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.

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Harmony Program

Featured Documents

`Atiyah’s Letter to Zarqawi

Zawahiri’s Letter to Zarqawi

Letter from UBL to `Atiyatullah Al-Libi 4

Lessons Learned from the Jihad Ordeal in Syria

Filter Harmony Documents

Statement Concerning the Assassination of Brother “Abi Tarek”

Ciphers and Status of bin Laden’s Security

Letter from the Taliban

Instructions to Abu Usama

Fighters Registry Report

A Memo to Sheikh Abu `Abdullah

Letters to Abu Khabab

Taliban and the State of Things in Afghanistan

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