Al-Qaida rips into prima donna terrorist Al-Qaida rips into prima donna terrorist ADVERTISING DAKAR, Senegal — After years of trying to discipline him, the leaders of al-Qaida’s North African branch sent one final letter to their most difficult employee. In
Al-Qaida rips into prima donna terrorist
DAKAR, Senegal — After years of trying to discipline him, the leaders of al-Qaida’s North African branch sent one final letter to their most difficult employee. In page after scathing page, they described how he didn’t answer his phone when they called, failed to turn in his expense reports, ignored meetings and refused time and again to carry out orders.
Most of all, they claimed he had failed to carry out a single spectacular operation, despite the resources at his disposal.
The employee, international terrorist Moktar Belmoktar, responded the way talented employees with bruised egos have in corporations the world over: He quit and formed his own competing group. And within months, he carried out two lethal operations that killed 101 people in all: one of the largest hostage-takings in history at a BP-operated gas plant in Algeria in January, and simultaneous bombings at a military base and a French uranium mine in Niger just last week.
The al-Qaida letter, found by The Associated Press inside a building formerly occupied by their fighters in Mali, is an intimate window into the ascent of an extremely ambitious terrorist leader, who split off from regional command because he wanted to be directly in touch with al-Qaida central. It’s a glimpse into both the inner workings of a highly structured terrorist organization that requires its commanders to file monthly expense reports, and the internal dissent that led to his rise. And it foreshadows a terrorism landscape where charismatic jihadists can carry out attacks directly in al-Qaida’s name, regardless of whether they are under its command.
Rudolph Atallah, the former head of counterterrorism for Africa at the Pentagon and one of three experts who authenticated the 10-page letter dated Oct. 3, said it helps explain what happened in Algeria and Niger, both attacks that Belmoktar claimed credit for on jihadist forums.
Official pushes US-China relations
BEIJING — U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon pushed Tuesday for stronger military relations with China, on the final day of a visit to Beijing to set the stage for a summit next month between President Barack Obama and China’s Xi Jinping.
Nontraditional military activities such as peacekeeping, disaster relief and anti-piracy operations offer opportunities to boost cooperation and “contribute to greater mutual confidence and understanding,” Donilon told Gen. Fan Changlong, a vice chairman of the commission overseeing China’s armed forces.
Donilon met with a range of Chinese officials over two days to hammer out plans for the June 7 and 8 summit, the first face-to-face meeting between the presidents since Obama’s re-election and Xi’s promotion to Communist Party chief last November.
Their informal summit at the private Sunnylands estate of the late publishing tycoon Walter Annenberg in southern California will come months before the two leaders had been originally scheduled to meet, underscoring concerns that the U.S.-China relationship was drifting.
Train derails near Baltimore; 1 hurt
ROSEDALE, Md. — A CSX freight train crashed into a trash truck and derailed Tuesday in a Baltimore suburb and the explosion that followed rattled homes at least a half-mile away, sending a plume of smoke into the air that could be seen for miles, officials and witnesses said.
In the third serious derailment this month, the dozen or so cars went off the tracks at about 2 p.m. in Rosedale, a Baltimore eastern suburb. Hazmat teams were on the scene, but Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said at a news conference that no toxic inhalants were burning. Officials did not order an evacuation.
The truck driver was taken to the hospital in serious condition and two CSX workers aboard weren’t hurt, fire officials said.
By wire sources
