News you may have missed #872
March 14, 2014 1 Comment
By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org
►►Analysis: US military treads lightly in Africa. America’s aim seems to be to tackle Islamist militants in the Sahel region while keeping its military presence in Africa light. Military experts say direct US military action in Africa is limited to short raids on “high-value” targets in places such as Somalia and Libya, while French troops take on longer, bigger operations.
►►Al Qaeda announces new English-language magazine. Al-Qaeda is starting an English-language magazine as part of a fresh effort to recruit and inspire Western Islamists to launch attacks in their own countries, according to security analysts. A video posted on (and later removed from) YouTube uses the words of Malcolm X to justify violent struggle, before announcing the name of the magazine, Resurgence. It appears to be modeled on Inspire, an online publication produced by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. However, the new magazine appears to be the first English language magazine from the group’s core leadership and is advertised with a slick video from as-Sahab, its media production house.
►►Edward Snowden’s testimony to the European Parliament (.pdf). American intelligence defector Edward Snowden has sent a 12-page document to the European Parliament, in which he answers questions posed to him by several members. In the document he maintains that he has “no relationship” with China and Russia. In response to a question on whether he was approached by the Russian intelligence services, he responds “of course”, and continues: “Even the secret service of Andorra would have approached me, if they had had the chance: that’s their job. But I didn’t take any documents with me from Hong Kong, and while I’m sure they were disappointed, it doesn’t take long for an intelligence service to realize when they’re out of luck”.
intelNews.org 
The emergence of Inspire magazine, with major contributions from al-Awlaki became a major ancillary for AQAP to spread their message in English – especially targeting an English speaking audience. This coincided after the merger of al-Qaeda Saudi Arabia and al-Qaeda Yemen. The timing was in sync with the Arab Spring – or a it manifested itself in Yemen, the Youth Revolution.
The civil unrest that toppled the Saleh regime along with 3 other major factors made Yemen a perfect environment for AQAP to thrive in. Taking advantage of the political chaos, Wuhayshi took the advantage and established Islamic emirates in Abyan [in contradiction to Osama bin Laden’s advice]
At this point AQAP had local, regional and global offensives. Drone attacks and the GCC brokered National Dialogue Conference stopped AQAP’s momentum – with al-Awlaki and Samir Khan dead the international recruiting element vaporized.
Al-Wuhayshi’s emirates in Abyan governorate disappeared after some semblance of reconciliation appeared possible.
So, a new Inspire -like pub equals an attempt to come back. The naming of al-Wuhayshi as al-Qaeda’s #2 gives him clout, but is it because there is no one else?