AQAP and Al-Malahem Post 9.30.11

It seems that a drone/air attack in Yemen has taken out two key players in the AQAP and Al-Malahem Media organizations in the deaths of Anwar Al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. Awlaki, the American “cleric” who made his way to Yemen to be the spiritual and charismatic head of AQAP (Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) evidently was in close proximity (and makes sense given their org) to Samir Khan, former American as well, who became the creator and editor of “Inspire Magazine” and the Al-Malahim Media group. This one strike will place AQAP as an organisation as well as Al-Malahem, into a tail spin from losing their mouthpiece and their propagandist.

…And I am just fine with that.

Hey Adam.. You’re next pal.

It is interesting timing for all of this too as the “media jihad” as it was called in the last issue of Inspire, was for all intents and purposes, still just spinning up in many ways. Samir and Adam and others in their crew had just really been getting into the swing of being the media arm of AQAP with Inspire and the videos etc. They had been groping along on how to really carry all this out up till now, though, it seems like the last issue of Inspire was a haphazard and perhaps hurried issue? The content was thin and seemed to me like they had been otherwise occupied.. One wonders why… Perhaps their ranks were on the run? Today’s news might in fact be the end game to that puzzle huh?

In all though, I think that this will deal a great blow to AQ and AQAP’s media arm. We will be seeing less out of them and I am pretty sure that it will take some time for them to get others to take over the rolls who are adept at it. Most of all, there will likely be no other charismatic leader like Awlaki showing up soon. Ghadan is not all that and we have seen little of him lately, so I am assuming that they will be quiet for a while.

Time will tell.

Now, as to why this is REALLY important, well, as you saw in my analysis of the Inspire 7 issue, the “media jihad” is really their only way to resuscitate the jihad in many ways as I see it. They have been really trying to fight this recruitment battle on the internet with all their magazines, sites, and videos. Now, the real media wing that has been so prevalent in trying to create more Rezwan Ferdaus’ is now hurt pretty badly. Just as is the spiritual  leadership (more rhetoric to me) of Awlaki was a beacon for the likes of Rezwan or someone else like the michiganmujahid who often writes about his hard on for Awlaki. So, my one real hope is that not only did we remove the problem of a couple of influential guys, but also cripple the media org at the same time.

Meanwhile, on another side note to this story… For anyone and everyone talking about the assassination of a US citizen, I would have you know this. He was no longer a citizen by my standards. He left the US, he joined AQAP in a lead roll, and he renounced his citizenship in videos on a couple occasions. So, no, we did not assassinate a US citizen. We instead assassinated a NON STATE actor in an action during a two front war.

End of story.

K.