NEFA Foundation: The Bitter Divide Within Al-Qaida's Last Remaining Ally in Iraq
By Evan Kohlmann
The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated two recent statements issued respectively by the Ansar al-Islam Organization in Iraq (formerly known as the Ansar al-Sunnah Army) and a breakaway faction which refers to itself as the “Shariah Committee of the Ansar al-Sunnah Army.”
In response to allegations from Ansar al-Islam accusing their dissident brothers of conspiring with the Americans against Al-Qaida, the "Shariah Committee" fired back with a detailed 32-page breakdown of criminal behavior and atrocities committed by Al-Qaida's forces in Iraq without any apparent objection from Ansar al-Islam. The “Shariah Committee” warned their former comrades, "[our leaders] know much about you, and if they were to publicize it, it would be a major and shameful humiliation… Isn’t it rather hypocritical for you to flatter others and act courteously towards the killers responsible for murdering many of you out of fear of their power, while you simultaneously assault your brothers and lie to them… Who killed your men in Al-Ramadi, in Al-Yusufiya, in Nineveh, and in various other areas more than two years ago, and yet you forgave them? …Was it not you who used to say that the greatest action that Shaykh [Usama] Bin Laden could perform today would be to declare the disbanding of the Al-Qaida organization in Iraq, because it has fallen into disgrace and it has become a cover for anyone with twisted goals in order for them to achieve these goals through this infiltrated organization. The only treatment for its condition is to disband it… You sent messengers to Afghanistan—among whom was Abu al-Darda’a, may Allah have mercy upon him, who was dispatched in order to explain to [Usama] Bin Laden and [Dr. Ayman] al-Zawahiri the massive corruption of Al-Qaida in Iraq. When Abu al-Darda’a returned, he indicated that a delegation would be sent by al-Zawahiri to Iraq in order to confirm whether these reports were true. Then you told us that Abu Musab [al-Zarqawi], may Allah have mercy upon him, was impeding the arrival of this delegation in order to prevent the truth from being revealed. It should be noted that the era of Abu Musab should be considered to be a golden era when compared to what happened afterwards.”
Translated excerpts of both statements are available on the NEFA Foundation website.
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