United States Involvement in the Middle East

British Mandate British Backed Monarchy Post WWI British colony King chosen by England Dictatorships King Faisal I of Iraq Original caption: Death of King Faisal. Faisal, King of Iraq, whose sudden death is just announced. Image: © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS Date Photographed: ca Baath Revolution Secular (non-religious) government Uses oil $ for government projects

 Leader of Iran assassinated by CIA when he began making oil deals with the USSR in the Cold War  The US put a pro-Western Shah in power who began a system of modernization in a very traditional Muslim nation in the 1950s  In the 1970s, a revolution against the Shah occurred by Muslim students who hated the Western interference.  Led by the Ayatollah Khomeini

 A diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 53 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American embassy in support of the Iranian Revolution.

 Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 following a long history of border disputes and fears of Shia insurgency among Iraq's long-suppressed Shia majority influenced by the Iranian Revolution.  For the next six years the war came at a great cost in lives and economic damage - a half a million Iraqi and Iranian soldiers as well as civilians are believed to have died in the war with many more injured and wounded.  Saddam Hussein was one of the leaders paid by the US government to fight against the Iranians; especially since the humiliation of the hostage crisis  As a member of the Baath Party, he began to eliminate opponents after the war and seize power.

 Oil  Stop Terrorists  Spread democracy

 Iraq claimed the land  Claimed Kuwait was stealing oil (“slant drilling”)  $ owed to other countries for previous Iran-Iraq War.  Hussein thought no one would stop him

 Iraq invaded Kuwait in August of 1990, under the direction of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.  The Iraqi army took control of Kuwait in a very short amount of time.  The United nations responded to the Iraqi invasion by demanding that Iraq withdraw its troops from Kuwait.  The United nations asked other countries to cut off trade to Iraq (Embargo) in an attempt to force them to withdraw, that attempt failed.  The United States and thirty other countries formed a coalition and began sending military troops into Saudi Arabia over the next few months.

 The united Nations set a date for Iraq to leave Kuwait, Iraq rejected the date and refused to leave.  The U.S. and their allies began attacking Iraq through the use of air power then by a ground assault.  After a devastating battle resulting in many Iraqi deaths, the Iraqi’s were driven out of Kuwait.

 Although the war was a decisive military victory for the coalition, Kuwait and Iraq suffered enormous property damage, and Saddam Hussein was not removed from power.  In fact, Hussein was free to turn his attention to suppressing internal Shiite and Kurd revolts, which the U.S.-led coalition did not support, in part because of concerns over the possible breakup of Iraq if the revolts were successful.  Coalition peace terms were agreed to by Iraq, but every effort was made by the Iraqis to frustrate implementation of the terms, particularly UN weapons inspections.

Al-Qaeda seeks to rid Muslim countries of what it sees as the influence of the West and replace their governments with fundamentalist Islamic regimes. “Al-Qaeda” is Arabic for “The Base.”

Al-Qaeda grew out of the opposition to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In the 1980s, bin Laden and the Palestinian religious scholar Abdullah Azzam, recruited, trained, and financed thousands of foreign mujahadeen, or holy warriors, from more than fifty countries. Bin Laden wanted these fighters to continue the "holy war" beyond Afghanistan. He formed al-Qaeda around Al-Qaeda was funded by the U.S. during the Cold War in order to help bring down communism

There is no single headquarters. From 1991 to 1996, al-Qaeda worked out of Pakistan along the Afghan border, or inside Pakistani cities.  Al-Qaeda has autonomous underground cells in some 100 countries, including the United States. Law enforcement has broken up al-Qaeda cells in the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Albania, Uganda, and elsewhere.

It’s impossible to say precisely, because al-Qaeda is decentralized. Estimates range from several hundred to several thousand members.

