Charles ListerVerified account

@Charles_Lister

Senior Fellow & Director of at . Author of . Following , armed groups, , & T/RT≠ endorsement.

Washington, DC
mei.edu/profile/charle…
Joined January 2012
8,727 Photos and videos Photos and videos

You may also like

·

Tweets

You blocked

Are you sure you want to view these Tweets? Viewing Tweets won't unblock

  1. Pinned Tweet
    Oct 7

    's withdrawal from the - border is a catastrophe & a betrayal of 5yrs of hard work by & the . All the wrong actors win from this & loses -- my new post on :

    89 replies 341 retweets 576 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  2. 2 minutes ago

    UPDATE: Looks like shot down an Air Force UAV flying over Nabatiyeh in southern . via :

    0:27
    عاجل| أنباء أولية عن إسقاط طائرة بدون طيار تابعة للاحتلال بمنطقة النبطية في .
    2 replies 4 retweets 3 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  3. 11 minutes ago

    BREAKING - reports of possible MANPADS use in southern , and unverified claims of an aircraft downed. SAM trail, pictured here:

    3 replies 19 retweets 11 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  4. 31 minutes ago

    This is key. When do the receipts begin, and do they all cite "Huras al-Din"? If there are receipts citing "HaD" through 2017, then their reliability is very questionable. HaD didn't begin to form until Nov/Dec-2017, amid an arrest campaign targeting loyalists.

    (Correction - thanks and ) Hurras is publicly announced in Feb 2018, not 2017. Receipts are before & after the announcement. ’s interpretation is that ISIS was trying to get an in with defectors from HTS before the new entity was off the ground
    Show this thread
    3 retweets 8 likes
  5. 56 minutes ago

    Correction - HaD was not established until Jan 2018 & its existence was announced in Feb 2018. Do all the receipts say "Huras al-Din" on them? If they do, that's a **massive** red flag in terms of their unreliability.

    6. Intriguingly, the 8 receipts recovered date from Jan 2017 to mid-2018. Hurras is announced as a new group in Feb 2017. reads this as a sign that ISIS reached out to future members of Hurras before they'd broken from HTS in an effort to infiltrate them
    Show this thread
    1 reply 5 retweets 7 likes
  6. 2 hours ago

    : Having worked on Huras al-Din, & in for 8yrs, I can confidently say there's no chance HaD was institutionally cooperating with . Virtually impossible. Could HaD individuals have taken money under the table? Sure. , people have too.

    1 reply 5 retweets 8 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  7. 2 hours ago

    : And on the subject of the receipts, they're over a year old; they date to Aug '18. That was 6 months after Huras al-Din's creation - a formative period during which it's anti- rhetoric was very strong. HaD was also led then by Abu Hammam al-Suri - who *detests* .

    2 replies 4 retweets 1 like
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  8. 2 hours ago

    : Some might argue that Khalid al-Aruri (on behalf of ) might have seen an opportunity to shelter leaders, to control/subsume/manipulate a vulnerable . But I wouldn't buy that. Not without a great deal more evidence. And not just some shady receipts...

    1 reply 1 retweet 1 like
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  9. 2 hours ago

    : Aruri (Abu al-Qassam al-Urduni) is a committed hardliner, close to 's Sayf al-Adel. Until his arrest in in '03, Aruri was also one of Zarqawi's closest friends (he married Zarqawi's sister), having worked with him since the late-80s in & .

    1 reply 2 retweets 5 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  10. 2 hours ago

    : I was told recently that Huras al-Din's leadership has been restructured, in part to try to heal the Summer's "core" vs. "ultra-hardline" divisions. I believe (but can't 100% confirm) that Khalid al-Aruri is the new HaD leader - he's AQ "core" & 1 of 3 AQ global leaders.

    1 reply 4 retweets 6 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  11. 2 hours ago

    : When reading the story citing receipts, bear in mind that captured documents by themselves are only one piece of a very complex puzzle. The animosity between "core" Huras al-Din & has been very real - there's years of bad blood. That's hard to reverse.

    4 replies 2 retweets 4 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  12. 2 hours ago

    : We know a Huras al-Din commander, ID'd as Abu Mohammed al-Halabi/Abu al-Bara'a, was killed during the op. But little else is known about him. I'd posit that he wasn't "core" HaD, but a member of this "ultra-hardline" wing. Possibly an AQI/ISI vet too.

