One year ago today, we were met with yet another solemn reminder: the ideologies that promote, recruit, and train militant Islamist jihadists are alive, well, and growing.
When Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnev detonated the two bombs at last year’s Boston Marathon, they had carried out their duty as “soldiers of Allah” against “the Great Satan.” Immediately afterwards, the whitewashing campaign hit full throttle on two fronts: the left-leaning media and within the Obama Administration.
Rolling Stone magazine slapped Dzokhar on the front page of its next issue, imbuing the 20-year-old with troubled rockstar status. Forget the fact that Dzokhar Tsarnev had been inspired by and taught how to make pressure-cooker bombs through Al Qaeda’s Inspire magazine – Al Qaeda has been “on the run,” “decimated,” and “on the path to defeat”, said the Obama administration.
The world’s Islamist extremist organizations have openly and continuously declared war against America and the free peoples of the world. The administration has, for years now, refused to recognize Al Qaeda and its affiliates as the predominant aggregators of worldwide terror, and has instead prematurely declared victory over the various jihadist networks.
On November 5, 2009 Army Major Nidal Hassan shouted “Allahu Akhbar” (God is great) while opening fire on his fellow soldiers. The terror attack at Ft. Hood, Texas, resulted in the deaths of thirteen individuals. After an investigation ensued, the Obama administration categorized the mass murder as “workplace violence.” Because of this classification (that continues to this day), the families of the victims of the Ft. Hood tragedy have been denied death benefits compensation. An extensive review revealed Hasan to be a sympathizer of former Al Qaeda cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki. In addition, Hassan marked “Soldier of Allah” on all his business cards. With the overwhelming evidence gathered pointing to a clear act of highly ideological, Islamist-driven domestic terrorism, the White House refused to change its narrative.
In the aftermath of the 9/11/2012 attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, the administration refused to give up on its well-established narrative. Overwhelming evidence pointed to the fact the attack on the Consulate was not the spontaneous uprising the administration had originally deemed it, but rather a sophisticated and pre-planned operation. The President continuously reminded Americans of the oft used “Al Qaeda is decimated” talking point. By November 1st of the same year, Obama himself had trumpeted AQ’s dissolution at least 32 times in public.
On April 8, The US House Subcommittee on Terrorism held a hearing titled “Is Al Qaeda winning?” Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute asserted Al Qaeda’s “brand is spreading like wildfire, the groups affiliating themselves with it control more fighters, land and wealth than they ever have, and they are opening up new fronts.”
“On the run” Al Qaeda and its affiliates have been more than assertive in filling the vacuum left behind from an American foreign policy seemingly in full retreat from its strategic interests abroad.
In Iraq, the Al Qaeda-aligned Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group has recently taken over the city of Fallujah. Fallujah, once an American stronghold during the war in Iraq, was handed over to the Iraqi government after the Obama administration failed to secure a status of forces agreement.
In Syria, the AQ-linked ISIL has gained a reputation as “the strongest group in northern Syria”, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The ongoing civil war in Syria has created a magnet effect, drawing in Al Qaeda sympathizers from around the world to fight for shaheedism (martyrdom).
In Nigeria, Al Qaeda-linked Boko Haram continues its reign of terror. On Monday, the group was responsible for killing 71 people at a bus station outside the capital city of Abuja.
In late January, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned, “There are some five different franchises at least and 12 countries that this movement [Al Qaeda] has morphed into, and we see sort of chapters of it, of course, in Yemen, Somalia, North Africa, in Syria, etc.”
These are just a few of many compelling reports substantiating the fact Al Qaeda and its affiliates continue to assert themselves and spread influence throughout the globe. The question prevails: will the Obama administration recognize this lethal threat or continue to bury it under the rug?
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