Possible Terrorist Attack Foiled in Egypt... By Stephen Ulph [From: Terrorism Focus (The Jamestown Foundation, USA) Volume 3, Issue 11, 21 March 2006]
A brief message posted on the Tajdeed forum (since taken off the web) calls attention to the position of Egypt in the global jihad. On March 7, one signing himself "The Banner of Truth" posted a cryptically short note concerning what he termed the "Al-Kinana Buqayq operation." It appeared to indicate that Egyptian security had foiled an attempt, perhaps inspired by the recent Abqaiq (Buqayq) operation in Saudi Arabia, on petroleum supplies in Egypt. According to the text, there was "trustworthy news from special sources in the Land of Kinana [a poetic term for Egypt]. Last week, an operation akin to the Buqayq operation was foiled. A car filled with explosives was stopped en route to a complex of the largest petrol storage containers in Egypt. Both mobile and stationary security watches had to be set up over a wide area of the complex, all security measures were beefed up, and identity papers in all similar areas closely scrutinized" (http://tajdeed.org.uk/forums, March 7). No more information was provided and there has been no subsequent confirmation of this incident. If it indeed took place, and is related to the attempt in Saudi Arabia, it would mark an interesting development. Egypt is not an oil-producer, and a successful attack would have nothing like the effect of the February 24 strike at Abqaiq. Its purpose would be to create an impression of organized, international strength, as part of the "disruption and exhaustion phase" that the mujahideen are to carry out to stretch enemy forces through the dispersal of targets (Terrorism Focus, March 17, 2005). The environment in Egypt, however, in both security and ideological terms, is so far proving not conducive for mujahideen operations. Egypt is the cradle of Islamist militant radicalism, but since the apogee of violence in the late 1980s and 1990s it has yet to see significant militant activity in step with al-Qaeda's waxing profile in the Gulf. The October 2004 and July 2005 attacks in Sinai were of limited effect. They were not efficiently exploited for propaganda purposes and were criticized as such by Abu Muhammad al-Hilali in his Risalah ila Ahl al-Thughur fi Sina' ("Letter to the Frontiersmen in Sinai"), posted on the al-Hesbah forum in September 2005. In mid-December last year, a posting on the al-Safinat forum (since closed) noted the relative lack of activity and questioned why there were no al-Qaeda members in Egypt to "fight against the Pharaonic security forces, collaborators and apostate allies to the infidel and the Zionists, their embassies and against the apostate secular parties." It called on the forums to "encourage the mujahideen brothers to find the necessary resources to obtain weapons, equipment and training." http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369930 ..................................................................... ...as Egyptian Mujahideen Face Ideological Attrition By Stephen Ulph [From: Terrorism Focus (The Jamestown Foundation, USA) Volume 3, Issue 11, 21 March 2006] In addition to the logistical difficulties in Egypt's strict security environment, the mujahideen are also facing ideological attrition. Egypt's Islamist militant parties are proving troublesome for al-Qaeda. Last July, the Gama'a Islamiyya and al-Jihad group openly accused al-Qaeda in Iraq of having as its aim the destruction of the Shiite and Kurdish communities in Iraq, rather than removing Western forces from the country. On March 2 came an intriguing report in the Egyptian newspaper al-Misri al-Yawm, analyzed by Shafaf al-Sharq al-Awsat (http://www.metransparent.com), which detailed how al-Jihad groups in prisons had renewed legal consultations covering the repudiation of their previous policies of takfir ("declaring as infidel") of society and the government, the assassination of prominent figures and prejudicial treatment of the minority Coptic Christians. As part of this, the groups are to issue apologies to the Egyptian state for all their past acts of violence. The groups called on intellectuals, religious scholars and writers and civic society organizations to form a negotiations committee to activate this initiative, and mediate it to public opinion. They have defended their position in Islamic jurisprudence with their first publication, entitled al-Tasawwur ("The Concept"), declaring their intention to "re-examine some of what we were unable to reconcile with our experience or the conditions which drove us into a confrontation with society." The text includes passages that repudiate takfir and recognize the legitimacy and powers of the government. It renounces their former claim to constitute an independent religious authority and recognizes the concept of the nation-state. It goes so far as to oppose the formation of secret organizations and guarantees the dissolution of jihadist groups. While not all militant groups in Egyptian prisons have accepted the revisions, the al-Jihad group proposing the initiative is one of the more important formations of its type in Egypt. Headed at one point by Ayman al-Zawahiri, it carried out the assassination of President Sadat in 1981, blew up the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan in 1995 and launched attacks on tourist locations in Egypt until practically repudiating violence against the government in July 1997. In 2002, the Gama'a Islamiyya prison groups undertook a similar exercise, publishing their resolutions in a series of booklets. Their work, titled "The Strategy and Bombings of al-Qaeda: Errors and Perils," was serialized in January 2004 by the Arabic daily al-Sharq al-Awsat. If three such initiatives can constitute a trend, this represents a significant defeat for jihadism in one of its potentially most fertile grounds. It is highly likely that the al-Qaeda ideologues will be moved to respond to this latest statement since a major element of the jihad is fought in the arena of Islamic law. http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369931 -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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