Al Qaeda ramps up its propaganda

CSM on yahoo ^ | 7/16/07 | Dan Murphy and Jill Carroll

[NormsRevenge]

Jerusalem and Cairo - A new video from Al Qaeda's media arm, with previously unseen and undated footage of Osama bin Laden praising the group's "martyrs," underscores the extent to which the group's propaganda campaign has improved in both production quality and volume over the past year.

Experts on the group say that nothing in the video indicates that Al Qaeda is, or is not, planning a major strike on Western targets, despite comments from US Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff last week saying that he has a "gut feeling" that Al Qaeda may stage a spectacular attack this summer.

But there is no question that Al Qaeda propaganda outlets have been working at a high rate over the past year, with frequent and timely broadcasts from the group's No. 2, the Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri, who, like Mr. bin Laden, is believed to live in either Afghanistan or the tribal areas of neighboring Pakistan.

"It's a drumbeat. If they disappear for a while people say, 'Oh, they're dead or they're gone.' So they want to keep up with the drumbeat," says Evan Kohlmann, an author who closely tracks the propaganda efforts of Al Qaeda and other jihadi groups.

Mr. Kohlmann attributes the increased media output to three causes: better technology, a more secure position, and competition from other jihadi groups.

When the Al Qaeda media wing, known as As Sahab, became active at the end of 2005, it might have been worried that producing too many videos would lead to capture. But when that didn't happen, he says, they were encouraged to produce more of them, in addition to outsourcing the distribution and improving their technological savvy.

Sahab has released at least 63 audio and video messages so far this year, compared with 58 in 2006, according to the Associated Press. In many of those, Mr. Zawahiri has been able to respond to the news events within days, getting his group's perspective on radical Islamic websites.

Zawahiri has issued at least 10 messages since January on events such as Hamas's takeover of Gaza to the recent siege on a Pakistani mosque.

Some analysts say that this new technological prowess by Al Qaeda indicates that its leadership has recaptured the reins and it is far from being cut off and on the run.

This assessment is bolstered by a report from the US intelligence establishment that Al Qaeda has been gaining strength in many areas. Last week, AP reported a leak of a US intelligence summary titled "Al Qaeda better positioned to strike the West." That summary effectively declared that US operations against Al Qaeda since 9/11 have been a failure.

It says the organization has "regrouped to an extent not seen since 2001," that it has established effective havens in Pakistan for training and operational planning and that it has improved its ability to infiltrate operatives into Europe.

This newest video has attracted a fair degree of interest because of the footage of bin Laden. According to a translation by CNN, bin Laden asked in the video, "What is this status that the best of mankind wished for himself?" "He wished to be a martyr. He himself said: 'By Him in whose hands my life is! I would love to attack and be martyred.' "

But experts say there's nothing up-to-date in his brief and vague comments incorporated there and that his contribution could be months, if not years, old.

"If you look at the video, a lot of it looks rehashed, looks like it's from the archive. There's nothing in the video so new and unusual," says Kohlmann. "I don't really understand what it is about this video [that's attracting attention] other than it's coming in a week when Michael Chertoff said he had a 'gut feeling' Al Qaeda will attack again."

He said there have been other videos released in the past year with short clips of bin Laden taken from around the same period as the latest clip, which he suspects is pre-9/11.

Rita Katz, who runs the Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) institute, the world's most active tracker of jihadi propaganda, agrees that the latest video is no departure from the norm. "The phones have been ringing off the hook [but] there's nothing in this video. It's just another propaganda video. The video of bin Laden is old."

The only point of interest in the latest tape, from Ms. Katz's perspective, is its focus on "martyrs" from Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda's media arm has put out similarly slick montages of men who have died in Iraq and other locations in the past, but she said as far as she knows this is the first one focusing on Afghanistan.

The 40-minute video, dedicated to Muslims who have left their homes to fight, included a series of animated scenes showing green fields overlaid with Arabic names written in gold, representing Arab fighters who had died in Afghanistan. Following one such sequence, the self-proclaimed leader of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan appeared, praising his fellow fighters.

"Your hero sons, courageous knights have left to the land of Afghanistan ... the land of jihad and martyrdom, answering the call for the sake of God to kick out the occupier who has desecrated the pure soil of Afghanistan," said Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed.

The Islamic hadith, or sayings attributed to the prophet Muhammad, make a number of references of praise for those who fight and die for God and Islam, promising them paradise.

Where the debate arises for Muslims is in the matter of what causes are merited, and whether the killing of civilians is allowed, whether the cause is just or not.

Most mainstream Muslims believe that acceptable jihads are defensive ones. Al Qaeda has, in turn, created a narrative in which all of Islam is under constant attack by the US and the "West" and, therefore, almost any act that they interpret as hurting the US or its allies is, in their view, allowed.

