The latest listing is:
Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(IS)
Al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
(mainly in Somalia)
Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
(mainly in Nigeria)
Taliban
Al-Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the
Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is
God is Great, Death to Americaâtm¢, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews...
movement (in Yemen)
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...
(AQAP)
Islamic Front (in Syria)
Benghazi Revolutionaries Shoura Council
Al-Nusrah Front
...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant...
(in Syria and Leb)
Revolutionary Armed Forces of ColombiaFARC or FARC-EP, is either a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization or a drug cartel based in Colombia. It claims to represent the rural poor in a struggle against Colombia's wealthier classes, and opposes United States influence in Colombia, neo-imperialism, monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations, and the usual raft of complaints. It funds itself principally through ransom kidnappings, taxation of the drug trade, extortion, shakedowns, and
donations. It has lately begun calling itself
Bolivarianand is greatly admired by Venezuela's President-for-Life Chavez, who seemingly fantasizes about living in the woods and kidnapping people himself. He provides FARC with safe areas along the border.
(FARC)
The BRSC includes Ansar al-Sharia
...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet...
, Libya Shield
...a conglomerate of pro-Islamist militias deployed across Libya. It reports to the Libyan defense ministry and is organized like a real army unit. Its commander used to head a Benghazi brigade called Free Libya Martyrs...
No. 1 Brigade, 17 February Martyrs Brigade and Rafallah al-Sahati Brigade.
Questions have been asked in the past about InterCenter's reliability and credibility, although not recently.
So far no country or international organization such as the UN or EU has listed the BRSC as a terrorist organization. The US government has classified Ansar al-Sharia as such, as has the Libyan government, and La Belle France demanded that the UN do so at the meeting on Libya held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York a week ago. It is reported that the EU is preparing to do so.
Meanwhile,
...back at the dirigible, the pilot and the copilot had both hit the silk.
Jack!Cynthia exclaimed.
Do you know how to drive one of these things?
Jack wiped some of the blood from his knuckles.
No,he said.
Do you?...
given the wave of liquidations and attempted liquidations in the past fortnight in Benghazi, most of which are being attributed to BRSC affiliates, it seems likely that the organization will further climb IntelCenter's danger index.