Following Osama bin Laden's pre-election tape, another Al Qaeda message has been broadcast by Al Jazeera, apparently made before the presidential election:
Al-Qaida releases new video Al Jazeera 11/30/04
In an exclusive Aljazeera broadcast on Monday, the Islamist network's second-in-command Ayman al-Dhawahiri said the way the US dealt with Muslims was unacceptable. ...
"The two US presidential candidates are challenging each other to satisfy Israel, to continue a crime against the Islamic nation in Palestine that began 87 years ago.
"I say to Americans, vote for whomever you want: Bush or Kerry or even the devil - it is not of any importance.
"What concerns us is to purify our nation from the aggressors and to resist whoever [is] attacking us, profaning our sanctities and stealing our wealth", said al-Dhawahiri.
Reuters reports some additional text of the tape: Al Qaeda's Zawahri Says Will Keep Fighting U.S. by Ghaida Ghantous 11/29/04.
"We are a nation of patience and we will continue fighting you (United States) until the last hour," Zawahri said in the excerpts of the tape aired on Arab television Al Jazeera.
"Our final advice to America, although I know they will not heed it: You must choose between two methods in dealing with Muslims. Cooperate with them with respect and based on mutual interests or deal with them as free loot, robbed land and violated sanctity," he said.
This kind of warning, which was also contained in Bin Laden's last tape, is aimed more at justifying Al Qaeda's actions to potential Muslim supporters than it actually is directed to getting Americans to change their opinions.
This doesn't sound good to me. MSNBC reports: Al-Qaida No. 2 vows to continue fight against U.S. 11/29/04.
U.S. intelligence analysts pay nearly as much attention to the timing of such broadcasts as to the content because seven statements by al-Zawahri have been followed within a month by major al-Qaida attacks.
On an eighth occasion, al-Zawahri called for the assassination of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Six weeks later, would-be assassins believed to be linked to al-Qaida tried to kill him twice within 12 days.
I wonder if the color-coded terror alert will be affected by this. Or if that worse-than-useless exercise is just going to be allowed to fade quietly into the fog of history.
The Washington Post at least went to the trouble to interview terrorism expert Bruce Hoffmann of the RAND Corporation: Bin Laden Aide Warns U.S. to Alter Policies by Craig Whitlock 11/30/04.
"Just the fact that we've heard from the both of them in such a short period of time -- that in itself is significant," said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism researcher and director of the Washington office of the Rand Corp. "They are going out of their way to make their presence known. . . . They are trying to behave as if they are not being hunted or harassed around the world." ...
"They don't want any ambiguity," Hoffman said. "Both messages are remarkably clear and to the point. They are stripped of the flowery rhetoric."
1 comment:
Too bad we are so deep into the hole we dug in Iraq that we cannot go after Al Qaeda. Some war on terror! Three years after 9/11, and still Al Qaeda thumbs its nose at us.
Tom Ridge at least is gone; maybe we can avoid being color-coded to death and duct-taped to the point of being completely ridiculous now -- even if we remain hopelessly ineffective in the war on terror.
Neil
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