Intelligence

Al-Qaeda's new star raises stakes in spy war

Telegraph | News | Al-Qaeda's new star raises stakes in spy war

By Harry de Quetteville, Middle East Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 1:14am GMT 10/12/2006

He advocates poisoning enemy agents and infiltrating their organisations, suggests ways to beat lie-detector tests and campaigns for an effective counter-intelligence service.

But he is not working for the Kremlin or the CIA. Instead, according to a new report released by the Combating Terrorism Centre at America's West Point military academy, Abu Jihad Muhammad Khalil al Hakaymah is the first spymaster for al-Qaeda.

Drawing on access to classified information and an analysis of Hakaymah's own writings, the report is the profile of a rising star within al-Qaeda, who has identified people-based intelligence as the crucial battleground of the global jihad.

"The senior level of al-Qaeda leadership has been weakened considerably, captured or killed," the report's author, Brian Fishman, told The Sunday Telegraph. "You have a new generation stepping into those roles and he is part of that."

Hakaymah's significance to al-Qaeda became clear this summer, when he appeared on a video with the group's second in command, Ayman al Zawahiri.

Egyptian-born Hakaymah is thought to have pursued a classic jihadi trail, from Islamic extremism in Egypt to the mujahideen war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

Along with many of al-Qaeda's most wanted, he is believed to be hiding in the frontier region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, from where he has been studying Western intelligence services.

His most significant work is a book-length analysis of US intelligence agencies, called The Myth of Delusion, which includes sections on the "tradecraft" of spying such as the spotting and recruiting of agents.

"The Myth of Delusion is an attempt to analyse the US government at a level not seen by jihadis before," said Mr Fishman. "It shows an increased level of sophistication. He is a technical facilitator. He conceives of himself as the al-Qaeda spymaster, and is saying 'Here are my tips on how to do this stuff '. His appearance with Zawahiri shows that the top leadership endorses what he's doing."

Speculation and mistakes led him to be largely written off by Western intelligence agencies when he first emerged, but increasingly they are acknowledging the significance of his tactical impact on al-Qaeda.

"Some tried to dismiss him, but there's been a lasting effect," said John Rollins, a former chief of staff for intelligence at the US Department of Homeland Security.

While he is a keen student of US and British electronic surveillance techniques, Hakaymah insists that spies, not electronic wizardry, will play the main role in the battle between al-Qaeda and Western intelligence.

His writings demand that al-Qaeda create an effective counter-intelligence arm to prevent enemy penetration and conduct detailed background checks on prospective members.

December 10, 2006 at 10:46 AM in Al Qaeda | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home