al-Qaeda is not the grass roots movement many believed. In fact, they have been aligned with, and supported by, governments with agendas. This includes more than Afghanistan. In Saudi Arabia it included a sect that was not in power, but wanted to be in power. With the death of one of its primary recruiters last week, we get a glimpse into the regional puppet masters who really control al-Qaeda’s minions and efforts:

In Aleppo, Mahmoud Qul Aghassi, otherwise known as Abu al Qaqaa, was killed. He was one of the most important figures that instigated and recruited Syrian and Arab youth to take part in the war in Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere. His discovery and death last week raised a number of questions regarding the reality of the Al Qaeda network. Is Al Qaeda indeed a spontaneous movement of a zealous and armed group that is ready to sacrifice itself for the sake of its causes? Or is it run from behind the scenes by governments that do not believe in the same ideologies but exploit it for their own purposes?

It is most likely that those who met Abu al Qaqaa did not know that the Sheikh with the thick beard was just an intelligence officer who was sent to them, delivered sermons, pushed them towards jihad, and presented them to other departments responsible for training and sending them to war.

…

Thousands of young Arabs were deceived, who passed through Aleppo and elsewhere and were finally killed or arrested in Iraq and Lebanon. Everyone believed that Ghuraba al Sham and Abu al Qaqaa are associated with Al Qaeda, fighting in the name of Islam, whilst the recruits were unaware that they were mere soldiers of intelligence brigades.

I had not recognized the name, but I did finally recognize the story around this killing:

A Syrian cleric suspected of recruiting foreign militants to fight in Iraq has been shot dead in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, his aides have said.
Sheikh Mahmoud Abu al-Qaqaa was shot several times by a gunman as he left the Imam Mosque after Friday prayers.

The gunman tried to flee the scene of the shooting, but was chased by a crowd and later arrested, the aides said.

Correspondents say Abu al-Qaqaa was a charismatic Sunni cleric with thousands of radical Islamist followers in Syria.

His anti-American sermons attracted a wide audience after the US-led invasion in Iraq in 2003, and his reputation rapidly spread.

So the ‘cleric’ was a Syrian Intelligence officer. Interesting little tidbit there. This has all the signs of an assassination. But I doubt it came from the US are EU side. I was wondering when or if the Iraqis would take a stand against Syria’s meddling. Once the Iraqi Sunnis started fighting al-Qaeda in the streets of Ieaq the war was on, and it would not be long before they would start fighting in all varieties of war. It could also have been ordered from Jordan, Egypt or Saudi Arabia. The conflict in Iraq is destabilizing the entire region and all of these countries have suffered attacks at the hands of al-Qaeda’s jihadis.

The death of this Syrian intelligence officer in his own country outside his recruitment hall tells me the fight for Islam’s future is running quite hot right now. A bit more of the same and Syria will not be able to continue its meddling at a level that could tip Iraq back from its current turn around. More and more Sunnis are swearing on the Koran to destroy al-Qaeda. That includes its puppet masters that have enabled al-Qaeda to execute their atrocities on Iraqi Muslims. We may see more of these. Iraq Sunnis can infiltrate Syria quite easily I would suspect.