July 15, 2022 "al-Shabab Outwits The U.S. Intel"

Are Somalia’s al-Shabaab spooks beating the West at their own game? According to a new paper in the prestige journal Intelligence and National Security, the Somali-based offshoot of Al-Qaeda “has not only survived, but has also challenged more powerful multinational forces for more than a decade.”  The key to their success, according to author Zakarie Ahmed nor Kheyre, is Shabaab’s creation of a powerful intelligence division, known as Amniyat, which focuses on “ tactical efficiency, targeting, counterintelligence (CI), and communication,” and has proven capable of fending off diverse threats. 

While three heads of the Amniyat were killed by U.S. airstrikes in the past decade, Kheyre writes, none have been killed in the last four years. When the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) launched an affiliate in  Mogadishu, the Somali capital, al-Shabaab identified their supporters and dismantled their organization within two weeks. Based on interviews with jailed operatives and officials of  Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), Ahmed concludes the Amniyat is “far more effective” than NISA and other state intelligence services.