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Oh ho ho!

Started by Cain, January 04, 2014, 04:15:17 PM

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Cain

Lebanese authorities catch Majed Al-Majed, leader of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a group with an especially shady past, after a sustained campaign of bombing Shiites in Lebanon.

Majed Al-Majed then somehow dies while in the custody of the Lebanese Army.

Did I mention that the Lebanese Army just got a cool $3 billion from Saudi Arabia?  And that Majed Al-Majed is a Saudi national? I'm pretty sure I mentioned the "exclusively Shiite targets" thing.  And you probably already know about Lebanon practically being the next front in the Syrian Civil War.

Well, I guess this means Majed Al-Majed can't make any inconvenient death-bed testimonies about suspicious Saudi Princes and bank accounts in Dubai or anything.

Most. Profitable. Assassination. EVER!

East Coast Hustle

Y'know I'm usually pretty savvy about this stuff for a layman but this particular cauldron of shittery has so many swirls and layers that it's quite literally mind-boggling.
Rabid Colostomy Hole Jammer of the Coming Apocalypse™

The Devil is in the details; God is in the nuance.


Some yahoo yelled at me, saying 'GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH', and I thought, "I'm feeling generous today.  Why not BOTH?"

Cain

That's Lebanon for you.  And Saudi Arabia.  And jihadi politics.  I mean, the whole Al-Qaeda/AQ affiliate/Saudi Arabia thing alone is sufficiently complex that it frequently catches me out.  Throw in the traditional Lebanese approach of ramping intrigue up to 11 and anything is possible.

East Coast Hustle

Yeah, anytime Lebanon is involved I tend to just stop thinking I know anything about anything.
Rabid Colostomy Hole Jammer of the Coming Apocalypse™

The Devil is in the details; God is in the nuance.


Some yahoo yelled at me, saying 'GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH', and I thought, "I'm feeling generous today.  Why not BOTH?"

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Junkenstein

The best part is that I'm sure $3 billion buys a lot of favours so this can reasonably be expected to be just one of a number of future shitty things to occur.

Was there any indication that Majed Al-Majed was about to get all vocal about the wrong things? I'd guess that if you just intend to kill someone you don't bother taking them into army custody as it's just another layer of bullshit to deal with.

Another bit of Bandar's handiwork?
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Cain

No real indications, but dead men tell no tales.  It's one of their many redeeming features.  And you know as well as I do that the Abdullah Azzam Brigades had a very shady history...a name associated with mysterious bombings before the group was even formed.

Majed also had some very important information about Al-Qaeda's capabilities and links. 

Quote from: Al AkhbarMajed, according to experts on extremist groups, is privy to the secrets of a long era that spanned at least 10 years of direct action. His journey took him from Saudi Arabia to Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, and also Afghanistan and Pakistan, during which he became acquainted with quite a few individuals who would go on to join al-Qaeda. Majed also had a key role to play in helping jihadists regroup in decentralized frameworks following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and the dismantling of al-Qaeda's leadership.

The information supposedly in his possession covers a large number of operatives, operational details, the form and targets of sleeper cells, and amendments introduced to the modus operandi of jihadi groups after the US-led invasion of Iraq and then the Syrian crisis. Majed also has intricate knowledge of how the group's leaders and members are financed, where the funds are spent, and also many of the group's political, security, military, and economic contacts that helped it operate in several countries, including in Lebanon.

Majed was an important link to the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, meaning the Syrian Civil War, and the Lebanese front against Hezbollah.  I think we know whose interests those fall under.

Telarus

Thanks Cain. When I mentioned this to my roommate, he said the name was very familiar, and he thought he had seen something a week or two ago about this guy starting to advocate armed resistance to the house of Saud.... can't find anything solid on that, tho.
Telarus, KSC,
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Cain

It's possible.  It's a very common refrain among Sunni jihadists "the House of Saud is full of decadent westerners, Saudi Arabia must be purged of their sin, the Saudi government are crooks and liars who shall perish in the fires of hell" etc etc ad nauseam.

And for their part, the Saudis never tire of telling Americans and Europeans about how utterly threatened by Al-Qaeda and their allies they are, how terrible a threat extremism is to their rule etc etc

But then, both are proven liars.

Cain

Two more things of note:

The Saudi $3 billion is specifically earmarked for French weapons.  Once again, showing the Saudis are sucking up to Paris in lieu of traction in Washington, and

Depending on who you believe, the Saudi pledge came at a very interesting time.  The NYT says December 15th, before the pledge, but AFP says December 26th.  The pledge was on the 29th.

Also, Iran is offering to help with the autopsy, and says "according to Lebanese sources" that Majed was with Bandar's son at the hospital shortly before he was capured.