During Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress this week he proclaimed “Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam. One calls itself the Islamic Republic. The other calls itself the Islamic State. Both want to impose a militant Islamic empire first on the region and then on the entire world. They just disagree among themselves who will be the ruler of that empire.”
Well, it seems there may now be a new kid on the Islamic block.
In the fall of 2014 it was thought that the al-Qaeda affiliated gang, the Syrian Jabhat al-Nusra Front might be joining forces with the powerful and growing Islamic State – ISIS.
Now it seems they may have other plans and other backing, not to mention some help from us Americans.
The Daily Mail reports al-Nusra leaders “announced they are considering cutting their links with Al Qaeda in order to form a new entity backed by Gulf states.”
Gulf States? You mean a terrorist group will have the backing of at least one Middle Eastern nation?
Yep – that’s exactly I’m saying: “Sources within and close to al-Nusra said that Qatar, which enjoys good relations with the group, is encouraging the terrorists to go ahead with the move, which would boost the militants’ funding.”
The backing of a rich and radical state like Qatar “could transform al-Nusra from a weakened militia group into a force capable of taking on Islamic State at a time when it is under pressure from bombing raids and advances by Kurdish and Iraqi military forces.”
Qatar – why does that sound familiar? Oh, that’s right – it’s the friendly and responsible nation that so kindly and willingly took the 5 high-level terrorists we swapped for the scumbag Bowe Bergdahl. Hmmm … I wonder what ever happened to those guys.
What else is Qatar famous for, besides being the richest nation per capita on the planet? Right again – it owns al-Jazeera. You know – the news outlet Hillary Clinton praised as being a “real news” network. She said, “In fact viewership of al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it’s real news. You may not agree with it, but you feel like you’re getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and, you know, arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news which, you know, is not particularly informative to us, let alone foreigners.”
Anyway, so how has America helped this latest break-out terrorist gang?
Just a few days ago photos went out via Twitter showing al-Nusra fighters posing in a large captured warehouse in Syria fully stocked with vast amounts of food and weapons that the United States had supplied to a Western-backed Syrian rebel group, Harakat Hazm.
The rebels were storing the supplies in a warehouse near a former Assad military base. But when the base was overrun by al-Nusra, the rebels could see the writing on the wall and high-tailed it out of town, leaving everything behind, much as Iraqi forces have done, leaving similar windfalls for ISIS.
One of the terrorists can be seen tauntingly posing with boxes sporting United States emblems and another with a TOW (tube launched, optically tracked, wireless guided) anti-tank missile.
With the photos, they added “’Thanks be to God, Allah let the Mujaheddin take these weapons after we fought the traitors [Harakat Hazm]. Tens of American TOW missiles became for the Mujaheddin.”
Muzamjer al-Sham, a prominent jihadi figure who is close to al-Nusra Front said, “A new entity will see the light soon, which will include Nusra and Jaysh al Muhajereen wel Ansar and other small brigades.”
Intelligence officials from Gulf States including Qatar have already met al-Nusra Front’s leader Abu Mohamad al-Golani several times in a effort to encourage him to abandon Al Qaeda.
So, great news for us and for Israel. Yet another potentially major terrorist organization with which to contend, and this one appears to have the direct backing of a rich Gulf nation.
And PS – the Khorasan group may be splintering off with them. They are like terrorist special porces, who train specifically for attacks against U.S. and Western targets.
The news just keeps getting better by the day.