Egyptian Islamic Jihad The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group Islamic Army of Aden (Yemen) Jama'at al-Tawhid wal Jihad (Iraq) Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad (Kashmir) Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Algeria) (formerly Salafist Group for Call and Combat) Armed Islamic Group (Algeria) Abu Sayyaf Group (Malaysia, Philippines) Jemaah Islamiya (Southeast Asia)

Major Al-Qaeda Attacks Pre-9/11 The February 2006 attack on the Abqaiq petroleum processing facility, the largest such facility in the world, in Saudi Arabia. The July 2005 bombings of the London public transportation system. The March 2004 bomb attacks on Madrid commuter trains, which killed nearly 200 people and left more than 1,800 injured. The May 2003 car bomb attacks on three residential compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The November 2002 car bomb attack and a failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli jetliner with shoulder-fired missiles, both in Mombasa, Kenya. The October 2002 attack on a French tanker off the coast of Yemen. Several spring 2002 bombings in Pakistan. The April 2002 explosion of a fuel tanker outside a synagogue in Tunisia. The October 2000 U.S.S. Cole bombing. The August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

 While the nation was concerned with Clinton’s scandals, many terrorist organizations gained strength.  The government knew about several threats, including Al-Qaeda and had the opportunity to assassinate bin Laden.  Clinton was unwilling and unable to do anything due to his lack of popularity

9/11/01  On September 11, 2001, al- Qaeda attacked two targets in the U.S.  They hijacked four airplanes and intentionally crashed two of them into the World Trade Center in new York.  The third plane was crashed into the Pentagon in Virginia and the fourth crashed in rural Pennsylvania in route to its target, the White House in Washington, D.C. The terrorist attacks on that day killed nearly 3,000 people.

The reasons that Middle Eastern terrorists have targeted Americans are as follows:  For supporting the wealthy Middle Eastern kingdoms and families through the oil industry  For spreading Western ideas and threatening traditional values  For supporting Israel

After al-Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, attacks on America, the United States launched a war in Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaeda’s bases there and overthrow the Taliban, the country’s Muslim fundamentalist rulers who harbored bin Laden and his followers.

 Osama bin Laden was blamed for the attacks, U.S. President George Bush called on other countries to help wage a war on terrorism to crush al-Qaeda.  In October 2001, U.S., British, and Canadian forces invaded Afghanistan in search of bin Laden and to destroy al-Qaeda and their allies the Taliban (Operation Enduring Freedom).  Although bin Laden was never found the grip of the Taliban and al-Qaeda on Afghanistan was broken.  The U.S. let forces still struggle to control portions of the country.

 The President also moved to combat terrorism at home. Less than a month after the 9/11 attacks, Bush created the Office of Homeland Security.  A year later, in a major government reorganization, the Bush administration created a new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security.  Patriot Act was passed as well  In the State of the Union Address in January, 2002, President Bush sent a warning to hostile nations to stop developing weapons of mass destruction.  He declared that Iraq, Iran, and North Korea were an “axis of evil,” recalling the United States’ enemies in World War II, the Axis Powers.

 Saddam Hussein was still president of Iraq at the time of the Afghanistan invasion.  Officials in the U.S government feared connections between Hussein and al-Qaeda and the allegations that Iraq was building Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD’s) in the form of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical weapons.  The United Nations sent inspectors to Iraq to check for WMD’s however Iraq failed to allow them to complete their inspections.  In response the U.S. Congress passed an Iraq War Resolution that authorized the president to go forward with a war in Iraq.

 In march 2003, the U.S. began bombing targets in the capital of Baghdad.  British, Australian, Polish, and American soldiers invaded Iraq and defeated the Iraqi army.  Saddam Hussein was captured, put on trial for crimes against humanity by the Iraqi’s, and later executed.

 In November, Saddam Hussein allowed UN weapons inspectors to resume their search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.  Two months later they reported finding no banned weapons.  Despite this report and lack of support from several key allies, President Bush declared war on Iraq.  The war began on March 19th,  Three weeks, later American tanks arrived in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.  Later that year, Bush declared the War in Iraq over, though many of the toughest battles were still to come.

Having gone to war in Iraq to overthrow a tyrant and eliminate the possibility of weapons of mass destruction being given to terrorists, the U.S. found itself trying to suppress an insurgency, prevent a civil war, and establish a new Iraqi government. eliminate If America pulled troops out too soon, Iraq might fall into civil war and provide a safe haven and breeding ground for terrorist groups. The longer the U.S. stayed, the more its presence might stir resentment and support for the terrorist groups. The best solution seemed to be to get a functioning and democratic Iraqi government up and running as fast as possible and then train its forces to take over the security of the country.

