The Office of United States Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) was the head of the American Central Intelligence Agency from to , acting as the principal intelligence advisor to the President of the United States and the United States National Security Council, as well as the coordinator of intelligence activities among and between the various U.S. intelligence agencies (collectively known as the Intelligence Community from onwards).

United Nations Security Council Resolution , adopted unanimously on June , , after recalling resolutions (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), () and () on terrorism and the threat to Afghanistan, the Council imposed separate sanctions regimes on Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Tablighi Jamaat (تبلیغی جماعت, Tablīghī Jamā‘at; جماعة التبليغ, Jamā‘at at-Tablīgh; তাবলীগ জামাত; तबलीग़ी जमात; English: Society for spreading faith) is a non-political global Sunni Islamic missionary movement that focuses on urging Muslims to return to primary Sunni Islam, and particularly in matters of ritual, dress, and personal behavior.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (translit, Hêzên Sûriya Demokratîk, translit), commonly abbreviated as SDF, HSD or QSD, are a multi-ethnic and multi-religious alliance of predominantly Kurdish, but also Arab and Assyrian/Syriac militias, as well as some smaller Turkmen, Armenian, Circassian and Chechen groups/participation in the Syrian Civil War. The SDF is mostly composed of, and militarily led by, the People&#;s Protection Units (YPG), a mostly Kurdish militia. Founded in October , the SDF states its mission as fighting to create a secular, democratic and federal Syria, along the lines of the Rojava Revolution in northern Syria. The updated December constitution of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria names the SDF as its official defence force. The primary opponents of the SDF and their allies are the Salafist and Islamic fundamentalist groups involved in the civil war, in particular the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups, al-Qaeda affiliates, and their allies. The SDF has focused primarily on ISIL, successfully driving them from important strategic areas, such as Al-Hawl, Shaddadi, Tishrin Dam, Manbij, al-Tabqah, Tabqa Dam, Baath Dam, and ISIL&#;s former capital of Raqqa.

Michael C. Finton, also known as Talib Islam (طالب إسلام – Ṭạlib Islām meaning "student of Islam"; born ), is an American convert to Islam and a part-time cook who attempted to bomb the Paul Findley Federal Building and the adjacent offices of Congressman Aaron Schock in downtown Springfield, Illinois, on September . He pleaded guilty in federal court on May and was sentenced to years in prison. A resident of Decatur, Illinois, Finton was arrested by an undercover agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Anti-Terrorism Task Force, who was posing as an Al-Qaeda operative. He was charged with attempted murder and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.