The Arrangement - Terrorist Tuesday (Part3/8)

Part 3 of 8. He was on the US Specially Designated Global Terrorist list. There was a $10 million bounty on his head. He fought US forces in Iraq, spent time in Abu Ghraib, and created Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate.

In May 2025, Donald Trump shook his hand in Riyadh.

In this episode of The Arrangement, a special 8-part series from Unusual Practice, we follow the word 'terrorist’ , who assigns it, when it gets removed, and what that tells you about the people applying it rather than the people it's applied to.

Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria : four countries, one template, zero accountability.

The instability was never the failure of the policy. The instability was the product.

Sources:

1. Ahmed al-Sharaa background and Al-Qaeda history — Reuters

   https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/who-is-ahmed-al-sharaa-syrias-new-president-2025-01-29/

2. Trump handshake with al-Sharaa, Syria sanctions lifted — AP News

   https://apnews.com/article/trump-syria-sanctions-sharaa-meeting

3. HTS removed from US Foreign Terrorist Organisation list — State Department

   https://www.state.gov/revocation-of-the-foreign-terrorist-organization-designation-of-hts/

4. CIA Operation Cyclone — funding Afghan Mujahideen — National Security Archive

   https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/afghanistan/2017-07-19/afghanistan-cias-intervention

5. Reagan administration chemical weapons intelligence to Iraq — Newsweek / declassified documents

   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/aug/18/iraq.usa

6. UN documented open slave markets in Libya post-NATO intervention, 2017

   https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2017/11/statement-libya-detained-migrants

7. Al-Sharaa cabinet nepotism documented — Middle East Eye

   https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/syria-sharaa-cabinet-family-hts-loyalists