The video is titled: “A Message to the People”.
SITE Institute: More..
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." This is his first video without a mask and directly posted on internet, not released through Al Jazeera. Zarqawi "needed" to be seen.
The full transcript is not yet available, but MSNBC provides an excerpt:
"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."
Walid Phares comments at MSNBC on Zarqawi's videotape - The decision on Iraq's new PM is obviously not what Zarqawi wanted... this is the third event in 3 days and linked strategically if not logistically.
Zarqawi's tape follows yesterday's multiple bombings of a scubadiving resort in Dahab, Egypt, and this weekend's release "State of Jihad" audiotape from Osama bin Laden.
bin Laden and Zarqawi back-to-back ... not good. Not good.
This is interesting. Z has been basically shelved by the Iraqi resistance because of the Jordan attack as well as mishandling the terrorism in Iraq. Now all of a sudden he shows up on the radar screen big time. Hmmmm, must ponder more.
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.