Month: August 2022

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda, was killed in an U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan over the weekend.  A senior White House official said that the U.S. conducted a successful counterterrorism operation against a “significant” al-Qaeda target in Afghanistan over the weekend, adding that there were no civilian casualties. The counterterrorism attack took place in Wazir Akbar Khan, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Kabul and literally walking distance to the main diplomatic areas, including the U.S. Embassy.

The FBI said that Al-Zawahiri, born in Cairo in 1951, trained as a physician before founding the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.  The U.N. Security Council said his organization had sought to overthrow the Egyptian government “through violent means” before merging with al-Qaeda between 1998 and 1999.

The U.S. Justice Department said that al-Zawahiri — who served as Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda deputy — helped coordinate the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States. Al-Zawahiri and bin Laden appeared together the day after the attacks in a video, in which an al-Qaeda spokesperson threatened the West, saying a “great army is gathering against you.” The Justice Department named al-Zawahiri and bin Laden as unindicted co-conspirators for their roles in coordinating the attacks.

After bin Laden’s death in 2011, al-Zawahiri took over as al-Qaeda’s leader. The FBI had placed al-Zawahiri on its list of Most Wanted Terrorists, offering a $25 million reward for his capture. The strike that killed al-Zawahiri is a major success of U.S. counterterrorism efforts and the result of countless hours of intelligence collection over many years.

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On Monday sentenced the first defendant to be put on trial for involvement in the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol last year to seven years in prison.  A jury in Washington had convicted 49-year-old Guy Wesley Reffitt from Wylie, Texas on five felony counts back in March, including obstruction of justice and entering and remaining in a restricted building while armed.

District Judge Dabney Friedrich said that Reffitt’s initial reluctance to admit that his behavior was illegal “is concerning” as he handed down the sentence.  Said Friedrich: “I want to be very clear … under no legitimate definition of the term ‘patriot’ does Mr. Reffitt’s behavior on and around Jan. 6 fit the term. It is the antithesis of the word. The officers at the Capitol are the patriots, as well as those who fought and even died to protect our democracy, our rule of law … those in the mob are not. Not only are they patriots, they’re a direct threat to our democracy and will be punished as such.”

Federal prosecutors had asked Friedrich to classify Reffitt’s crimes as acts of domestic terrorism, seeking a 15-year sentence which would become the longest sentence to date related to the Capitol attack. Reffitt’s lawyers sought a sentence of two years or less, arguing that he never entered the building or assaulted any Capitol Police officers during the assault.

Cose to 900 others have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, which was carried out by radical supporters of President Donald Trump who sought to overthrow Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. More than 200 defendants have pleaded guilty to various felony and misdemeanor charges and some have begun serving their sentences.

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