Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Boston Globe
September 20, 2008
By Lee Keath, Associated Press
CAIRO - In a video marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Al Qaeda threatened major new attacks in Afghanistan and dismissed setbacks in Iraq, vowing to continue its fight. The video was released yesterday, more than a week after the anniversary.
The lag in release, apparently due to problems on websites where Al Qaeda posts its videos, raised questions among counterterror specialists over whether the terror network's propaganda machine was faltering.
The delay deflated what is usually a media splash for Al Qaeda. In previous years, it released a string of videos on the attack's anniversary, featuring leaders trumpeting triumphs. Osama bin Laden spoke in one last year, making his first appearance in nearly three years.
Al Qaeda had promised a similar event this year, announcing in a Sept. 8 Web advertisement that it would release a video that would bring joy to its followers. It sought to build drama by promising a surprise speaker, showing him in silhouette with a question mark over his face. But soon after, the Islamic militant Web forums traditionally used by Al Qaeda to post such videos went down and have remained off. The reason is not known. The 90-minute video, titled "The Results of Seven Years of Crusades," was finally released yesterday, according to two US groups that monitor militant messages.
It features speeches by bin Laden's top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, and other top figures in the terror network, as well as the final testament of Ahmed al-Ghamdi, one of the hijackers in the Sept. 11 attack. He was apparently the "surprise" speaker, SITE Intelligence and IntelCenter said.
In the video, Al Qaeda's top commander in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed, said the "mujahedeen [holy warriors] are on the increase day after day" in that country. "We inform the forces of the cross and their apostate agents that the mujahedeen's policy in the coming stage, Allah permitting, is going to be more major, large-scale attacks," he said, according to a transcript by SITE.
Elsewhere in the video, a leading Al Qaeda cleric, known as Sheik Attiyatullah, dismissed claims that the US and the Iraqi military were defeating the terror group's branch in Iraq. "The Americans have not won nor has their security plan succeeded," he said.
He acknowledged a "decline in the number of operations [in Iraq] and decline in the number of losses in the ranks of the Americans," but said that "this is something natural, as everything has its ups and downs, and every stage has its own circumstances."
"The Americans are without a doubt going to pull out of Iraq, dragging their tails in defeat," he said.
September 20, 2008
By Lee Keath, Associated Press
CAIRO - In a video marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Al Qaeda threatened major new attacks in Afghanistan and dismissed setbacks in Iraq, vowing to continue its fight. The video was released yesterday, more than a week after the anniversary.
The lag in release, apparently due to problems on websites where Al Qaeda posts its videos, raised questions among counterterror specialists over whether the terror network's propaganda machine was faltering.
The delay deflated what is usually a media splash for Al Qaeda. In previous years, it released a string of videos on the attack's anniversary, featuring leaders trumpeting triumphs. Osama bin Laden spoke in one last year, making his first appearance in nearly three years.
Al Qaeda had promised a similar event this year, announcing in a Sept. 8 Web advertisement that it would release a video that would bring joy to its followers. It sought to build drama by promising a surprise speaker, showing him in silhouette with a question mark over his face. But soon after, the Islamic militant Web forums traditionally used by Al Qaeda to post such videos went down and have remained off. The reason is not known. The 90-minute video, titled "The Results of Seven Years of Crusades," was finally released yesterday, according to two US groups that monitor militant messages.
It features speeches by bin Laden's top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, and other top figures in the terror network, as well as the final testament of Ahmed al-Ghamdi, one of the hijackers in the Sept. 11 attack. He was apparently the "surprise" speaker, SITE Intelligence and IntelCenter said.
In the video, Al Qaeda's top commander in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed, said the "mujahedeen [holy warriors] are on the increase day after day" in that country. "We inform the forces of the cross and their apostate agents that the mujahedeen's policy in the coming stage, Allah permitting, is going to be more major, large-scale attacks," he said, according to a transcript by SITE.
Elsewhere in the video, a leading Al Qaeda cleric, known as Sheik Attiyatullah, dismissed claims that the US and the Iraqi military were defeating the terror group's branch in Iraq. "The Americans have not won nor has their security plan succeeded," he said.
He acknowledged a "decline in the number of operations [in Iraq] and decline in the number of losses in the ranks of the Americans," but said that "this is something natural, as everything has its ups and downs, and every stage has its own circumstances."
"The Americans are without a doubt going to pull out of Iraq, dragging their tails in defeat," he said.