“The thrice repetition rears its head again. Is it a cultural thing, or are we looking at a code?”
Three time repetition of the word “shahid” (meaning both “martyr” and “witness”) in both UBL and Zawahiri tapes is not a coincidence.
UBL:
“So be alert, be wise and think. 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, then attack again and be martyred, then attack again and be martyred.’
Zawahiri:
“If you help him not, Allah helped him when those who disbelieve drove him out, the second of two; when they both were in the cave, when he said to his companion, ‘Don’t worry. Allah is with us.’ . . . Have I not conveyed? O Allah, be my witness. Have I not conveyed? O Allah, be my witness. Have I not conveyed? O Allah, be my witness. . .”
Key Words:
“Abu Bakr” (he was the “second of the two” in the cave, Mohammed being the first). . . .”cave” (nature of the attack) . . . “witness/martyr” (Mohammed’s final invocation repeated three times as possible required triple warning (?) and/or implying the number of attacks) . . . .
This professor was on Fox News about an hour ago.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/ws/staff/pn.html
He said that the word that is repeated three times in the concluding sentences is “shahid”, which not only means “witness”, but also means “martyr”. So he said that he believes that Zawahiri may be referring to three martyrs/attacks. Also said that high concentrations of tapes/messages like what we are seeing are often associated with subsequent attacks or increased activity.
He did not say anything about a requirement under Islamic law to warn three times, but Fox was reporting that several times earlier today. Found no other source on that.
So there may be three “martyrdom operations” underway (2003: NYC-DC-LA /2004:NYC-DC-NJ)
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21683379-2703,00.html
CIA boss tells more than he knows
The new book by former spy chief and Iraq war opponent George Tenet unwittingly strengthens the Bush case for taking the war on terror to Iraq, writes William Kristol
May 07, 2007
(excerpt)
. . .Tenet also discloses new intelligence about the activities of the al-Qa’ida leadership living under what he calls “loose house arrest” in Iran.
“From the end of 2002 to the spring of 2003, we received a stream of reliable reporting that the senior al-Qa’ida leadership in Saudi Arabia was negotiating for the purchase of three Russian nuclear devices. Saudi al-Qa’ida chief Abu Bakr related the offer directly to the al-Qa’ida leadership in Iran, where Sayf al-Adl and Abdel al-Aziz al-Masri (described as al-Qa’ida’s ‘nuclear chief’ by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed) were reportedly being held under a loose form of house arrest by the Iranian regime.
“The al-Qa’ida leadership had obviously learned much from their ventures into the nuclear market in the early 1990s. Sayf al-Adl told Abu Bakr no price was too high to pay if they could get their hands on such weapons. However, he cautioned Abu Bakr that al-Qa’ida had been stung by scams in the past and that Pakistani specialists should be brought to Saudi Arabia to inspect the merchandise prior to purchase.”
Sayf al Adl, who helped plan the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa, has reportedly ordered attacks around the globe from his house arrest/safe haven in Iran. . .
Frankly, at this point I am assuming that AQ has aquired some nuclear capability. The reason being that some of their leadership, including the “nuclear chief” has been sojourning in Iran, where there is enrichment going on at present, and the fact that there has been not much buzz about intelligence indicating that they are still attempting to purchase nuclear materials.
If the nuclear aquisition chatter dropped off at some point after Spring 2003, and I certainly hope that we have been attempting stings offering to sell such material, I have to think that they already have that supply line established.
Did you see today's video? The beginning of the clip from Laura's site takes the video viewer into a cave.