developed a multifaceted, long-term other forms of political violence. ideological campaign against what Saudi officials identified as “deviant” Islamic ideas.3 The views expressed in this report are those of 1 Personal interview, Saudi security official, Riyadh, Saudi the authors and not of the U.S. Military Academy, Arabia, June 2010. the Department of the Army, or any other agency of the U.S. Government. 2 Said al-Shihri issued the threat on an audiotape aired on 3 Personal interview, Saudi security official, Riyadh, Saudi al-Arabiya television on June 3, 2010. Arabia, June 2010. 1 JUNE 2010 . VOL 3 . ISSUE 6 Despite al-Qaìda’s failure in Saudi Qaìda network and its contemporary fundraising on behalf of AQAP is not Arabia, other al-Qaìda operatives namesake, AQAP. Raised by her disputed by the group, which noted formed AQAP in neighboring Yemen. brother after the death of her father, al- her contribution in this regard when AQAP has now developed into a Qusayir’s first marriage was to Shaykh responding to her detention. serious threat to Saudi Arabia, plotting Abdul Karim al-Humaid, an eccentric attacks and infiltrating militants cleric opposed to modern amenities At the time of her arrest, al-Qusayir into the kingdom. In August 2009, an such as electricity and cars.7 was allegedly involved in supporting AQAP operative nearly succeeded in two, six-man cells of suicide bombers assassinating Saudi Prince Muhammad Al-Qusayir, who is approximately supplied and directed by AQAP.12 Her bin Nayif, the country’s counterterrorism 40-years-old, divorced al-Humaid and precise role is unclear, but “she was chief and a deputy interior minister.4 then “got the man who filled her life” part of the plot.”13 Today, AQAP is In October 2009, two AQAP members when she married al-Qaìda militant threatening to kidnap Saudi princes wearing explosive vests were killed in Mohammed Sulaiman al-Wakil.8 and Christians in the kingdom to effect a shootout with Saudi police at a traffic After al-Wakil was killed in a Riyadh al-Qusayir’s release. To assess whether stop.5 Two months later, an AQAP shootout with police in December 2004, AQAP can deliver on its threats, it is recruit, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, necessary to examine al-Qaìda’s recent attempted to blow up a Northwest history in Saudi Arabia. Airlines flight over Detroit. Most “Hayla al-Qusayir recently, in April 2010 the British was a bridge between Success, then Defeat ambassador to Yemen escaped injury Al-Qaìda stormed onto the Saudi when a suicide bomber threw himself in the old, decimated al- landscape with high-profile attacks in front of the diplomat’s convoy in Sanaà; Qaìda network and its 2003 and 2004 at a time when Saudi AQAP claimed responsibility, describing security was totally unprepared. As Britain as “America’s closest ally in its contemporary namesake, stated by analyst Thomas Hegghammer war on Islam.”6 AQAP.” in February 2010, al-Qaìda’s early successes stemmed from This article examines AQAP’s growing threat to Saudi Arabia. It first explains a momentary discrepancy between the importance of Hayla al-Qusayir’s his widow “hated every policeman from the very high organizational arrest before reviewing how the Saudi that moment,” a Saudi security official capability of returnees from government has responded to the al- explained. “She wanted revenge… Afghanistan, and the weakness of Qaìda challenge. so any work that hurt the police, she the Saudi intelligence apparatus. was satisfied to do.”9 Al-Qusayir, who That gap has since been closed. A Widow’s Revenge has one daughter, “took advantage of Today, country-wide, organized Until her arrest in Burayda, the heartland her situation as a woman,” the official political activism of any kind is of the kingdom’s ultraconservative added, to hide al-Qaìda militants. more difficult than ever before.14 strain of Islam, Hayla al-Qusayir was “Because she was knowledgeable about a bridge between the old, decimated al- religion,” he explained, “she could While it is clearly more difficult, it is convince women to give money.”10 not impossible. Continued al-Qaìda 4 Asma Alsharif, “Saudi Royal Survives Attack Claimed activity in Saudi Arabia is illustrated by Qaeda,” Reuters, August 28, 2009. At informal gatherings, al-Qusayir was by al-Qusayir’s support to al-Qaìda— 5 One of the men killed was Yousef Mohammed al-Shihri, able to persuade women to part with which went undetected for years—and a former Guantanamo Bay detainee whose sister, Wafa, is cash and jewelry after telling them that by Interior Minister Prince Nayif bin married to AQAP deputy, Said al-Shihri. Wafa was mar- their donations would be used to help Abdul Aziz’s recent announcement ried twice before, once to an al-Qaìda extremist killed poor children in other Muslim countries. that his security forces had foiled by police in 2005. She has joined her current husband In all, the official charged, she sent 1.1 220 “criminal attempts” by alleged in Yemen, where she reportedly is appealing to Saudi million Saudi riyals (approximately females to join AQAP’s ranks, according to Saudi press $293,000) to AQAP contacts in Yemen da, Recruited Women.” 11 reports. There have also been reports that al-Qusayir and Afghanistan. Al-Qusayir’s 12 Personal interview, Saudi security official, Riyadh, helped Wafa flee Saudi Arabia with her three children so Saudi Arabia, June 2010. she could join her husband, who went to Yemen in 2008. 7 Shaykh Abdul Karim al-Humaid has been jailed for 13 Ibid. Asharq al-Awsat reported that two suicide vests For details, see Abdullah al-Oraifij, “Wanted Saudi Mili- several years because of his extremist sympathies. De- found in a car transporting two AQAP members, who tants Seen in Marib Region,” Saudi Gazette, June 15, 2010; tails were derived from al-Arabiya television on June 3, were killed in a shootout with Saudi police in October Mshari al-Zaydi, “Al Qaeda’s Women in Saudi Arabia,” 2010, in addition to personal interview, Saudi security 2009, “were destined for” al-Qusayir and that she had Asharq al-Awsat, June 6, 2010; Abdullah al-Oraifij, “Haila official, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, June 2010. “reportedly recruited two suicide bombers for an at- Al-Qusayyer Funded Al-Qaeda, Recruited Women,” 8 This information was derived from a Saudi security of- tack.” It also said that she had sheltered two youths in Saudi Gazette, June 5, 2010; “Distraught Saudi Father ficial who described al-Qusayir’s background on condi- an abandoned house for at least 20 days. For details, see Disowns ‘Stupid Son,’” Arab News, June 8, 2010. tion he was not named. “90 Minutes with Mrs. Al Qaeda,” Asharq al-Awsat, June 6 Mohammed Sudam, “Suicide Bomber Targets British 9 Personal interview, Saudi security official, Riyadh, 7, 2010. Ambassador in Yemen,” Reuters, April 26, 2010; “Al- Saudi Arabia, June 2010. 14 Thomas Hegghammer, The Failure of Jihad in Saudi Qaida Group Claims April Attack in Yemen,” Associated 10 Ibid.

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