“Regarding the use of the 4’s, (which callme made reference to), could this be the fourth target? Say in LA? LAX specifically?”
Unless the “4s” were in an original Arabic text issued by as-Sahab (with the same paragraph breaks and the same line breaks in Arabic as in English), or unless this particular English translation was posted on a jihadi forum somewhere to make sure it came across in English as they intended, it would likely be a coincidence.
Recently, they have been obsessing on “3s”. But they were stuck on 4s for a long time (9/11 was 4 teams and some of the other post-9/11 attacks have been 4 simultaneous hits).
But the original 2003 three-city threat was what started the first thread, and there have been similar vague, unverifiable threats made since then - - as recently as last month.
Unless it is an “official” al Qaeda speech or tape, it is hard to figure out what are the 999 threats out of 1000 that are “trash talk” and which 1 out of 1000 is legit.
Anyone can get on a forum and talk. But this was UBL himself.
Placemark
I think things will be quiet for now, which is worrisome.
I took the 4’s to be the four men he mentioned in the video Bush, Blair, Brown and Sarkosy. I took it to mean that they are marked men at this point. And in the three’s are Cheny, Rumsfield and Pearle who they already killed. I think back before 9/11 and the killing of the Leader of the Northern Alliance on 9/9 and then 9/11 happening.