Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread Thirty-Six

[nwctwx]

Afghanistan Calls for Crackdown at Border
(Full Story)

Pakistan needs to do more to crack down on terrorism along the Pakistani-Afghan border, a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday.

Rahim Karimi said in the news conference that Afghanistan need greater "cooperation" from both its eastern neighbor and the international community in its battle against Islamic militants.

Coalition and Afghan forces have in recent days been fighting fierce battles against Taliban fighters near the Afghan-Pakistan border.

	Soldiers Kill 5 Militants in Afghanistan
	Joseph Farah: Real Bad News in Afghanistan
	Karzai Urges Coalition Forces to Show Restraint
	Zawahri's New Video Calls Muslims to Support Mujahideen

Thread Thirty-Six

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[nwctwx]

Zarqawi slams new Iraq government

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iraq's al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi denounced the new Iraqi government, saying it was set up to help Washington find a way out of its predicament in Iraq, according to a rare Internet video posted on Tuesday.

"America has realised today that its tanks, armies and Shi'ite agents will not be able to end the battle with the mujahideen.

"So it devised a plan to ... resort to its agents among those so-called Sunnis who will tighten the noose around the necks of Sunnis and save the Americans," Zarqawi said on the video dated April 21.

Iraq's newly-appointed Prime Minister Jawad al-Maliki, from the majority Shi'ite community, has four weeks to form a government of national unity including minority Kurds and Sunnis -- widely seen as the only way to halt sectarian violence.

A statement from the al-Qaeda affiliated Mujahideen Council, accompanying the tape said it was the first "video of the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq".

"Your mujahideen sons were able to confront the most ferocious of crusader campaigns on a Muslim state. They have stood in the face of this onslaught for three years.

"When the crusader enemy entered Iraq, he intended to control the Islamic nation and supported the Zionist state," said Zarqawi, who was clad in a black with a green military-style vest and an assault rifle by his side.

Zarqawi, who has earlier issued his messages via audio recordings, was also shown training with a group of masked men outdoors.

[SlowBoat407]

JP, last report was that it was some kind of super fish bait.

[Rushmore Rocks]

Thaks for the map, Piper. Looks like my state, So. Dakota, is the most "Muslim free" state. I only know one here in Rapid City. He is a professor at the school of mines, has lived here for 30+ years and is a non-practicing Muslim.

[all4one]

Many times here at TM we have pondered the meanings of the images used with these tapes. The positioning of items, hand movements, etc. It strikes me that the green canvas looking, pocketed garment on the front of his body could indicate the type of garment they would use when strapping bombs to their bodies. IMHO, this in coordination with the OBL tape, recent bombings, Iran rumblings...indicates things being kicked-up another notch. Extra prayers going out for our troops.

[Cindy]

http://www.internet-haganah.com/harchives/005580.html
Article snippet: "domain names associated with the site have not expired, but it is possible that the site's admin has..."

[SlowBoat407]

And always that snotty little finger-pointing thing they do. Just give me a pair of cable cutters. Just for two minutes...

[Cindy]

http://www.internet-haganah.com/harchives/005580.html
Article snippet: "domain names associated with the site have not expired, but it is possible that the site's admin has..."

[SlowBoat407]

I have to admit, the bomb belt is pretty disturbing. It looks like the weight vest my wife uses when she goes walking on the beach.

[Godzilla]

Many times here at TM we have pondered the meanings of the images used with these tapes.

Notice the black flag with what appears to be two arms holding it up in the upper left corner of the picture.

[La Enchiladita]

I studied the image also as it was shown on local news a little while ago. I'm sure it's him, but also his appearance says his health has changed, and/or he is on some kind of medication. He looks downward all the time, like he is in a stupor.

[La Enchiladita]

Still no specific information on the perp who disrupted the United flight two days ago. No mention of nationality or place of residence.

Passenger charged in scare on plane

By Rocky Mountain News
April 25, 2006

An airline passenger accused of trying to open an emergency door midflight Friday while shouting that he had a bomb was charged Monday with interference. Jose Manuel Pelayo Ortega, 36, faces 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of interfering with a United Airlines flight crew, federal prosecutors said.

