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 74

    This is a document transferring a complaint from one office to another and describes a woman who is in trouble...

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  • Caliphate Complaint Box 73

    This complaint is from a man who witnessed a divorce, but then the divorced woman remarried before the waiting period...

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  • Caliphate Complaint Box 72

    This complaint is from a man who says that he was given verbal permission to live in a home by...

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  • Caliphate Complaint Box 71

    This complaint is from a woman whose husband was an Islamic State member. In it, she claims that her house...

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  • Caliphate Complaint Box 70

    This complaint is from a soldier who claims that he just wants to fight but because he went to Iraq...

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  • Caliphate Complaint Box 69

    This complaint is from a man who states that his ID card was confiscated at a checkpoint and has had...

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  • Caliphate Complaint Box 68

    This complaint is from a woman who says that her father forced her to have a divorce and give up...

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  • Caliphate Complaint Box 67

    This complaint is from a man who worked in the Education office, but was apparently supposed to stay there overnight....

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