Salon News, The Iraq insurgency for beginners
This article provided me with much background on insurgency. The article consisted on an interview with Evan Kohlmann, an Iraqi insurgency expert. It says that there is a difference between Shiite militias and actual insurgency, the insurgents violence is directed at everyone, whereas the Shiite militia is directed at the Sunnis. There is also a difference between insurgency and terrorism, terrorists perform suicide bombings, which have no military objective. Insurgents are generally groups opposed to foreign occupancy (the U.S.).
I also learned that the estimated number of total insurgents is in the ten thousands. "al-Qaeda has about 15,000 people, probably more", this is also only one major group out of 10. There is also a bit of a standoff between the Sunni insurgents and Shiite militia because of their equal number of members.
A final fact that I learned is that people are joining al-Qaeda because it is a "sense of adventure, wanting to be in the big movement of history that's happening right now."They see themselves as knights of the round table. That is also how al-Qaeda is sells itself, "Are you a chivalrous knight or a coward?"
Questions I had from this text:
Are the Shiite militia against solely Sunnis?
Who are the major 10 groups of insurgents?
How many people join al-Qaeda, or other insurgent groups each day?
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
al-Qaeda In Iraq
The Weekly Standard: al-Qaeda In Iraq (continues on to page 2)
What I learned from this article is that the organization of al-Qaeda (which is composed primarily of Sunni) is pursuing a ideology. That ideology was thought up by Sayyid Qutb in the 50's and 60's, his thoughts were that "god alone has the power to make laws and to judge." So when leaders make laws and judge each other in a non religious way they are disobeying God. Muslims who obey these leaders, are "treating their leaders as gods" so are guilty of polytheism, the worst sin. This then makes them unbelievers and not true Muslims, regardless of whether they otherwise obey Muslim law and practice. This ideology is properly called takfirism. Osama bin Laden and his senior lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahiri take this ideology even further by believing that only states that rule according to sharia as well as work actively to spread "righteous rule" across the earth are they "legitimate".
I also learned that al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), headed by Abu Musab al Zarqawi, is even more extremist with the ideology that most of the other al-Qaeda organizations. Zarqawi insists that the duty to convert or kill apostates supersedes even the duty to wage war against the regular unbeliever. Now, AQI has also attacked Western targets, he was implicated in the 2002 murder of USAID official Lawrence Foley in Jordan, and in the bombing of the United Nations office in Baghdad on August 19, 2003. But he mainly concentrates on Shia tagets. AQI has targeted mainly Iraqis, with its preferred weapon is suicide car-bombings, aimed at places where large numbers of Iraqi civilians, especially Shia, congregate. AQI also attacks judges in Iraq because they take away from God his power to judge. It even formally declared the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq.
Questions I had while reading the text:
Why do the Sunni hate the Shia?
How big is AQI?
What many of the total al-Qaeda insurgents are specifically part of AQI?
What I learned from this article is that the organization of al-Qaeda (which is composed primarily of Sunni) is pursuing a ideology. That ideology was thought up by Sayyid Qutb in the 50's and 60's, his thoughts were that "god alone has the power to make laws and to judge." So when leaders make laws and judge each other in a non religious way they are disobeying God. Muslims who obey these leaders, are "treating their leaders as gods" so are guilty of polytheism, the worst sin. This then makes them unbelievers and not true Muslims, regardless of whether they otherwise obey Muslim law and practice. This ideology is properly called takfirism. Osama bin Laden and his senior lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahiri take this ideology even further by believing that only states that rule according to sharia as well as work actively to spread "righteous rule" across the earth are they "legitimate".
I also learned that al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), headed by Abu Musab al Zarqawi, is even more extremist with the ideology that most of the other al-Qaeda organizations. Zarqawi insists that the duty to convert or kill apostates supersedes even the duty to wage war against the regular unbeliever. Now, AQI has also attacked Western targets, he was implicated in the 2002 murder of USAID official Lawrence Foley in Jordan, and in the bombing of the United Nations office in Baghdad on August 19, 2003. But he mainly concentrates on Shia tagets. AQI has targeted mainly Iraqis, with its preferred weapon is suicide car-bombings, aimed at places where large numbers of Iraqi civilians, especially Shia, congregate. AQI also attacks judges in Iraq because they take away from God his power to judge. It even formally declared the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq.
Questions I had while reading the text:
Why do the Sunni hate the Shia?
How big is AQI?
What many of the total al-Qaeda insurgents are specifically part of AQI?
Monday, September 1, 2008
Doing it for the Money
Washington Post Article
What I learned from this article was that an increasing amount of insurgents have joined because of money as opposed to cause. I thought this was interesting because the typical portrayal of the Iraqi insurgent is an American hating extremist. While the insurgents who joined for the money might hate Americans, that was not the reason they joined. In fact Abu Nawall, a captured insurgent who joined for the money because he lost his job as a metal worker, was payed $1,300 a month as an insurgent.
On the other hand, how are the insurgent groups paying their recruits? A growing number have turned to gangster style racketeering. A racket is illegal business, the most well known form of racket is where the criminals demand payment from businesses for protection from crimes which, if unpaid, the criminals perform. The groups are also getting a large amount of their revenue from ransoms, according to Nawall, "ransoms can reach $50,000 a person."
