Nicolas Cinquini

On August 2, 2022, president Joe Biden takes credit for an airstrike which on Saturday, July 30 in the US, has killed sheikh Ayman al Zawahiri in Kabul

Muslim Brotherhood… assassination of Anwar Sadat… war in Afghanistan… US and Pakistan support to the mujahideen… foundation of al Qaeda… civil war in Algeria… Paris Saint Michel… boomerang on 9/11… the new boosters to the Sunni global jihad through the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, NATO destruction of Libya, NATO support to the Syrian revolution… all my youth is gone with Zawahiri.

After the abolition of the Ottoman caliphate, Hassan al Banna (1906-1949) founds in 1928 the Muslim Brotherhood, an islamic NGO which grows in Egypt through welfare services, a political organization which denounces colonialism, spreads devotion and the dream of a new worldwide islamic caliphate. In the 1950s, its head of propaganda, Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), theorizes modern jihad, the violent and offensive action in order to worldwide enforce sharia, the immutable islamic legislation.

Arab nationalist and Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) cracks down on the Brotherhood, but his successor, Anwar Sadat (1918-1981), tries to reconcile, pays finally a serious personal price

As a radical member of the Brotherhood and a fan of Sayyid Qutb, physician Ayman al Zawahiri (1952-2022) is arrested among thousands and tried. Free in 1985, he travels to Saudi Arabia, where he meets Osama bin Laden. While in Afghanistan, the Soviet army is fighting in support to a communist government against an islamist uprising, Arab volunteers join there the mujahideen. The meeting in Afghanistan between the Saudi golden boy and Muslim Brotherhood produces al Qaeda in 1987.

What could be the highest common denominator of the US interference in all these events ? A cold war against Soviet Union, then Russia, more recently China, for the dreamed leadership of an unipolar world. Over time, declining Europe will become their auxiliary. Today, the European Union is no more than a free market area within NATO. A logic of blocks while jihad is transnational and global

In the 1980s, alongside Pakistan, with money, weapons and public statements, the US are supporting the mujahideen in Afghanistan. The Soviet army withdraws in 1989, the communist government is standing alone three years, until the islamist victory in 1992. Leader of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden is then a hero for many Westerners

Another civil war breaks out, in Algeria. The local Muslim Brotherhood has won the legislative election, but the National People’s Army carries out a coup in January 1992, to prevent the enforcement of sharia. Algerian veterans from Afghanistan are reinforcing the islamist militants

The conflict lasts 10 years, kills about 150,000 Algerians, makes some damage in France. I am a detective within the Brigade criminelle in Paris, when a bomb explodes in a train at Saint Michel station on July 25, 1995. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is today the legacy of the Algerian insurgents

Some other alerts ring in the 90s. On August 7, 1998, for example, al Qaeda targets the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salem, Kenya and Tanzania. 224 victims die, mostly Africans. On September 11, 2001, al Qaeda achieves in the US the most ambitious, complex and spectacular terrorist attack until today. I am then an intelligence officer for the French State

As a retaliation for 9/11, NATO invades Afghanistan, in order to overthrow the taliban power, which is the result of the US support in the 1980s to the mujahideen and a safe heaven for al Qaeda. The war will last 20 years and at the end, the taliban will win.

Nothing can move the US neocons away from their metaphysical goals, their own jihad. In March 2003, the US and their UK stooge invade Iraq, a secular State in the Middle East. Anti-terrorism is the pretext, while Saddam Hussein is yet a formidable enemy of al Qaeda. The spoil of war is oil, like the spice in Frank Herbert’s Dune. More dumb, once victorious, the US administration sacks the baathists, members of the Iraqi socialist secular party, from the public services, including the army and police. The context and this decision are a miraculous booster for the Iraqi resistance and al Qaeda.

In May 2011, the US intelligence and special forces manage to kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. His deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, becomes the leader of al Qaeda. But the same year, at the instigation of a French rooster, Nicolas Sarkozy, NATO supports the islamist uprising in Libya. The destruction of the country will spread jihad across Africa, al Qaeda and its protuberance from Syria, the new Caliphate (ISIS). In December, Barack Obama withdraws the US military from the Iraqi mess.

Also in 2011, with clandestine shipments of weapons, public statements, the West starts supporting the islamist uprising in Syria, another secular State in the Middle East

The Western support is carried on, while al Qaeda, including many foreign jihadists, is the main, the most efficient rebel force in Syria. The war in neighbor Iraq and Syria, some disputes between jihadist leaders, produce in 2014 the Caliphate, an outgrowth of al Qaeda. The US -Foreign Secretary John Kerry will express it later in a recorded conversation- do not prevent the expansion of the Caliphate, regarded as a leverage to constrain Bashar Assad to negotiate his ouster. Fortunately, Russia takes action in October 2015 to defeat the jihadists and pacify Syria

France pays the price for the Western sins on November 13, 2015, when the French security services are unable to thwart a jihadist operation in Paris

According to unconfirmed reports, Ayman al Zawahiri has come to Afghanistan in September 2021, one month after the taliban victory. I guess his previous resort was in Pakistan. For years, the 71-year-old man has become a boring scholar, was probably no more the operational leader of al Qaeda franchises worldwide. I guess the taliban or Pakistan have handed him over. His assassination is a PR operation for Joe Biden, decrepit leader of a decadent West and president of a mass shooting-torn country. We are waiting for the new head of al Qaeda, while the West is now arming Nazis in Ukraine.