THREAT INSIGHT: Islamic State Training Camp Textbook: Excerpt and Analysis

As others have mentioned on this post, Usama Bin Laden (UBL) was a child of the Saudi religion Wahhabism and the merging of the concepts of an even more radical form of extremism when he was influenced by the brother of Syed Qutb and Dr. Zawahiri who were avid followers of the Muslim Brotherhood. Of course you bring in the time in Afghanistan, the call of the Afghani mujahedeen fight against the Soviets, the survival and win of a battle of UBL and his Saudi men and then interject his loss of his father which he never overcame because he was always trying to win Dad's approval and you get the birth of The Base which changed their moniker to AQ. UBL fulfilled a sense of destiny and greatness which was rejected when Iraq invaded Kuwait and Saudi called on the Americans for help, turning down an offer by UBL to bring his fighters to the defense if his home country. This hatred turned towards the US and his issuance of a declaration of war. UBL's problem is that 9/11 succeeded (not a comment I make in jest or light hearted) and we came down on him like a hammer and his escape into Pakistan where he would be later found. As he tried to call the shots over his original network and the expansion into Iraq, Zaraqawi became the new UBL drawing fighters to Iraq over calls to Afghanistan. UBL was so afraid of losing control he wrote a letter admonishing Zarqawi, who although a regional/tactical leader, had no religious tendencies when it came to sermonizing or having significant media releases. The US caught up Zarqawi and the fate of AQI became a whack a mole as each leader that took over the network were lost. AQI was beaten back and had to disappear over the border into Syria to survive, however instead of just licking its wounds it expanded and took advantage of the chaos of the public uprising against Assad and found new strength. Zawahiri, the new head of AQ Core did not want the expansion of AQ by this particular network and ordered them back to Iraq while he appointed Jahbat Al-Nusra Front to represent the network in Syria. This did not sit well with former AQI who was now led by al-Baghdadi who saw the future for AQ in the fight in Syria where the Sunnis were being oppressed by a Shia regime. This became the original draw of ISIS by people all over the world to go fight for the Sunni Ummah. During this huge build up, the West stayed silent because we kind of had the best of both worlds with Iranian influence being challenged and the Saudis and other Sunnis willing to arm and send money to the rebels. The problem was IS took over the rebels gaining money and weapons while they were gathering intelligence and infiltrating Iraqi forces because the Iraqi government had become very unfriendly to the Sunni population. This all came crashing together when ISIS blitzed into Iraq and ran over the Iraqi Army taking a lot of American vehicles, armaments, and supplies turning a terrorist network into a well armed quasi military. you also had ISIS leadership being led by former high ranking Iraqi military Baathists.

What we now see in the Middle East is a Sunni vs. Shiite war between Saudi and Iran being fought through proxies while the US foreign policy stays tangled up in political maneuvering. As you point out ISIS does hold roots in Wahabbi/Salafism so Saudi hoped to control them through weapons and money to go against Iran but the terrorists have their own plan. I think Saudi still hopes to play both sides of the fence as Iran pushed allies to attack the Yemen government which Saudi responded by attacking Yemen. Saudi has publically put out fatwas against going to work with ISIS but the plight of the Sunni people and the success of their achievements are too much of a draw. In a way Saudi unleashed AQ/ISIS and now face the dire repercussions as ISIS has targeted the monarchy and the country. One day soon, I think it has to be when we are totally energy dependent which we may already be, Saudi is going to have to figure out a way t turn away from their current form of Islam and affect some changes to their own religious teachings.

Forgive me if I rambled on too much CSM Michael J. Uhlig but its a complicated story with many twists and turns. I consider Saudi a problem but not the most urgent problem at this time. The power grab by the Iranians and the release of billions of dollars of funds that will go to Hezbollah will be something I fear we look back at and regret.

Thanks ...