SUNNI JIHADIST THREAT

1. INITIAL RESPONSE
i am reading your paper as i received it via research gate for my
comments and will offer my humble viewpoint in some time my
dearest sir.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anthony_Celso2
Anthony Celso currently works at the Department of Security Studies
and Criminal Justice, Angelo State University. Anthony does research
in Comparative Politics, International Security and Terrorism. His
current project is on Islamic Regression, Jihadist Frustration and
Takfirist Violence and how the Sunni jihadist movement has
progressively radicalized. He is the author of Al Qaeda's Post 9-11
Devolution (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014) and The Islamic State a
Comparative History of Jihadist Warfare (Latham: Lexington Books,
2018)
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The Radicalization of Sunni Jihadist Groups and their Development of
a Total War Doctrine
 November 2019
 Conference: Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting 2019

2.  At: Sheraton Hotel New Orleans
 Project:
 Islamic Regression, Jihadist Frustration and Hyperviolent
Takfirist Violence Th
 Anthony Celso
Much of the prevalent western rhetoric is overblown and exaggerated.
First as a Pakistan Army officer serving between 1981 and 1994 and
second as a participant in Afghan civil war from 1994 to 1999, thjrd as
a consultant based in Afghanistan from 2004 to date , I have serious
reservations about the dominant western perception of Islam and
Islamic extremism.
First let me add that I am not a practicing Muslim since last 42
years.So I have no religious bug in my head.
NOW MUCH OF THE CAPACITY BUILDING OF SO CALLED
ISLAMISTS WAS DONE BY THE US CIA DURING THE SO

3. CALLED SOVIET AFGHAN WAR. THE MINOR CHATTELS AND
SMALLER DOGS OF THE CIA WERE SAUDI INTELLIGENCE AND
PAKISTANS ISI.
I have no hesitation in saying that Osama Bin Laden began as a CIA
agent or proxy in Afghanistan. So the USA and US state bears a great
deal of blame for Islamic extremism.
Also let me add that Islamic extremism has few buyers in Islamic
world ,apart from western media that exaggerates it for various
publicity or more precisely cheap publicity reasons.
The Salafist Jihadist passage quoted by Mr Kelso is hardly known in
Pakistan or Afghanistan but western so called analysts are more fond
of using these passages.For various reasons or motivations.
Mr Kelso says and I will offer my humble comments as below :--
The passage is poorly constructed and hilarious !

4. “Near Enemy” regimes ! Syria , Algeria ,Egypt and Libya in 1980s and
1990s as far as Syria and Libya are concerned were in the anti west
camp and Islamists in these states were receiving western support
including US.
By and large if you study post 1945 history secular Muslim states
were lead players against the western camp and major recipient of US
and western support were the so called Mickey mouse islamists.
I would not agree with Mr Kelso’s premise.
Kelsos arguments below are again idealistic and an over simplification
:--
Islamic society was divided from the very start and it was dominated
by one particular sub tribe clan from Arabs.The first four caliphs who
Kelso calls ideal were so disputed and controversial that three of them
were assassinated.

5. Much of the golden script about great age of Islamic piety was
constructed many hundred years later and most destructively under
stewardship of the USA in cold war era and most fatally in Soviet
Afghan war.
I would term Soviet Afghan war as the watershed of extremist Islam
as much capacity building of Islamists was done by the USA and UK
under Pakistani and Saudi vassal sub contractors .
Now I was shocked and disappointed how simplistically Mr Kelso
sums the situation as below .This myopia does not belong to Mr Kelso
alone but is typical in vast majority of western analysts or I would say
so called analysts:--
As far as I saw in Iraq and Afghanistan.Iraq I refer as my father had
close association with Saddam era state.Afghanistan I state as I am
based there since june 2004.

6. As far as I saw the Islamic state or the IS, this was a clear cut western
proxy created by the CIA or DIA with british inputs to undo the
strategic faux pas of Bush by creating a vast Shia bloc after
destroying Saddam.
I would have no hesitation in terming IS as a western proxy at
covert level.
And then I dispute Kelsos assertion that IS was destroyed by 60
nations.IS was destroyed by Russia and Syria and by Iraqi state with
Iranian support . Who are the other 56 nations is a mystery only Mr
Kelso can solve !
Turkey was supporting the IS . Jordan and Saudi Arabia were
involved.Egypts role was dubious .In Afghanistan as I closely saw IS ,
they were clearly a US proxy . IS was dubious and its credentials
were always doubted in both east and west.Even US analysts smelt a
rat in IS.
And then IS was never anti west ! IS was never anti Israel ! IS was
only against the Shias and Iran and Syria ! But Kelso is blind to it !
Most western analysts are blind to it !
Now the statement below by Mr Kelso is much disputable :--