[NormsRevenge]

A photo by al-Qaeda's media wing as-Shahab provided 06 May by the Site Institute, which tracks radical Islamist websites, shows al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri giving an interview at an unspecified location. US intelligence chiefs urged Pakistan to wage a more vigorous pursuit of terrorism, warning that its lawless region bordering Afghanistan has become a sanctuary for Al-Qaeda and Taliban diehards.(AFP/Site Institute/HO)

---

This image from video made available by IntelCenter, on Saturday, July 14, 2007, shows Osama bin Laden in a new videotape posted on a militant Web site by Al-Qaida's media production wing. The bin Laden clip, which lasted less than a minute, was undated and part of a 40-minute video featuring purported al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan paying tribute to fellow militants who have been killed in the country. (AP Photo/via INTELCENTER)

[NormsRevenge]

In this image made from video provided by IntelCenter, Al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, appears in a new video tape calling on Muslims to unite in jihad, or holy war, and support the Islamist movement in Iraq, a US-based intelligence monitoring group said Wednesday. Al-Zawahri is seen in the one-hour and 35 minutes tape dressed in white and addressing a wide array of topics from Iraq to Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian territories and Egypt, said the US-based SITE intelligence group, which monitors al-Qaida messages. The group said it had obtained the tape ahead of its release on the Internet by militant web sites, and issued a transcript of al-Zawahri's speech. IntelCenter is a private contractor working for intelligence agencies. (AP Photo/via InterCenter)

[tobyhill]

It’s desperation because they know they’re getting their butts kicked and their calls for Jihad is ever starting to ring hollow.

[NormsRevenge]

The pressure is on them , for sure, need to keep it up.. cleansing a certain mountain valley or two might be a good start.

[Tzimisce]

Hm...I guess al Quada is tired of the AP and BBC doing a better job making the case for Jihad....

[Congressman Billybob]

According to Powerline. IIRC, the Bin Laden clip has already been identified as from a tape that was made in 2001. Much of the MSM has its knickers in a bunch over a "new" Bin Laden tape which is no more "new" than another tape of Judy Garland singing "Somewhere, over the Rainbow."

Congressman Billybob

Latest article, "Enforce Zina's Laws"

[Gil4]

“Al Qaeda ramps up its propaganda”

NY Times put out a double-issue?

[stylin19a]

The past of the osama clip has already been debunked as having been from 2001

[The South Texan]

CNN and PMSNBC aren’t doing enough?????

They should demand a refund.

[TexasCajun]

"US Propagana Minister - Al Qaeda in America "

[stylin19a]

past = part

[TexasCajun]

"War on Terror" is nothing but a bumper-sticker slogan.

[TexasCajun]

"George Bush blew up the World Trade Towers! "

"Who ever heard of fire melting steel, huh? "

[CJ Wolf]

On the back: CheLaden, Just another dead cause.

[wayoverontheright]

These messages seem to me to be attempts to cover weaknesses and stave off humiliation in the eyes of the "audience" in this macabre play, the vaunted "Arab Street." If you think Iraq looks like a quagmire from our standpoint, look at it from the vantage point of the leaders of jihad. Look at what their attack has reaped: their nation-state domicile was eliminated, the reigning SYMBOL of Arab power (Saddam was viewed as the WINNER of the Gulf War) was sumarily humiliated, and the Great Satan is now bent on installing the most feared outcome of all, Democracy, in their midst. The jihad has been mired on defense in Iraq for over four years now.

The psychological makeup of those who live by the Koran causes them to think differently from those of us in the West. For example, though the US and the UK have framed our actions since 9-11 around defensive and altruistic justifications, our enemy sees each and every action as punitive and retaliatory. Their mentality cannot fathom a time when we in the West were NOT on the offensive, trying to exterminate them. Our reaction to 9-11 is to them not a reaction at all, but a continuation of past policy.

Secondly, the collective psyche of the "Arab Street" is historically very fragile, very quick to conclude that they will lose AGAIN. Zawahiri and bin-Laden are so familiar with this propensity, and are acutely aware that they must appear at all times to be the "strong horse", or they will lose the backing of the populace.

They may already have lost them. The jihadi leaders have to have been extremely saddened and disillusioned by the fact that they had hoped for an all-out uprising by the street, if not when the Great Satan entered Afghanistan, certainly when it dared to enter Iraq. Now each appeal from Zawahiri and bin-Laden includes an exhortation for more martyrs, could it be that they are finding it difficult to find anyone willing to die for a losing cause? As we move forward, we will know they are getting weaker as remote detonations increase, and suicide bombings decrease, something they probably see as already happening, thus the constant appeals.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Well, the Tribal areas of Pakistan are the loci of their next efforts.....

Pakistan scrambles to save tribal accord

[mutley]

Okay you infidelic heathens. Just try and guess how I got this bump on my head. I dare you.

[mutley]

And just so you know. By wearing this headress and beard, we are not trying to look like aliens in an old “Star Trek” episode. That is a lie, praise Allah.

[lowbridge]

A new video from Al Qaeda's media arm, with previously unseen and undated footage of Osama bin Laden praising the group's "martyrs

Bin Laden Video Fools AP (New Bin Laden Video Turns Out To Be Old 2001 Video)

[lowbridge]

A new video from Al Qaeda's media arm

Which media arm of theirs? The New York Times or the DNC?