Befitting the usual scheme of the Obama Administration and their partners, the world is in for a surprise, other Muslim terrorist outfits are popping up on the horizon.
Such diversion technique is constantly used by the American Administration. Whenever there is a crisis disturbing their agenda, whether it is immigration, the Islamic issue or other, they always manage to conveniently upstage it with another crisis.
Meet the terrorist outfit “du jour,” the Khorasan group, which is described by U.S. officials as a network of seasoned Al Qaeda terrorists with battlefield experience mostly acquired in Pakistan and Afghanistan and now working in league with Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front.
After long negotiations, the international coalition formed by America and four Gulf states: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, launched the first air strike over the Islamic State terrorists. Those bombings also targeted some Al Nusrah Front positions where members of the "Khorasan group" are thought to be located.
Khorasan is a geographic area that includes parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the Al Qaeda's Khorasan shura (or advisory) council is believed to be in hiding. It is reportedly led by Kuwaiti-born Muhsin al-Fadhli, a 33-year-old senior Al Qaeda terrorist who was privy to Osama bin Laden's 9/11 plans prior to the attacks; he has been involved in planning international terrorist attacks for years.
According to, of all sources, the United Nations, Fadhli has operated in Chechnya, fighting Russian soldiers, and has been wanted in connection to Al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia. Reportedly, Ayman al Zawahiri, the emir of Al Qaeda, sent the group to Syria specifically to plan attacks against the U.S. and American interests.
The Khorasan core group is believed to number probably no more than 100 terror operatives, a small number compared to the 50,000 terrorists of the Islamic State who are ravaging the region and have clearly stated that their goal is to expand their venture to the rest of the world.
Nonetheless, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center and now an NBC News analyst, Michael Leiter, affirms that “Khorasan is less of a threat to the region and more of a threat to the U.S. homeland than ISIS.”
Leiter added that: "Unlike ISIS, the Khorasan group focus is not to overthrow the Assad regime. Indeed, after the air strikes, several senior administration officials, speaking on background at a conference call, said that Khorasan, who are core Al Qaeda terrorists, had established a safe haven within the chaos of Syria to plot attacks against the United States and other Western nations. One official reported that this planning was "nearing the execution phase."
The birth of Islamic terrorist groups seems to be blossoming.
In Algeria, for instance, the “Soldiers of the Caliphate," is a splinter group that broke away from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb this month, thereafter swearing allegiance to the Islamic State.
Female supporters of the Al Nusra Front take part in a protest against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the international coalition in Aleppo on September 26, 2014. The US struck a little-known group called 'Khorasan' on September 24, but experts and activists argue it actually struck Al-Qaeda's affiliate Al-Nusra Front, which fights alongside Syrian rebels. AFP PHOTO/ BARAA AL-HALABI
Recently, Frenchman Hervé Gourdel was kidnapped by the new terrorist group calling itself Jund al-Khalifa or the Soldiers of the Caliphate. Gourdel, 55, was hundreds of miles from any lethal battlefront, a completely different scenario from the three Westerners earlier caught and beheaded by the Islamic State in Syria.
The “Soldiers” threatened to kill Gourdel unless France stopped its airstrikes on ISIS in Iraq, which began on September 19. A second, grizzly video appeared on the Internet a few days later, showing men with their faces concealed standing over Gourdel, one announcing they were executing him as a “message of blood for the French government.” Finally, they showed one of the men apparently holding Gourdel’s severed head. The terrorists kept their word.
The Islamic State has commanded its terrorists to perpetrate attacks throughout the world, and the beheading of the French hostage may only be the first in a new chapter in the evolution of the Islamic State terrorism.
Adding fuel to the fire, last September 3, we find once again the above mentioned Ayman al Zawahiri, the leader of the Al Qaeda Central announcing the establishment of a new branch: al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. Zawahiri, known for being “long on words and short on charm” delivered a slow and incoherent message.
Time to meet Aasim Umar, the face of Al Qaeda in India. Al Zawahiri introduced him in a video message as the head of the Qaeda's South Asia arm or Qaedat-al-Jihad.
Interestingly, the Indian security agencies barely had any information on Umar.
The video showed Umar exhorting Indian Muslims to participate in the "global jihad to give a final push to the collapsing edifice of America" and establish Ummah (Muslim nationhood) and the rule of sharia (Muslim law).
Conclusion
Some weeks ago, in his speech outlining his strategy to defeat the Islamic State, President Barack Hussein Obama made clear that “ISIL is not Islamic...;” that “no religion condones the killing of innocents...;” and that “... Islam teaches peace,” despite vast proof to the contrary in the Koran.
Once again, several days ago, at his 2014 address to the United Nations General Assembly, the American president reiterated:
“At the same time, we have reaffirmed that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. Islam teaches peace. Muslims the world over aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice. And when it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them – there is only us, because millions of Muslim Americans are part of the fabric of our country.So we reject any suggestion of a clash of civilizations. Belief in permanent religious war is the misguided refuge of extremists who cannot build or create anything, and therefore peddle only fanaticism and hate.”
The American president insists that “... in this century, we have faced a more lethal and ideological brand of terrorists who have perverted one of the world’s great religions [Islam].”
Back in October 2011, news broke that the Obama Administration was pulling references to Islam from training materials: "Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole confirmed on Wednesday that the Obama administration was pulling back all training materials used for the law enforcement and national security communities, in order to eliminate all references to Islam that some Muslim groups have claimed are offensive."
Now, three years later, the American president thinks he can simply declare that the Islamic State terrorists have nothing to do with Islam. They have committed untold crimes against humanity: Mass persecutions of Christians, Yazidis, Kurds, and Muslims, mass beheadings and executions of innocents along their path. Whoever does not abide by the rule of Allah and does not join or obey the barbarians is slaughtered in the name of Islam.
So, beheading after beheading of innocents at the cry of "Allah hu Akbar," has nothing to do with Islam?
Eliana Benador is a strategist consultant, adviser, opinion writer, and speaker, was founder of Benador Associates. Her website is www.elianabenador.com. You may follow her at @ElianaBenador on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook.
–
TheBlaze contributor channel supports an open discourse on a range of views. The opinions expressed in this channel are solely those of each individual author.
