Like the rest of the world, the U.S. government appeared to have been taken aback last month when Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, fell to an offensive by jihadis of the Islamic State that triggered the collapse of five Iraqi army divisions and carried the extremists to the threshold of Baghdad.

A review of the record shows, however, that the Obama administration wasn’t surprised at all.

In congressional testimony as far back as November, U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials made clear that the United States had been closely tracking the al Qaida spinoff since 2012, when it enlarged its operations from Iraq to civil war-torn Syria, seized an oil-rich province there and signed up thousands of foreign fighters who’d infiltrated Syria through NATO ally Turkey.

The testimony, which received little news media attention at the time, also showed that Obama administration officials were well aware of the group’s declared intention to turn its Syrian sanctuary into a springboard from which it would send men and materiel back into Iraq and unleash waves of suicide bombings there. And they knew that the Iraqi security forces couldn’t handle it.

The group’s operations “are calculated, coordinated and part of a strategic campaign led by its Syria-based leader, Abu Bakr al Baghadi,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Brett McGurk told a House committee on Feb. 5, four months before fighting broke out in Mosul. “The campaign has a stated objective to cause the collapse of the Iraqi state and carve out a zone of governing control in western regions of Iraq and Syria.”

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Photo Credit: WNDA leading expert on Islamic terrorism says al-Qaida is different but as dangerous as ever because the U.S. failed to lead properly, and she says confronting the radical ideology is the key to victory.

Brigitte Gabriel said the good news is that more and more in the West are finally acknowledging the destruction radical Islam leaves in its path, but she said Americans should not hold their breath waiting for moderate Muslims to begin lashing out at extremist acts.

Gabriel grew up as a Christian in Lebanon and experienced terrorism firsthand. She is now president of ActForAmerica.org and author of “They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It.”

Al-Qaida has evolved greatly from how it functioned around the time of the terrorist attacks in September 2001. Instead of a powerful central organization, it now exists primarily as many different regional organizations spread out from east Asia to North Africa and each group largely appears to be making their own decisions.

New FBI Director James Comey recently told New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt that al-Qaida’s current strength is a major surprise.

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