The United states have in turn launched a propaganda effort describing Nawall and other insurgents as greedy to create internal fighting among insurgent groups as well as undermining the support for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The U.S. has also been attempting to disrupt the Sunni funding network, capturing lower level members has not been successful so they have turned to shutting down money transferring operations, mainly in Mosul. Mosul is the where most of the insurgent's money is being wired into from Syria and other countries. The challenge is to eliminate the racketeering operations of al-Qaeda, without eliminating the legitimate business Iraq desperately needs.
Questions I had:
Why do the insurgents hate Americans?
What does al-Qaeda stand for and what are its ideals?
Why does Syria support the insurgents?
What percentage of insurgents have joined just for the money?
What I learned from this article was that an increasing amount of insurgents have joined because of money as opposed to cause. I thought this was interesting because the typical portrayal of the Iraqi insurgent is an American hating extremist. While the insurgents who joined for the money might hate Americans, that was not the reason they joined. In fact Abu Nawall, a captured insurgent who joined for the money because he lost his job as a metal worker, was payed $1,300 a month as an insurgent.
On the other hand, how are the insurgent groups paying their recruits? A growing number have turned to gangster style racketeering. A racket is illegal business, the most well known form of racket is where the criminals demand payment from businesses for protection from crimes which, if unpaid, the criminals perform. The groups are also getting a large amount of their revenue from ransoms, according to Nawall, "ransoms can reach $50,000 a person."
The United states have in turn launched a propaganda effort describing Nawall and other insurgents as greedy to create internal fighting among insurgent groups as well as undermining the support for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The U.S. has also been attempting to disrupt the Sunni funding network, capturing lower level members has not been successful so they have turned to shutting down money transferring operations, mainly in Mosul. Mosul is the where most of the insurgent's money is being wired into from Syria and other countries. The challenge is to eliminate the racketeering operations of al-Qaeda, without eliminating the legitimate business Iraq desperately needs.
Questions I had:
Why do the insurgents hate Americans?
What does al-Qaeda stand for and what are its ideals?
Why does Syria support the insurgents?
What percentage of insurgents have joined just for the money?
Insurgency in the Media
Iraq's Networked Insurgents
What I learned from this article was how insurgents use the internet to create conflict as well as in the real world with bombs and guns. What the insurgents also use their internet sites for is to recruit foreign fighters, raise money, incite violence, and foment religious hatred. On these sites they post statements of successful attacks, comments on politics, but the most potent material is their video posts. The videos contain recordings of suicide bombings as well as feature-length Arabic-language films full of Islamist rhetoric, many of which are subtitled in other languages such as English, German, Kurdish, Turkish, and Urdu. An example of these video posts is a clip posted to the Islamis Fallujah Forums depicting "the destruction of a $3.2-million U.S. armored vehicle with a bomb that supposedly cost only $32, implying that insurgents can get a $100,000 return in damage for each dollar they invest in destruction in a matter of seconds.
A research study on two Iraqi insurgent used forums, the World News Network and Mohajroon showed that in March of 2007, "1,000 press releases documenting operations and commenting on politics" were posted by insurgents. 1,000 posts in just one month! Albeit, many of these posts were just cut and pasted from other sites, but even with all that it still amounts to approximately 30 original posts per day!
This is also a battlefront with the Iraqi insurgents, so it is an important issue to address. U.S. has put its efforts into this cyberbattle as well as the real war going on. However, for every site the U.S. pulls down another pops up, usually with archived content from the last site. The insurgents are putting so much effort into maintaining their position in the virtual world because to some groups “media is half the battle”. So they will continue to fight for their place in the virtual world as they will continue to fight with bombs and guns in the real world.
Some Questions I had while reading this article:
What Insurgency groups are most prominently using the internet?
Who are the Fallujah?
What is Mohajroon?
Is there an estimate as to how many websites are being used by insurgents?
What I learned from this article was how insurgents use the internet to create conflict as well as in the real world with bombs and guns. What the insurgents also use their internet sites for is to recruit foreign fighters, raise money, incite violence, and foment religious hatred. On these sites they post statements of successful attacks, comments on politics, but the most potent material is their video posts. The videos contain recordings of suicide bombings as well as feature-length Arabic-language films full of Islamist rhetoric, many of which are subtitled in other languages such as English, German, Kurdish, Turkish, and Urdu. An example of these video posts is a clip posted to the Islamis Fallujah Forums depicting "the destruction of a $3.2-million U.S. armored vehicle with a bomb that supposedly cost only $32, implying that insurgents can get a $100,000 return in damage for each dollar they invest in destruction in a matter of seconds.
A research study on two Iraqi insurgent used forums, the World News Network and Mohajroon showed that in March of 2007, "1,000 press releases documenting operations and commenting on politics" were posted by insurgents. 1,000 posts in just one month! Albeit, many of these posts were just cut and pasted from other sites, but even with all that it still amounts to approximately 30 original posts per day!
This is also a battlefront with the Iraqi insurgents, so it is an important issue to address. U.S. has put its efforts into this cyberbattle as well as the real war going on. However, for every site the U.S. pulls down another pops up, usually with archived content from the last site. The insurgents are putting so much effort into maintaining their position in the virtual world because to some groups “media is half the battle”. So they will continue to fight for their place in the virtual world as they will continue to fight with bombs and guns in the real world.
Some Questions I had while reading this article:
What Insurgency groups are most prominently using the internet?
Who are the Fallujah?
What is Mohajroon?
Is there an estimate as to how many websites are being used by insurgents?
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