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An al Qaeda Hit List?
By Jeremy Reynalds (bio) Other Articles by Jeremy Reynalds
Back to News / Home Page Apparently determined not to be outdone by the United States, the terrorist group al Qaeda (or a sympathizer) has released a video with a deck of cards featuring its own most wanted.
The "cards" (dangling above flames), could be considered an al Qaeda hit list. They feature a wide variety of individuals including Bush administration figures, lawmakers, the Spanish and Italian prime ministers and conservative American media personalities such as Rush Limbaugh and Bill O' Reilly.
Notably, the card sequence begins with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Others featured include U.S. President George W. Bush, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Sandra Day O'Connor, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and British Petroleum's Peter Sutherland.
While the card images move across the screen, site visitors also see a number of bloody images of both children and adults. One such segment begins with an animated navy jet. Once all the cards have been viewed the video shifts to three still pictures. One image features a battle clad individual with an obscured face aiming a military assault rifle. Another picture shows Osama bin Laden flanked by two aides and surrounded with audio equipment – presumably at a press conference. The final picture shows two individuals (one looking particularly ominous) presumably of Middle Eastern origin dressed in military uniform.
The site www.angelfire.com/comics/nefaq/sana5oodoV2.swf which is frequently unavailable due to apparent excessive usage, appears to be hosted by the Massachusetts-based Lycos network. An e-mailed inquiry requesting comment was not immediately answered. If the link above is difficult to access, another link to try is:
http://www.unitedshadeofswords.com/sana5oodoV2.swf
Meanwhile after a brief hiatus, self proclaimed al Qaeda operative Daleel Almojahid is again posting on the internet. In a recent note on his Yahoo group site, Almojahid wrote, "I have posted a file regarding Badr Al Riyadh tape that will give you an idea what was in the tape as we can't post or upload the whole tape here. May God protect all the mojahideen and we promise you that victory is very near."
The file Almojahid uploaded was for a document produced by the Intel Center www.intelcenter.com and concerned a report on a video released by al Qaeda on Feb. 4 2004 titled "Badr al- Riyadh: The Assault on the Crusader Settlement and Discovering Important Details." According to Intel Center's Ben Venzke it focused on the attack al Qaeda carried out against the al-Muhaya housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Nov.8 2003.
In the report Venzke stated that during the video an al Qaeda spokesman said one of the reasons for targeting the al-Muhaya compound was to go after Arab Christians." According to Venzke, "This marks an expansion of al Qaeda's targeting strategy and additional strikes against Arab Christian targets or those perceived to be affiliated with Arab Christians can be expected."
In a subsequent e-mail, Almojahid sent a variety of links to video apparently of the same incident. He wrote, "These are new links. I hope they will stay online for some time and all of you will be able to download the tape. (One of those links is
www.dhia-studios.com/media/video/badr-riyaad/riyaadh1.rm Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico and is pursuing his PhD in intercultural education at Biola University in Los Angeles. He is married with five children and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His work can be viewed here and weekly at www.americasvoices.org. He may be contacted by e-mail at reynalds@joyjunction.org |