What Can We Learn From Iran’s Foreign Minister?

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 3 May 2021

Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif, December 2020, during an interview with Lotfullah Najafizada of TOLO News

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Muhammad Javad Zarif, took part in an oral history project intended for internal use by the clerical dictatorship in February and on 25 April the audio was leaked—so goes the story. There is every reason to think this is a controlled leak, which is to say an information operation or a piece of strategic messaging—more pejoratively, propaganda or disinformation: choose the terminology as you will—intended to assist the Iranian theocracy as it works through its negotiations on the nuclear file with the new American administration of President Joe Biden. Still, there are some insights from this episode, as with an interview Zarif gave—focused on Afghanistan—in December. Continue reading →

Islamic State Newsletter Claims an Attack on Russia in Syria, Operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 25 April 2021

Al-Naba 283, p. 8

The 283rd edition of Islamic State’s (IS) weekly newsletter, Al-Naba, released on 22 April 2021, contained the usual reports on IS’s guerrilla and terrorist operations, stretching from Africa to Syria and Iraq at the “Centre” to South Asia, plus the main editorial and an ideological essay. Amid the reports was IS’s response to a controversial episode in eastern Syria involving the Russians, and a sign of an uptick in IS’s operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan as the U.S.-led NATO forces prepare to abandon Afghanistan. Continue reading →

Who Are The Victims of “Radicalisation”?

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 20 April 2021

The rise of far-Right extremism in the West, in the United States in particular, has been one of the major media stories since at least 2016. Think tanks have gotten in on the action, and in due course official institutions followed the lead. There has been a significant element of moral panic about this, a result of a search for explanation by liberal ruling classes hit with disorientating political developments, above all in the Anglo-American world, with Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as President. Christian Picciolini’s book, Breaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism (2020), is very much a product of this mood of doom among Western liberals. Continue reading →

Islamic State Eulogy for a Military Commander in Yemen

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 17 April 2021

Al-Naba 273, p. 10

The Islamic State (IS) released issue 273 of its weekly magazine, Al-Naba, on 11 February 2021. On pages 10 and 11 (out of 12) it contained a eulogy for Abu al-Hassan al-Adeni, who was IS’s military commander in Al-Bayda area in Yemen. Continue reading →

The First Speech of Abu Hamza al-Muhajir as Al-Qaeda in Iraq Emir

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 5 April 2021

Ahmad al-Khalayleh (Abu Musab al-Zarqawi), the infamous founder of the Islamic State movement, known at the time as Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and formerly part of the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC), was killed on 7 June 2006. Zarqawi’s successor was officially announced five days later, in a written statement released on 12 June, as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, an Egyptian with a long history in and around Al-Qaeda. The next day, 13 June 2006, Abu Hamza gave his first speech as AQI emir, entitled, “The Gathering Will Be Defeated and They Will Turn Their Backs [in Retreat]”, drawn from an ayat of the Qur’an (54:45). The statement and the speech are translated below.

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The First “Interview” with the Islamic State’s War Minister (2008)

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 3 April 2021

The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) released a forty-five-minute media product, “The First Audio Interview with Shaykh Abu Hamza al-Muhajir”, on 24 October 2008. A translated transcript of the interview is reproduced below, with some interesting and important sections highlighted in bold.

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The Last Coup of the Russian Tsardom

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 29 March 2021

Tsar Pavel I

A few days ago, it was the 220th anniversary of the palace coup that, in the early hours of 24 March 1801, deposed the Russian Tsar, Pavel (Paul) I, the last of the Russian monarchs to fall in this way.[1] Continue reading →

The Impact of Plague: From Antiquity to the Present

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 21 March 2021

Almost exactly a year ago, the British government announced the first lockdown to counter the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, and around the same time such measures were adopted in almost every other country. With Britain having now vaccinated nearly half the country, including all of the most vulnerable, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson having set out a timetable for the lifting of restrictions, it is possible to think of the post-COVID 19 situation and to wonder about how or if it will be different to what came before. Continue reading →

The Islamic State Announces the “Axe of al-Khalil Campaign” to Destroy the “Idol” of Democracy

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 19 March 2021

Hamid al-Zawi, the leader of the Islamic State movement from 2006 to 2010, known only as Abu Umar al-Baghdadi during his lifetime, gave a speech on 19 March 2010 entitled, “The Soldiers’ Sermon for the Axe of al-Khalil Campaign” (Khutba al-Jund bi-Hamlat Fa’s al-Khalil). It was Al-Zawi’s twenty-second and, as it turned out, penultimate speech. Al-Zawi was killed almost exactly a month later, on 18 April 2010, alongside his deputy and “war minister”, Abd al-Munim al-Badawi (Abu Hamza al-Muhajir). A translation of the speech is published below.

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The Islamic State’s Acknowledgement of the Deaths of Abu Umar al-Baghdadi and Abu Hamza al-Muhajir

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By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 18 March 2021

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