7. I have been in Afghanistan since 2004 and I have yet to see Al Qaeda
in any of the all 35 provinces where I worked.
I take strong exception to the term “non state actors” for so called
terrorists .
What I saw in Afghanistan were 98 % State Actors , USA proxies in
lead , Pakistan number two and then many other states !
Hardly 2 % terrorists were non state actors and these were mostly
criminal groups !
Now Kelsos claim that Al Qaeda was strong in Afghanistan is also
highly dubious.Afghanistan before US arrival was controlled by
Taliban who were Pakistani state proxy and Al Qaeda a small

8. fangless group was may be O.0005 % of the so called bad guys in
Afghanistan.
What happens after 9/11 is that OBL goes to Pakistan and is provided
sanctuary by the Pakistani state, pointed out by two Pakistani ISI
bosses.
Because the USA lacked the strategic resolution to confront the
Pakistani state they were always blaming Al Qaeda which ardly
existed ! Because the USA had no strategy nor the resolution to
confront the nuclear armed deep Pakistani state ! This dimension
nowhere figures in Kelso’s narrative.
Again I take the strongest exception to Kelso’s assertion below :---
Al Qaeda or the IS NEVER ATTACKED THE ZIONISTS OR ISRAEL
“

9. This is the BILLION DOLLAR MYSTERY which CONCEPTUALLY
BLIND ANALYSTS OR SO CALLED ANALYSTS like Kelso cannot
see.
This whole argument that Al Qaeda wanted to attack ZIONISTS is
FALSE and FLAWED.
Hegghammers arguments are utopian and Quixotic and its hard to
relate them to onground realities :--
Cant agree with Kelso.
Jihadi groups that Kelso refers to are mickey mosue players and have
hardly touched or threatened US interests :--

10. These Jihadi groups have only been attacking the enemies of the
USA and Israel.They have hardly touched or threatened the west or
USA !
Interestingly a Jihadi travels from UK or Germany to attack Shias in
Syria or Iraq but is peaceful and docile like a mouse in UK or
Germany ! Its hard to digest or accept logic !
Again I take strong exception to Kelsos terms like global Jihadist
agenda :--
The agenda in reality is US versus Russia or US versus China or the
US versus Iran .And Jihadists are the proxies.But I cannot agree to
any Global Jihadist agenda.

11. The jihadists have miserably failed to attack Western interests.Even
FBI figures indicate that biggest threat to USA are Hispanic or
Mexican gangs .
Kelsos logic is lopsided:--
To equate Madrid attackers with Mohammads methods is outrageous
and defies all common sense.
Kelso certainly has serious conceptual imbalances and needs
therapy.
To compare Kharjites with todays Jihadists is FAR FAR SUPER FAR
FETCHED:--

12. Kharjites were heretic who were destroyed 800 or 900 years ago.
JIHADISTS WERE CLOWNS CREATED BY CIA STUPIDITIES,
RATHER AMERICAN LACK OF STRATEGIC TALENT DURING
SOVIET AFGHAN WAR !
The simple question is where were Jihadists in Afghanistan before
1979 .They did not exist .The CIA created them as petty tools against
USSR . And now characters like Kelso are making them so
complicated like Kelso or his hero Hegghammer or heroin Mary
Habeck !
Cannot agree with Karsh’s argument which Kelso quotes :--

13. Expansionism has always been justified in name of ideology like by
USSR .However the real motivations have always been pure human
vices like lust and ambition.
Mr Kelso exaggerates the Shia Sunni question as Islamic world was
dominated by Sunnis minus Iran and the Shia Sunni question hardly
existed before Iranian revolution challenged the USA and Arabs ,
again not because of Shia ideology but because of ulterior motives
based on Iranian nationalism :--
Far fetched ideas of Mr Kelso.

