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Harmony and Disharmony: Part II: Al-Qa’ida “In Their Own Words”
The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has the responsibility to plan and synchronize efforts across the Department of Defense for the war on terrorism. In conducting their operations over the past several years—particularly Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)—representatives of USSOCOM have uncovered scores of documents authored by members of al-Qa’ida. These documents, which currently reside in a classified database called “Harmony,” shed important new light onto the inner workings of the organization as well as the personalities and preferences of their authors. The database houses thousands of items with a wide range of content, including loose papers, multimedia, and personal letters. In the latter half of 2005, the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point was given access to a small subset of recently declassified Harmony documents and asked to provide an analysis of potential network vulnerabilities and conflicts of interests within the organization. The CTC was chosen to conduct this study based partly upon its expertise in analyzing al-Qa’ida’s strategic texts, jihadi images, video clips, and other materials distributed on the Internet. The documents used in this study were initially identified, processed and translated based upon criteria established to support military planning efforts, including: • al-Qa’ida documents (media, letters, loose papers) discussing ideology, tactics, techniques, procedures, strategy, and operations; • Taliban documents discussing prior or future terrorist actions in Afghanistan or the region and the interaction/coordination with al-Qa’ida; • any material related to al-Qa’ida extremist ideology, training, recruiting, and logistics flow; • documents discussing any al-Qa’ida operation; and • any dialogue from al-Qa’ida that threatens another country/group or its leadership.
This collection of primary documents exposes the banality of al-Qa’ida’s day-to-day operations. Its corporate culture appears to be similar to other modern organizations: permeated by personality conflicts, intra-organizational disputes about senior management decisions and conflict over the allocation of scarce resources. Readers of these documents will gain unique perspective into the leadership’s utilitarian hybridization of jihadi principles and Western-styled bureaucratic structures. In prosaic detail, the documents identify the al-Qa’ida recruitment criteria, the training program for “new hires,” and the tactics of information, political, and military warfare needed to defeat the Jews and Crusaders and restore the Muslim lands to the rule of the caliphate. Beginning with the Islamist battle to overthrow the secular government of Syria in the 1970s and 1980s, and following jihadists through campaigns in Africa, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Gulf States, and Afghanistan, these papers also reveal a high level of arrogance and intense ambition. The al-Qa’ida vision, as reflected in the included documents, demands ruthless adherence to its leadership and teaching, and uncompromising hostility toward Jews, Crusaders, Buddhists, Hindus, and apostate Muslims. Apostasy is defined, of course, to include all those who disagree with al-Qa’ida’s interpretation of Islam. While the theology may seem reactionary, the organization insists on using modern management principles as well. Instruction is provided on applying information technology, manipulating the media, and researching the use of nuclear weapons for the cause of jihad. Given the broad swath of time, place and organizational level from which they come, these Harmony documents reveal sides of the organization not widely seen before. The documents reflect meticulous operational calculations being made by the leadership over intended results and available opportunities for exploitation. The strategic discussions reflect a patient, organized, and determined foe that has known defeats, but one with the ability to learn from its mistakes. Readers will see how some operations they know all too well had been in conceptualization or even planning stages long before much of the West had heard the term “al-Qa’ida.” Like other revolutionary ideologies that have emerged throughout history, the idea of al-Qa’ida—an organization which touts itself as representing the will of a broader constituency—has considerable appeal for those alienated by the penetration of global capitalism or those who feel victimized by corrupt, indifferent rulers. As the accompanying analysis seeks to demonstrate, the importance of al-Qa’ida’s myth-making machinery cannot be underestimated. A careful reading of the documents here dispels the fiction that some have come to accept about al-Qa’ida: that it is a coherent, unified organization informed by Islamic principles. There is perhaps no better and more objective way to understand the fractured and duplicitous nature of al-Qa’ida than by simply listening to what its own leaders have said.
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