Let’s Bury the Islamic Jihad Union

October 5, 2007

In early September three people alleged of planing to bomb some U.S. bases were captured in Germany. WaPo wrote:

Prosecutors said the men — two Germans who had converted to Islam and a Turkish citizen who lived in Germany — had trained at camps in Pakistan run by the Islamic Jihad Union, a Central Asian network that is a close ally of al-Qaeda.

The leader of the Islamic terror research group of Germans internal intelligence service, Benno Koepfer, thinks the above is wrong. There is no IJU. Here is an interview published today in the German daily TAZ (my slightly shortened translation):

TAZ: Were the three bomb-builders backed by the Islamic Jihad Union?

BK: I doubt that these three were working on orders by some fixed organization named Islamic Jihad Union.

TAZ: The IJU claimed responsibility for the actions of those three.

BK: There are many indication that such claims on Internet sites were done by some free loaders. There was only public information in these claims.

TAZ: What about the supposed 2004 assaults by the group in Uzbekistan?

BK: Uzbekistan does not have a free press. It is hard to verify what really happened in Uzbekistan.

TAZ: Where is the origin of the earlier assumption that the bomb builders are related to the IJU?

BK: Those were informations from U.S. intelligence services.

TAZ: Could the IJU be an invention of western intelligence services?

BK: I will not speculate about that.

TAZ: Can you voice these doubts without problems?

BK: Yes. It is important to tell the public that there are such doubts. If it would surface three years from now that IJU never existed, it would be more troublesome for the intelligence services.

Earlier former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, voiced doubts about the existence of the IJU:

I never met anybody in Uzbekistan, including from Islamist groups, who had heard of the IJU. I researched this intensively. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, of whom the group is allegedly a cooperative offshoot, have never referred to it anywhere. Nobody in Islamist circles in the UK, or Uzbek exile circles worldwide, has ever heard of the IJU. Nobody can name a single member, let alone leader.

With this combination of very serious doubts by very knowledgeable people we can bury the sham of an IJU for good.

There are other organization U.S. intelligence services claim to know about.

You ask how real these are?

That’s a good question.

Posted by b on October 5, 2007 at 17:34 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Union wages for Jihad? Sounds pretty progressive to me. I wonder if they have single payer health insurance, too?

Posted by: Malooga | Oct 5 2007 18:05 utc | 1

Single prayer health insurance, more likely…

Posted by: ralphieboy | Oct 5 2007 18:30 utc | 2

Remember that in 1984, by ex-used bookstore person Eric Blair,
findable opposition to Big Brother is run by Big Brother.
Quotes from mainstream sources
re Indonesia
and
re London.

Posted by: plushtown | Oct 6 2007 0:34 utc | 3

single payer or single prayer

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 6 2007 0:58 utc | 4

This is wyrd.
If I recall, the key to the recent terror bust in Denmark was also based on US supplied information. Wasn’t there a take down in Austria about a month ago where the tip off came from unnamed US agencies?
The ordinary civilian slob can only shake his head, feel a bit dizzy and assume that some of these busts are more or less real and some are psyop spin to remind us to Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid.
Don’t get me worng, I love Big Brother!

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Oct 6 2007 8:34 utc | 5

I wasn’t able to follow the Germany incident. Was it a real plot after all, or is it the usual hype-over-set-up-idiots stuff?
In any case, there are inventions, there are creations, there are pawns… Here is much meat about another (but this one indubitably real) Central Asian network that is a close ally of al-Qaeda – Hizbut Tahrir:
Remaking Central Asia

(snip)
The recent developments in Uzbekistan have all the hallmarks of the same process. This time the objective is to weaken China, Russia, and possibly India, using the HT to unleash the dogs of war in Central Asia. It is not difficult for those on the ground to see what is happening. The leader of the Islamic Party of Tajikistan, Deputy Prime Minister Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda, has identified HT as a Western-sponsored bogeyman for “remaking Central Asia”. He said: “A more detailed analysis of HT’s programmatic and ideological views and concrete examples of its activities suggests that it was created by anti-Islamic forces. One proof of this is the comfortable existence this organization enjoys in a number of Western countries, where it has large centers and offices that develop its concept of an Islamic caliphate.” It is evident that Turajonzoda has seen through this game. But he has little capability to stop the juggernaut once it has been unleashed.
(snip)

Posted by: Alamet | Oct 6 2007 17:17 utc | 6

Was it a real plot after all, or is it the usual hype-over-set-up-idiots stuff?
Three young misguided guys who had some vague plans but had been under surveilance for nearly two years. They bought some bomb making precurser, but never started to actually use it.
A bit of a cumbersome plot but also lots of hype. A decent serious talk with these folks by some sane grown ups and a chance to get a life would probably have stopped them earlier. One has the impression they were left plotting so the police could prove the nessesity of its existence.

Posted by: b | Oct 6 2007 17:40 utc | 7

a couple of related questions that i’ve not found satisfactory answers for yet
– how is it possible that a businessman like UBL (and other non-scholars) can issue a fatwa?
– how is it possible that an electrician like abd al-salam faraj (and others who lack legitimate religious authority) can exert influence as an interpreter of islamic doctrine?

Posted by: b real | Oct 6 2007 19:27 utc | 8

how is it possible that a businessman like UBL (and other non-scholars) can issue a fatwa?
Did OBL issue fatwas? I am not aware of that. I thought he gets some from others on his request. Usually there is some formal knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence required to issue a fatwa.
The again, there is no hierarchy in (Sunni-)Islam. If a group however small or made up accepts someones teaching that person is a teacher (for this group). If they accept that persons (islamic-legal) ruling issued in a fatwa, it is a fatwa to them. If the group believes they are the only real muslim, all other muslims are apostates to them.
A fatwa is not a fatwa to those muslim who do not accept the person as a teacher/judge.
how is it possible that an electrician like abd al-salam faraj (and others who lack legitimate religious authority) can exert influence as an interpreter of islamic doctrine?
Maybe he filled a void like others before him. There are lots of such figures in history. Most are forgotton. But I can think of a jewish carpenter who raised quite a crowed. One of the few successful ones.

Posted by: b | Oct 6 2007 20:50 utc | 9

Did OBL issue fatwas? I am not aware of that. I thought he gets some from others on his request.
well i don’t know enough about the specifics, but the u.s. govt/media gets a lot of mileage out of telling us that he has. wikipedia’s entry Fatāwā of Osama bin Laden attributes a 1996 fatwa solely to UBL, while he was one of several signers of another two years later. other sources mention multiple fatawa issued by him. yet UBL is neither a mujtahid nor a mufti, so i question how these “legal decisions” hold any actual legitimacy for muslims & whether instead they are designed mainly for western consumption, i.e., non-muslims.
Maybe he filled a void like others before him.
i tend to think this is probably the logical answer, yet the little i’ve read on the context surrounding faraj’s appeal leaves room for a healthy skepticism. christianity has its own extremist (mis)interpretations espoused by outsiders, though the ones that usually rise to the public awareness have some pretty powerful supporters using them for ulterior purposes. or so it seems.

Posted by: b real | Oct 7 2007 5:41 utc | 10

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