CTC Harmony Document magazine cover

Harmony Program

The CTC launched the Harmony Program in 2005 in order to release and analyze documents from the Department of Defense’s Harmony database. The focus of this program is to contextualize the inner-functioning of al-Qa’ida, its associated movement, and other security threats through primary source documents. Harmony products released by the CTC are typically accompanied by an analytical report and the primary source material from which its conclusions are based. By releasing this material, the CTC aims to make these sources, which are captured in the course of operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other theaters, available to other scholars for further study.

While captured documents offer unique insight into the decision-making process of terrorist groups they are most valuable when contextualized with information drawn from other sources. Scholars and practitioners should be aware that analyzing such data is fraught with risk. Documents in the Harmony database were collected on the battlefield unscientifically. There is no way to know just how representative documents captured by U.S. forces are of the larger body of information produced by al‐Qa`ida or other insurgents. Likewise, the vast database in which they are stored is imperfect and virtually impossible to search systematically. Readers and researchers should therefore be wary of conclusions drawn from Harmony documents alone.

Featured Documents

`Atiyah’s Letter to Zarqawi

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This is a letter from `Atiyah `Abd al-Rahman, mostly known as `Atiyatullah al-Libi, to Abu Mus`ab al-Zarqawi. The letter was...

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Zawahiri’s Letter to Zarqawi

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This is a critical letter from Ayman al-Zawahiri to Abu Mus`ab al-Zarqawi in which the author presents his strategy of...

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Letter from UBL to `Atiyatullah Al-Libi 4

SOCOM-2012-0000019

This document is a long letter authored by Usama bin Ladin after the death of Sheikh Sa'id (Mustafa Abu'l-Yazid) in...

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Lessons Learned from the Jihad Ordeal in Syria

AFGP-2002-600080

This is a lengthy document that examines the jihad waged by the Muslim Brotherhood against the Syrian regime of Hafiz...

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Filter Harmony Documents

Title

Description

Reference Number

  • Caliphate Complaint Box 345

    This is a summons document that asks someone to appear before officials at the Mujahideen Affairs office to further the...

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  • Caliphate Complaint Box 344

    This is a transfer request for an individual to move from one unit to another.

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  • Caliphate Complaint Box 343

    The complainant says that a member of the military insulted him and accused him of blasphemy. It was said in...

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  • Caliphate Complaint Box 342

    The complainant says that one of the sharia administrators of the Islamic State school system would mock people who worked...

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  • Caliphate Complaint Box 341

    The complainant says that he runs a generator, but an Islamic State member didn’t pay the required generator fees. When...

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  • Caliphate Complaint Box 340

    The complainant says that he worked for IS, but wasn’t given a pistol. He is asking for a pistol from...

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  • Caliphate Complaint Box 339

    The complainant says that he was renting a house to an Islamic State soldier, but that the soldier only paid...

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  • Caliphate Complaint Box 338

    The complainant says that he was arrested because he shot in the air at a wedding party and that the...

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