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West Point Center Issues Al-Qa'ida Study With Newly Released Documents (updated 2/16)By Andrew Cochran
(UPDATE 2/16: See "USA Today" story on this study.) The Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy at West Point has produced an interesting new study entitled, "Harmony and Disharmony: Exploiting Al-Qa'ida's Organizational Vulnerabilities" (browser-friendly view). The study includes documents, captured in the course of operations and stored in DOD's "Harmony" database, and released here for the first time to the academic and policy community. Brief summaries of the released documents and the full texts can be accessed from within the report, both in Arabic and in English. You can also download Acrobat files of the report segments here. Some interesting excerpts: Harmony document AFGP-2002-600080 recounts al-Qaidas lessons learned from the Syrian jihad. It articulates the organizations failure to balance the need for operational security with financial efficiency and tactical control. The experiences of the Muslim Brotherhood and the al-Talia al-Muqatila (The Fighting Vanguard) in Syria from 1976-1982 provide a textbook case of an organization that initially possessed little awareness of the agency problem that in retrospect likely doomed the effort from the start...These documents do not provide compelling evidence that U.S. counterterrorism policies to date have been misguided or have overlooked any major developments. To the contrary, the documents reflect ongoing jihadi concerns about operational security and sustainability in the midst of Americas counterterrorism efforts. Encouragingly, some of the documents even reflect al-Qaidas fear that U.S. intelligence collection efforts are in some cases exceeding al-Qaidas ability to enact countermeasures. Congrats to the CTC and its chairman, General (Retired) Wayne A. Downing, for this and other important contributions to the counterterrorism effort. Late last year, the CTC released a 3-volume set entitled, "The Making of a Terrorist: Recruitment, Training and Root Causes," which included essays on the subject by Zachary Abuza and Evan Kohlmann. I look forward to expert analysis of its new study, especially the documents, for new insights.
TrackBackTrackBack URL for this entry: Listed below are links to weblogs that reference West Point Center Issues Al-Qa'ida Study With Newly Released Documents (updated 2/16):
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