AL QAIDA: WESTERN SPIES MULTIPLY "LIKE LOCUSTS"

From the point of view of an al Qaida military leader, Western
intelligence agents are now ubiquitous in the lands of Islam, and their
operations have been extraordinarily effective.  The Western spies are
unfailingly lethal, leaving a trail of dead Islamist fighters behind them.
 Worst of all, they have managed to recruit innumerable Muslims to assist
their war efforts.

"The spies... were sent to penetrate the ranks of the Muslims generally,
and the mujahidin specifically, and [they] spread all over the lands like
locusts," wrote Abu Yahya al-Libi, an al Qaida field commander in
Afghanistan, in a new book called "Guidance on the Ruling of the Muslim
Spy."

"The spies are busy day and night carrying out their duties in an
organized and secret manner... How many heroic leaders have been kidnapped
at their hands? How many major mujahidin were surprised to be imprisoned or
traced?  Even the military and financial supply roads of the mujahidin,
which are far from the enemy's surveillance, were found by the spies."

Al Qaida operations have been severely impeded by the intelligence war
against them, al-Libi said.  "As soon as the mujahidin get secretly into
an area on a dark night, they are confronted by the Cross forces and their
helpers.  Many are killed or captured."

Western spies are found under every conceivable cover, al-Libi wrote.
"They have among them old hunchbacked men who cannot even walk, strong
young men, weak women inside their house, young girls, and even children
who did not reach puberty yet.  The spy might be a doctor, nurse,
engineer, student, preacher, scholar, runner, or a taxi driver.  The spy
can be anyone...."

"The occupation armies completely rely on recruiting spies and informants
from the Muslim lands they usurped and conquered... The spy lives among
Muslims, being one of them: living their life, wearing their dress, eating
what they eat... Therefore, he can access what the armed soldiers of the
occupation cannot put hands on."

In the new book, published on jihadist websites on June 30, al-Libi
ruminated at length on the religious and legal problem of the Muslim spy.
Can there be a Muslim who spies against other Muslims or, since such a
person would by definition be an apostate, is a Muslim spy a contradiction
in terms?  May such a person be killed?  (It depends.)  To convict a spy
nowadays is it necessary to rely on the traditional two witnesses?
(Again, it depends.)  What about a person who is mistakenly executed as a
spy?  (God will reward him.)

Pervading the book is a sense of the overwhelming impact of U.S. and
Allied intelligence operations on jihadist forces, and the willingness of
indigenous Muslims to act with Western intelligence against those forces.

"Everyone who lives in the jihad battlegrounds... knows well that the
occupation forces could not do one-tenth of what they do now if they did
not recruit spies and informants....  Most of the mujahidin and their
soldiers were killed or captured because of the intelligence information
that the infidel forces have obtained from the secret soldiers whom they
recruit, like swarms of locusts, from the native citizens who talk our
language and pretend they are Muslims."

"Guidance on the Ruling of the Muslim Spy" by Abu Yahya al-Libi was
translated, rather clumsily, by the DNI Open Source Center.  A copy was
obtained by Secrecy News and is posted here:



The book cited the use of electronic homing devices to guide air-launched
missiles to their targets and images of several such devices were included
in the original Arabic version of the book (at page 146).  The purported
use of the devices was discussed in "CIA Drone Targeting Tech Revealed,
Qaeda Claims" by Adam Rawnsley, Wired Danger Room, July 8, 2009.
Memri.org also prepared a proprietary translation of the new Al-Libi book,
which was reported by Fox News last week.