The incident on Flight 735 from Chicago to Sacramento began when a man walked into the first-class section of the plane, according to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Denver.

The good news is that there was no bomb.

[Cementjungle]

bin Laden and Zarqawi back-to-back ... not good. Not good.

I think (hope) they're just getting more frustrated at losing their "war" against us. All they have left is these wimpy little videos of theirs.

[nwctwx]

[nwctwx]

Notice the black flag with what appears to be two arms holding it up in the upper left corner of the picture.

In the video posted Tuesday, the logo of the Shura Council appeared on the screen as al-Zarqawi spoke, even as the black flag of his specific group, al-Qaida in Iraq, appeared in the corner.

Link

[Cindy]

http://albayanat.blogspot.com/2006/04/blog-post_25.html
http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/9035/untitl77777ed15nu.gif
Posted by "Murasel"
---

ON THE NET...

http://albayanat.blogspot.com
http://press-release.blogspot.com/

===
===

NOTE: More photos of Zarqawi and Watch the Video here:

http://bareknucklepolitics.com/?p=1235
"Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi Appears In New Video
Released By Mujahadeen Shura Council:
(April 25, 2006)

===
===

http://counterterrorismblog.org/maps/Zarqawi-tape.jpg
http://counterterrorismblog.org/maps/Zarqawi-desert.jpg

http://counterterrorismblog.org/2006/04/zarqawi_releases_video_tape.php
"Zarqawi Releases Video Tape (Updated)"
By Bill Roggio


ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's commander in Iraq, has released "the first [videotape] to contain a 'message'... U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News." The tape is titled A Message to the People. This is his first video without a mask and directly posted on internet, not released through Al Jazeera. Zarqawi “needed” to be seen. Fox News reports US officials are very confident the tape is authentic and this is indeed Zarqawi, he is still force to be reckoned with, and he appears healthy and is working with the Mujahideen Shura Council."

===
===

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050419-102106-5456r.htm
"Reports reveal Zarqawi nuclear threat"

"Reports reveal Zarqawi nuclear threat"
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
(April 20, 2006)

===
===

THANK YOU nwctwx for this link:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,193044,00.html
"New Zarqawi Video Posted on Web"
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq

---

and THANK YOU callmejoe for this post:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1614188/posts?page=94#94

[nwctwx]

In video, al-Zarqawi firm on war against the West

In a rare video posted Tuesday on the Internet, al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden and said any government formed in Iraq would be merely a "stooge." He also mocked the U.S. military in Iraq for what he called suicides, drug-taking and mutinies, and he warned that "worse" attacks were to come.

The video, released just days after Iraq named a new prime minister and a high-profile audiotape from bin Laden appeared on Arab TV, seemed a deliberate attempt by al-Zarqawi to claim the spotlight again following months of taking a lower profile.

It also came just one day after a triple bombing at a resort in Egypt that killed at least 24 people, including 21 Egyptians and three foreigners.

The video was believed the first to show al-Zarqawi's face. The bearded, black-clothed terrorist leader, thought to be about 40, was in a flat desert landscape, dotted with scrub brush as if after a spring rain, that looked startlingly like Iraq's western Anbar province.

The footage showed him and about two dozen insurgents, masked and dressed in black uniforms, undergoing combat training.

In another scene, al-Zarqawi was filmed inside, sitting with his lieutenants and Anbar's insurgent commander, according to a caption in the video. The men, sitting on traditional Arab cushions and mats, could be seen discussing strategy over a large map spread on the ground.

"Any government which is formed in Iraq now —whether by Shiites or Zionist Kurds, or those who are dubbed Sunnis — would only be a stooge," al-Zarqawi said in the video. "They are a poisoned dagger in the heart of the Muslim nation."

It has been just days since Iraq named a new prime minister and made progress toward forming a new government. In that sense, the video could be an attempt by the terrorist leader to raise his visibility at a time when U.S. officials are hailing the Iraqi political process as a setback to the insurgents.

