Background on AQIM: a growing threat?
Moderator's Note
This thread was entitled 'In Timbuktu, al-Qaida left behind a manifesto' and was merged today with a single post thread 'AQ centre's final letter to their most difficult employee'. The thread has been renamed 'Background on AQIM: a growing threat?'.
There are several closely related threads, in the Africa section, which provide far more background, notably 'Ripples from Mali: events plus outside Mali' and 'Mali mainly...', neither of which qualify for merging here today.(Ends).
Thanks to AP an amazing discovery in Mali, that sits better as a source document for AQ globally, hence here!
It starts with:
Quote:
In their hurry to flee last month, al-Qaida fighters left behind a crucial document: Tucked under a pile of papers and trash is a confidential letter, spelling out the terror network's strategy for conquering northern Mali and reflecting internal discord over how to rule the region.
The document is an unprecedented window into the terrorist operation, indicating that al-Qaida predicted the military intervention that would dislodge it in January and recognized its own vulnerability.
I know there is a thread on AQ's management structure mimicking modern, commercial management, so this fits in:
Quote:
The clear-headed, point-by-point assessment resembles a memo from a CEO to his top managers and lays out for his jihadists in Mali what they have done wrong in months past, and what they need to do to correct their behavior in the future.
Puzzling to note the emphasis on slowing down implementation of Sharia rule, which whilst acknowledged as needed was not followed.
Read all the AP article:http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_289563/con...tguid=A1KPEpDa
There is a much shorter article:http://english.alarabiya.net/article...14/266280.html
Further context is given by FP, which cites other documents, in an article 'Inside the Islamic Emirate of Timbuktu: An exclusive trove of al Qaeda documents found in this fabled city shows a theocracy in the making in Mali':http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...mali?page=full
Context and Conflict Documents
A commentary by Andrew Lebovich on the documents found, giving some context and a caveat:
Quote:
Still, while these documents raise some fascinating subjects and questions, they provide only snapshots in a complicated tableau.
(Later)...Additionally, the documents present more anecdotal evidence that previous conceptions of AQIM may be incorrect, or at least severely deficient.
Link:http://thewasat.wordpress.com/2013/0...ict-documents/
He also refers an:
Quote:
...her excellent book Smugglers and Saints of the Sahara, (by) the British social anthropologist Judith Scheele discusses the conception that many Algerian traders and their families held — and still hold — about northern Mali as a kind of wilderness that corrupted men and ruined families...
This was published in April 2012, but has no review on Amazon.com:http://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Sain...+of+the+Sahara
Ah, there is one five* on:http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1107022126