    1 reply 4 retweets 7 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  13. 2 hours ago

    : The intriguing angle here, which may/may not have a nexus to leads on 's location is the June 30 US strike on Huras al-Din. That strike targeted the "ultra-hardline" HaD wing, killing Abu Dhar, Abu Yahya & Abu Amr. The had clearly penetrated this wing.

    2 replies 7 retweets 12 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  14. 3 hours ago

    : Some lead figures from this hardline Huras al-Din wing were expelled from HaD during a very public falling out with HaD's "core" leadership in June 2019, including: - Abu Dhar al-Masri - Abu Yahya al-Jazairi - Abu Amr al-Tunisi - Abu Yaman al-Wazzani - Abu Musab al-Libi

    1 reply 7 retweets 10 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  15. 3 hours ago

    : Huras al-Din has long struggled to contain a minority "ultra-hardline" contingent who, amongst other things: - Pronounce takfir on - Call for war vs inside - Issued fatwas against fighting in north - Led program to rescue wives/kids

    2 replies 6 retweets 11 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  16. 3 hours ago

    As I said hours after the operation, I'd heard rumors that high-level figures might have been working w. "ultra-hardline" members of 's Huras al-Din in (& west ). But that ≠ an official HaD policy - HaD's "core" is deeply hostile to .

    Baghdadi paid $67k to hide out in an unlikely part of Syria, the base of a rival group, the Al Qaeda-linked Hurras al Din, according to receipts that are typical of the Islamic State’s meticulous bookkeeping. ⁦⁩ via
    2 replies 24 retweets 27 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  17. Retweeted
    24 hours ago

    This article exemplifies the problems inherent across much of US policy on . After yrs of trumpeting the "diversity" of the , rhetoric now is exclusively about "." In this entire article, "Arabs" are not mentioned once, despite allegedly being 50%+ of the force.

    Since Trump’s Oct 6 call with Erdogan: 180k displaced; war crimes; areas US abandoned carved up between Erdogan and Putin. The least we can do is provide refuge for those who worked with us and need it. My oped with Jon Finer.
    28 replies 137 retweets 270 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  18. 15 hours ago

    Wow - Jim Jeffrey's detractors (in & out of USG) are working hard to control the narrative. To claim Jeffrey didn't grasp the - issue is absurd. He understood the dangers better than most & took more serious steps to deal with them than any of his predecessors.

    New: In conversations with more than a dozen insiders, a detailed account emerged of how the administration's Iran hawks repeatedly sought to reverse Trump’s Syria withdrawal over nearly 2 years, culminating in a disastrous Turkish invasion. …
    9 replies 18 retweets 46 likes
  19. Retweeted
    21 hours ago

    end of fiscal year work book buy: some old, some new

    15 replies 20 retweets 59 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  20. 20 hours ago

    leader Abu Bakr al- was an evil, barbaric man & his death in is a moment to celebrate. BUT the scale of ’s murder pales in comparison to ’s - the numbers speak for themselves, take a look:

    115 replies 389 retweets 529 likes
  21. 23 hours ago

    BREAKING - 's high-level media channel, al-Furqan, says an announcement is forthcoming. - news & successor announcement, I'd assume.

    9 replies 84 retweets 62 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  22. 23 hours ago

    "The US has a partner in eastern — provided it has the will" - suggests that as the US adapts to new realities in , it's primary ally is now the Arab tribes east of the :

    4 replies 8 retweets 15 likes
  23. 23 hours ago

    As time passes & events on the ground evolve, the terms of a -facilitated - deal are becoming clear - they've been pitched by before, including: - dissolve into Army () - Asayish dissolve into Interior Ministry

    8 retweets 8 likes
  24. 23 hours ago

    : We 100% *should* be shocked, concerned & condemning 's incursion & the crimes clearly associated with it. But for God's sake, let's acknowledge the [ethnic] diversity (& complexity) of the situation - not exacerbate the simplicity that got us here in the 1st place.

    7 replies 14 retweets 36 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  25. 24 hours ago

    : There's a reason was determined to launch an incursion between Tel Abyad & Ras al-Ayn: it's an established, Arab-majority region. See this map, for e.g. Arabs are no doubt fleeing from the & - so why limit our shock & concern only to areas's slim minority?