 Weapons of Mass Destruction were never found in Iraq.  It is difficult to determine how many Iraqis have died since the invasion, but as of 2007, more than 500,000 Iraqis may have died according to one study.  Many deaths are due to sectarian violence.  Over 4,000 American soldiers were killed and over 20,000 were wounded in Iraq.  All combat troops were withdrawn by 2010 though sectarian violence continues.

 To escape the post-9/11 U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda’s central leadership is believed to have fled eastward into Pakistan, securing a safe haven in loosely governed areas there.  The loss of focus in Afghanistan due to the Iraq war allowed the Taliban to rebuild in Pakistan and extended the war in Afghanistan to the longest war in U.S. history.

 Besides being detained, several senior leaders in the network have died or have been killed in the U.S.-led war against terrorists. At the top was bin Laden. He was killed during a US Special Forces raid on May in Pakistan.  A senior al-Qaeda commander, Muhammad Atef, died in the U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan.  Media reports said Abu Obaidah al-Masri, a senior al-Qaeda leader believed to be involved in the 2005 London subway and bus bombings and in planning attacks in Afghanistan, died of hepatitis in Pakistan in April  In April 2006, Abdul Rahman al-Muhajir and Abu Bakr al-Suri, two of al-Qaeda's top bomb makers, were killed in Pakistan.  In January 2008, Abu Laith al-Libi, al-Qaeda’s senior military commander and a key link between the group and its affiliates in North Africa, was killed in Pakistan’s tribal areas in a secret U.S. missile strike.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, was thought to be bin Laden's top lieutenant and al-Qaeda's ideological adviser: killed by a US drone attack. Abu Yahya al-Libi, a Libyan who was captured by Pakistani authorities in 2002 but managed to escape from a U.S. prison in Afghanistan in 2005, has emerged as the public face of al-Qaeda and another top-level leader. Some counterterrorism experts consider him a top strategist and a theological scholar, arguing that his religious scholarship makes him one of the most effective promoters of global jihad. This article quotes Jarret Brachman, a former analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency who is now research director of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point: “I think he has become the heir apparent to Osama bin Laden in terms of taking over the entire global jihadist movement.”

 Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, an Egyptian, was an original member of al-Qaeda's leadership council and had been a trusted adviser to bin Laden for more than a decade. He served time in prison in the early 1980s with deputy leader al-Zawahiri for their role as conspirators in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He was killed June 1,  Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian, who is believed to be under house arrest in Iran along with some other top leaders of the organization. He remains one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists.  Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, an Egyptian and financial officer of al-Qaeda  Saad bin Laden, Osama bin Laden’s son and possible successor, believed killed by a missile attack in  Adel and Abdullah are wanted for their role in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 200 people.

The Jordanian radical Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who established the Sunni Muslim extremist group al- Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and directed a series of deadly terror attacks in Iraq—including the beheadings of kidnapped foreigners—was also associated with al- Qaeda. Zarqawi pledged his allegiance to bin Laden in October 2004, and bin Laden praised Zarqawi as "the prince of al-Qaeda in Iraq." Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air strike near Baghdad in Abu Ayyub al-Masri, one of al-Zawahiri’s disciples since joining the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in 1982, succeeded Zarqawi as AQ #1 leader until he was killed on April 18 th, 2010

U.S. officials say several top al-Qaeda leaders are in their custody. These include a senior lieutenant, Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in Pakistan in March 2002, and Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a senior commander in Afghanistan. In March 2003, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and al-Qaeda's treasurer, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, were also captured in Pakistan. They, along with four others detained at Guantanamo Bay, were charged with murder, terrorism, and violating rules of war in February 2008.

 Current directions in foreign policy by the Obama Administration have concerned the use of  Unmanned drones to strike suspected Al-Qaeda targets  Special forces, like the Navy SEALs, to strike specific targets  Get away from using “boots on the ground”  Problems with the policy include:  Assassination of “enemy combatants” in territories where we do not have the right to conduct military operations, like Pakistan  Assassination of U.S. citizens without a trial in foreign territories  Depersonalization of war and foreign targets  Ability to discern military from civilian targets using remote devices like drones

 Council for Foreign Relations. Retrieved May 13, 2009