An undisciplined terrorist ticked off his al Qaeda bosses a time too many, it seems, and militant leaders sent him a scathing letter condemning his waywardness: You never call, they complained.
The letter from al Qaeda to international terrorist Moktar Belmoktar was discovered by The Associated Press in a building in Mali that had been used as a terrorist stronghold. It contained a list of complaints from al Qaeda heads about Belmoktar: He didn’t accept their phone calls. He didn’t file expense reports. He blew off a crucial meeting in Timbuktu. He ordered his own men to ignore meetings with higher-ups in the terrorist group. And the final blow: He spoke badly of the group on Internet jihadist sites, AP reported.
Belmoktar ultimately did what any unhappy corporate employee would do: He quit. He also started his own terror group, killing a total of 101 in two separate hostage and attack incidents in France and Niger, The Australian reported.
“He’s sending a message directly north to his former bosses in Algeria saying, ’I’m a jihadi. I deserve to be separate from you.’ And he’s also sending a message to al Qaeda, saying, ’See, those bozos in the north are incompetent. You can talk to me directly.’ And in these attacks, he drew a lot of attention to himself,” said Rudolph Atallah, a former head of counterterrorism for Africa at the Pentagon, The Australian reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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