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Who Are Those Guys? Understanding the Ties between Ansar al-Islam, the GSPC, the Sudanese Islamic Army, and al-Qaeda

(Weekly Standard) Dan Darling - As noted by the U.S. State Department, Ansar al-Islam "is closely allied with al-Qaeda and Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi's group." Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported in September 2001 that it was al-Qaeda emissary Abu Abdul Rahman who provided Ansar al-Islam with $300,000 in "seed money" at its inception. Al-Qaeda's close involvement in the formation of Ansar al-Islam was likewise demonstrated in an al-Qaeda memorandum from August 2001 which was recovered in Afghanistan and reported by the New York Times in January 2003. It noted the existence of the "Iraqi Kurdistan Islamic Brigade" and urged the unification of the various Kurdish Islamist groups based around Shinerwe Mountain in northern Iraq into an enclave modeled after that of the Taliban. As the 2002 Patterns of Global Terrorism noted, "al-Qaeda operatives in northern Iraq concocted suspect chemicals under the direction of senior al-Qaeda associate Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi and tried to smuggle them into Russia, Western Europe, and the U.S. for terrorist operations."
2006-01-09 00:00:00
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