14. Kelsos arguments are never complete and always non committal and
he never completely analyses why Islamists never attacked the
west :--
Rather than viewing Syrian uprising as a US CIA sponsored proxy war
Kelso makes far fetched arguments :--
Exaggerated assessments of Islamist extremism:--

15. The Islamists were hardly a threat to USA or any state.
The 9/11 attacks remain a shady and dark chapter and so far no clear
evidence has emerged that they were committed by Al Qaeda.
The Islamic extremists have hardly ever attacked the west.They have
killed 99 .99 % Muslims but this escapes the eagle vision of Kelso !
The Tafkirism and Salafism that Kelso talks about is more familiar to
western analysts or the CIA than us here in the so called islamist
east:--

16. Much of these terms are used by ambitious western so called analysts
to add sophistication to their research credentials.
As far as I have seen so called Islamic states are bastions of sex,
sodomy prostitution and con mensip.I have hardly seen any Tafkirism
or Salafism where the British ruled successfully with the strategy that
unless you F____ their mother these people will not acknowledge you
as their father !
Cannot agree with Kelsos conclusions at all :--
 The issue remains major power rivalry USA versus Russia/China or
Atlantic Rim versus Euro Asian Heartland.
 The question in Islamic world is US strategy to sow discord and
division using Shias and Sunnis pitched against each other , a good
strategy for USA.

17.  Rest sectarianism had always existed in Islamic history as it has in
Christian states but it was manipulated and misused by the USA as
well as Iran and Saudi Arabia and Pakistani states starting from
1979.
 Much of the western analysis about Islamic extremism is highly
flawed and defective.
Intelligence Review: Directorate S ?The CIA and Americas
Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001- 2016- Steve
Coll -Allen Lane- Penguin ... Agha .H .Amin , Major (Retired)
07 April 2018
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OF BOOK REVIEWS
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28. GENERAL MAP OF THE TO DEPICT SHASHDARAK BLAST 05
SEPTEMBER 2019
GENERAL MAP OF THE TO DEPICT SHASHDARAK BLAST 05
SEPTEMBER 2019
BLAST NEAR NATO/ISAF HQ AND US EMBASSY
https://www.rferl.org/a/kabul-blast-embassy-district/30147505.html

29. At least 12 people have been killed -- including a U.S. and a
Romanian soldier -- and dozens more injured when a car bomb struck
a checkpoint on September 5 in a neighborhood of Kabul that houses
the embassies, government buildings, and local NATO headquarters.
The fundamentalist Taliban claimed responsibility for the late-morning
attack.
It is the second major Taliban attack in the Afghan capital this week
as U.S. and Taliban officials are said to be in an intense final phase of
efforts toward a peace deal to end their 18-year conflict.
Another Taliban car bombing later on September 5, in a neighboring
province, reportedly killed at least four civilians.
The Taliban, which is pressing for the departure of U.S. and other
international troops in the negotiations, claimed that foreigners were
among the dead in the September 5 attack in Kabul. Taliban
spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that the suicide bomber had
killed 12 "foreign invaders."
Reports said the checkpoint that was targeted was near the
headquarters of NATO's Resolute Support mission.
NATO said in a statement later in the day that two members of that

30. mission, a Romanian and an American, "were killed in action today in
Kabul."
Romanian authorities have confirmed that a Romanian soldier on "a
mixed patrol mission" was among the dead and another Romanian
was seriously wounded.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis condemned the attack and
stressed his country's "profound commitment to combating terrorism
at the international level."
A large plume of smoke rose over the blast and sirens blared as first
responders rushed to the scene.
Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said a minibus packed with
explosives had detonated on a main road in the Shash Darak district
at around 10:10 a.m. local time.
Ten civilians were dead and 42 others were injured in the attack,
Rahimi later tweeted.
Later reports put the number of injured at more than 100.
Agreement Reached 'In Principle'
Quoting a spokesman for Kabul's police chief, AP suggested the

31. attack was also not far from offices of Afghan national-security
authorities.
A draft agreement to end years of war in Afghanistan was said to
have been reached "in principle" recently between U.S. and Taliban
representatives after nine rounds of talks involving U.S. envoy Zalmay
Khalilzad, who has been briefing Afghan officials on its terms.
But completion of the deal is reportedly still contingent on final
approval from U.S. President Donald Trump and assent among
Taliban leaders.
The Afghan government is also said to be weighing its position on the
agreement.
Afghan presidential Waheed Omer, who was talking to reporters at
the time of the September 5 explosion, said the deal was proceeding
with "excessive speed" and warned of difficult times ahead, according
to AP.
A Taliban suicide attack late on September 2 killed at least 16 people
and injured more than 100 others, also in eastern Kabul. The dead in
that attack included another Romanian.
So far in 18 such attacks in the Afghan capital this year, at least 209
people have been killed and more than 1,000 others injured,
according to dpa.