    5 replies 17 retweets 48 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  26. 24 hours ago

    : Are components of the not worth protecting? Do they not also deserve help with refugee claims in ? Or were they just a cover all along? **4 million** Sunni Arabs have been brutally killed or exiled from since 2011. Where's the recognition of that?

    10 replies 36 retweets 85 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  27. 24 hours ago

    : There's no doubt the played *the* key role in commanding & leading the fight vs. ; they deserve huge praise for that. But to see officials who *always* stressed the diverse nature of the they created now blanket ignore all but the ... it speaks volumes.

    3 replies 14 retweets 55 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  28. Oct 29

    Frustrating to see disingenuous attacks on , a man who's fought - including with U.S. DOD - since 2014. In a lengthy article, he lists off conspiracies that drive much of the 'Arab street', then asserts they're *wrong.* READ IT ALL:

    45 replies 25 retweets 107 likes
  29. Oct 29

    Just finished a fascinating 4 days with in & , exploring security challenges in ; conflict in , & ; cyber & energy security; & arms proliferation. Lots of problems, but good to debate solutions. Thanks for the invite!

    10 replies 2 retweets 21 likes
  30. Retweeted
    Oct 28

    My brief take - written last night - about 's death in & what it likely means for the future of in the Levant:

    2 replies 12 retweets 16 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  31. Retweeted
    Oct 27

    Reading this thread about Baghdadi... so interesting.

    BREAKING - reports of a (US?) helicopter-borne raid on a convoy of Huras al-Din ( in ) leaders traveling near Barisha in . Locals say as many as 6 choppers involved - gave chase to convoy, 2…
    Show this thread
    2 replies 3 retweets 16 likes
  32. Retweeted
    Oct 28

    All of the necessary ingredients for an ISIS resurgence remain prevalent in Iraq and especially in Syria, writes

    29 retweets 27 likes
  33. Oct 28

    : "hiding in plain sight" close to the border in , in hardline territory, might have been sufficient cover for not to have known. But if senior HVTs have been hiding out in , that's genuinely damning.

    25 replies 52 retweets 65 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  34. Oct 28

    NEW - A 3rd U.S. helicopter-borne raid (targeting an HVT) took place this evening near , in -administered northern . Locals say a man & several children were taken away. Follows U.S. strikes in last night.

    0:29
    helicopters over Jarabulus.
    Show this thread
    2 replies 23 retweets 19 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  35. Retweeted
    Oct 28

    MEI Insights: ’s death is a major victory, but it won’t spell the end of | says Baghdadi's death is "one of the biggest counter-terrorism achievements of the 21st century," but the terrorist group will continue without him.

    2 replies 15 retweets 12 likes
  36. Oct 28

    : No doubt some fled to pockets in the last 1-2yrs, but an en mass transfer from eastern was extraordinarily unlikely. It would have been attacked/decimated on arrival. has killed 100s in 18 months. wives & family is another issue, however.

    6 replies 19 retweets 36 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  37. Oct 28

    All sources on the “ wanted to go to ” trace back to the - a movement that has every interest in painting as one-&-same as territory. Except that isn’t/wasn’t that at all - NW has been deeply hostile to since 2014. Makes no sense.

    6. For example, in February when US-backed Kurdish troops in Syria were battling to take back the last village of Baghuz, there was a ceasefire as the Kurds negotiated with ISIS. What did ISIS want for leaving Baghuz? Safe passage to Idlib.
    Show this thread
    41 replies 107 retweets 188 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  38. Oct 27

    This brilliant piece by highlights especially 's role in finding , co-opting a smuggler who moved relatives to . Joint -US intel work then concluded was living with a Huras al-Din/ (HaD) commander.

    4 replies 43 retweets 76 likes
    Show this thread
    Show this thread
  39. Oct 27

    seem to have been on 's trail - they captured "Abu Suleiman al-Khalidi" a few months ago - 1/3 men sitting w. him on his recent video (filmed in ). I believe this is him, pictured. An raid in in August was thought to target , but failed.

    This piece does an excellent job & tracing back how was found - intelligence work, a joint US-- CT operation, informants in ...…
    Show this thread
    6 replies 34 retweets 44 likes