Boko Haram
leaders were among participants in an extensive “conference call” organised by
Al Qaeda to plan massive terrorist attacks. This fact was reported on August 7,
2013, when more details of the interception by the U.S. intelligence became available.
The data
obtained from the ‘conference’ triggered the closure of 20 American embassies,
including four from sub-Saharan Africa countries, namely, Rwanda, Burundi,
Mauritius, and Madagascar.
Officials,
according to initial media reports, said the decision was taken after
communications between al Qaeda leader, Egyptian-born, Ayman Zawahiri, and the
group’s leader in Yemen , Nasser al-Wuhayshi, were intercepted last week. From
other sources it has been gathered that the discussion between the two al Qaeda
leaders was in a conference call that included the leaders or representatives
of al Qaeda and its
affiliates,
who called through a presumably secure network, from different locations.
Three
anonymous American operatives reported of more than 20 al Qaeda operatives were
on the call.
“Al Qaeda
members included representatives or leaders from Nigeria ’s
Boko Haram, the Pakistani Taliban, al Qaeda in Iraq ,
al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and more obscure al Qaeda affiliates such as
the Uzbekistan
branch,” the report said. “Also on the call were representatives of aspiring al
Qaeda affiliates such as al Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula, according to a U.S.
intelligence official.” “This was like a meeting of the Legion of Doom,”
another intelligence officer concluded.
The report,
widely sourced by other U.S.
media on Wednesday, reflected the global reaches of Boko Haram as the Nigerian
government struggles back home to contain the deadly group that has massacred
thousands of civilians.
Again,
while Boko Haram appears on the U.S. list, the notorious Somali terror group,
Al Shabaab, which operates on the horn of Africa, was not mentioned,
potentially, a measure of Boko Haram’s strategic importance in the global
terror network.
Also during
the meeting, the various al Qaeda leaders discussed in vague terms plans for a
pending attack and mentioned that a team or teams were already in place for
such an attack. For some leading members of Congress, the revelation that al
Qaeda’s leadership in Pakistan
is actively managing and directing the operations of several affiliates
directly refutes the Obama administration’s repeated assertion that the
leadership of the core of the group has been decimated by American drone
strikes and special operations forces while the affiliate groups have been
strengthened.
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