Evan Kohlmann was just on MSNBC and remarked that the language of the latest Zawahiri tape mirrored language in a letter sent 8/5/1998 by Islamic Jihad and written by Zawahiri (2 days before the Embassy bombings).
This correlates with your observation regarding the UBL tape last week. While his language was used immediately after the 1998 attacks and Zawahiri immediately before, the key is that these phrasings were used when they were an in operational mode.
(link from previous post)
“select your targets” - - Zawahiri
“the response is what you see and not what you hear” - - UBL
“eom”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/129176
Menacing Message
How dangerous is Al Qaeda’s latest tape?
Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 5:50 PM ET Mar 26, 2008 (snipped)
The FBI, spurred in part by this week’s unusually menacing audio message from Ayman Al-Zawahiri, today advised state and local law enforcement officials to expect an increase in Al Qaeda propaganda messages aimed at inciting followers to commit terrorist acts.
FBI and counterterrorism officials stressed today that they have no fresh intelligence about any specific threats—one reason why today’s FBI intelligence bulletin, issued in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security, was blandly worded and low-key in tone.
But privately some analysts are worried about the blunt new message from Zawahiri, the deputy to Osama bin Laden. “It’s a little spooky,” said one senior official. Seeking to exploit a worldwide Muslim backlash over recent Israeli bombing strikes in Gaza, Zawahiri exhorted followers to “attack the interest of the Jews and the Americans.” He then added, “Select your targets, collect the appropriate funds, assembly your equipments, plan [your attacks] accurately, and then charge toward your targets … There is no place today for those who claim that the battlefield with the Jews is limited to Palestine.”
Counterterrorism officials and analysts have been debating for the last few days whether Zawahiri’s directive to “select your targets” was a direct command to operatives in the field or a more general incitement to sympathizers.
Evan Kohlmann, a government counterterrorism consultant who studies Al Qaeda messages, says the new tape seemed “palpably different” from Zawahiri’s usually fiery anti-American tirades. “It’s quite rare that he would be this direct and blunt about it,” Kohlmann says. “My personal opinion is when he said this”—referring to the “select your targets” line—he “wasn’t talking in the abstract, he was saying, ‘We’re doing it.’ It was very much a call to arms.” . . .
Thank you Joe and O for the pings. (Hey,I’m a poet!)
Sounds like the news might get interesting, sadly.
Thank you callmejoe for your post connecting the dots.
I appreciate it.
Thanks for Evan Kohlman’s analysis. As for the correlation, I guess we’ve learned a few things on TM over the years. I haven’t been able to delve into either message this time, but from Zawahiri - this stands out:
>>Hosni Mubarak is repeating with the Jews to play the same role that the (Lebanese) Phalangist forces did with them in Sabra and Shatila.<<
This sounds to me like the directive to “off” Mubarak as they did with Bachir Gemayel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_Massacre
Please let me know if you find the 8/5/1998 letter, I’d lke to read that one.