886: Washington pretends that al Qaeda’s al Shebaab is separate. @thomasjoscelyn, @billroggio
Image: Photo taken by Al-Shabaab (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shabaab_(militant_group)) during the Battle of Af Urur (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Af_Urur) . Tom Joscelyn, @thomasjoscelyn,Long War Journal and @FDD; and Bill Roggio, @billroggio, Long War Journal and @FDD; Generation Jihad, in re: Al Shebaab, long part of al Qaeda: A Kenyan was planning a 9/11-scale attack. Flight training in the Philippines; arrested there after three years, transferred to US custody this month. Washington pretends that Shebaab is separate; in fact, it was tasked by al Qaeda’s external operations wing with running a 9/11-style plot. They’re eager to do something enormous again. Isn’t anyone showing up at a flight school saying, “I want to learn to fly a 747,” suspect? So far, we have two pilots; expect more. Most Americans don’t know about the huge number of pilots that have been stopped. As the US leaves Somalia, will it just become ungoverned space? — US has a large presence in Djibouti. Special ops teams coordinate with local [intell, military & constabulary]. The fight isn’t going well; Shebaab controls at least a quarter of Somali territory; conduct raids from rural villages.