Predator - A Blessing in disguise in Waziristan

FARHAT TAJ of the Center for Interdisciplinary Gender Research of the University of Oslo challenges Pakistani and US media reports about the civilian casualties in the drone attacks in Waziristan claiming that those estimates were fabricated by the pro-Taliban and pro Al-Qaeda elements in Pakistan as part of their propaganda against the US. In an op-ed in Pakistan's The Daily Times, "Drone attacks: challenging some fabrications" she claims that the people of Waziristan had suffered under occupation by the Taliban and the al Qaeda and hence welcomed the drone attacks as a means of getting rid of their oppressors through the precision strikes.

Al-Qaeda's credit crunch

MICHAEL JACOBSON and MATTHEW LEVITT of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy investigate how operational setbacks have affected Al-Qaeda’s long-term funding efforts in the wake of declining popularity of the group. In a Jane’s Strategic Advisory Services article, "Staying solvent - Assessing al-Qaeda’s fnancial portfolio", they argue that if the trends of financial stresses in Al-Qaeda continued, it could further degenerate the core of Al-Qaeda and devolve the internationalised insurgency embodied by Al-Qaeda into a more localised, and less lethal terrorist threat.

Muslim Brotherhood vs. Al-Qaeda

Jean-Pierre Filiu, Professor at Sciences Po Paris analyzes the historical competition between Al Qaeda and the Muslim brotherhood for the leadership of the overall Islamist movement as an organizational and ideological alternative to the ruling secular regimes in the Arab world and elsewhere. In an article in Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, a Hudson Institute publication, "The Brotherhood vs. Al-Qaeda: A Moment Of Truth?", he states that the Muslim Brotherhood movement, and especially Hamas, has achieved significant political gains and established a considerably broad political base by championing itself as the leader of a nationalist version of jihad, with deep roots in a people and a territory while al-Qaeda’s ideology of “global jihad” seems increasingly out of touch with Muslim reality and the very Muslim populations it seeks to mobilize.

Al-Qaeda vs Afghan Taliban

Vahid Brown, fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point Academy, states that there has been an uproar in the online jihadi community due to mixed messages emanating from the leadership of the Afghan Taliban and the al-Qaeda with the Taliban emphasizing the nationalist character of their movement and the al-Qaeda rejecting the nationalist version and reiterating its model of transnational jihad. In a commentary in Foreign Policy, "Al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban: “Diametrically Opposed”?", he posits that the recent shift in the Quetta Shura's strategic communications was not to al-Qaeda's liking, and it raised serious concerns among the broader Salafi jihadi movement about the religio-political legitimacy of the Afghan Taliban's leadership, calling into question the notion of an al-Qaeda-Taliban merger.