Al-Zarqawi also claimed the U.S. military was overwhelmed in Iraq.

"Why don't you tell people that your soldiers are committing suicide, taking drugs and hallucination pills to make them sleep?" he asked, directing his words to President Bush.

"By God, your dreams will be defeated by our blood and by our bodies. What is coming is even worse," he said.

The U.S. military in Iraq said it would have no immediate comment. In Washington, intelligence analysts were examining the video and two U.S. officials declined to comment immediately.

It was not possible to confirm its authenticity, but it was posted on a Web site that al-Zarqawi's group and others have used to post Internet messages.

Al-Zarqawi previously has made statements only through audiotapes posted on the Web, although photos of him obtained by the U.S. government have been widely circulated.

In one part of the video, al-Zarqawi sat dressed in black and with a black skullcap on his head, with an ammunition vest hung from his neck and an automatic rifle propped against the wall to his right. The black flag of his group, al-Qaida in Iraq, was superimposed on the screen.

In the video, al-Zarqawi also accused the West and the United States of waging a "crusader" war against Islam but said Muslim holy warriors were standing firm.

"When the enemy entered into Iraq, their aim was to control the area and support the Zionist state," al-Zarqawi said. "But here we have been fighting them for the last three years."

He also mentioned Jerusalem, saying that while fighters are in Iraq, "our eyes are on Jerusalem, which cannot be regained without a guiding Quran and a triumphant sword."

And he repeated his allegiance to bin Laden, calling him his emir or prince.

"Our emir, sheik Osama bin Laden, has offered you a truce, which was good for you if you had accepted. But you turned it down, because of your arrogance," al-Zarqawi said, referring to an offer al-Qaida's chief made two years ago to cease attacks on Europe if the U.S. would withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The bin Laden tape that was played on Arab television Sunday encouraged Muslims to support his group in its war with the West.

Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, has claimed responsibility for some of the most high-profile suicide bombings in Iraq, and also for a score of other attacks including hotel bombings in November in Jordan.

But in recent months, al-Zarqawi had sharply lowered his profile, halting his group's Internet claims and joining a clearinghouse group of other radical groups. Some other radical leaders had said he had been shunted aside and told to lower his profile.

In January, al-Zarqawi's group said in a Web statement that it had joined five other Iraqi insurgent groups to form the Mujahedeen Shura Council, or Consultative Council of Holy Warriors. Since then, al-Zarqawi's group had stopped issuing its own statements, a sharp contrast to its previous frequent postings, and al-Zarqawi had not issued a Web audiotape since January.

In the video posted Tuesday, the logo of the Shura Council appeared on the screen as al-Zarqawi spoke, even as the black flag of his specific group, al-Qaida in Iraq, appeared in the corner.

Among other attacks he has been blamed for, U.S. officials believe al-Zarqawi personally beheaded American businessman Nicholas Berg, whose savage killing was shown on a videotape distributed by al-Qaida in Iraq in May 2004.

It was the first of a series of videotaped decapitations of Westerners in Iraq, which ended after widespread complaints from Muslims who were sympathetic to the insurgency but objected to the video beheadings.

Some experts have long cautioned, however, that al-Zarqawi's role may have been exaggerated and that some of the attacks claimed by his group — or that U.S. and Iraqi officials blamed on him — may have been carried out by others.

Iraq's insurgency has always been made up of several disparate groups, and some of them, including Ansar al-Sunnah Army and the Islamic Army of Iraq, have been nearly as violent as al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq.

Al-Zarqawi has seized most of the attention because of his relentless Internet propaganda efforts, the brutality of his attacks — including the hostage beheading videos — and a series of suicide car bombings that targeted mostly Shiites.

[Cindy]

Thanks nw.

[SlowBoat407]

"Our emir, sheik Osama bin Laden, has offered you a truce, which was good for you if you had accepted. But you turned it down, because of your arrogance,"

Translation: under Islamic law, all conditions have been met for us to now attack your land.

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

Thanks Much I would have missed this.