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The AP stories about the UBL tape are ending with this curious sentence.

http://cbs4.com/national/topstories_story_195163547.html

. . .At the end of the broadcast, images of the Sept. 11 attacks were shown, and a voice could be heard saying, “In a few days, the crusaders’ landmarks were flattened.”

At the risk of stating the obvious, from start to finish, the planes hit the buildings and the towers both collapsed all within 102 minutes.

Even if the quote has been taken out of context from the previous narration or previous images, and there is a rational explanation for phrasing it that way while running images of that specific day (and not a “few days” prior), it may still have a double meaning.

While the MEMRI analysis at the link dismissed this claim of responsibility for the Madrid train attacks for several technical reasons, this same front group claimed responsibility for the London 7/7/05 attacks a year later.

“Winds of Martyrdom” (the title of today’s UBL tape) sounds somewhat like “Winds of Black Death” (the name they used to describe the threatened 2004 operation in this statement).

And as the summer 2006 ten-plane threat showed, they have not given up on using planes.

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA16604

The Alleged Al-Qa’ida Statement of Responsibility for the Madrid Bombings: Translation and Commentary
By Yigal Carmon*

On March 12, 2004, the pro-Saddam pro-bin Laden London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi [1] published the alleged statement by the Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigades of Al-Qa’ida, in which the brigades claimed to be responsible for the March 11, 2004 bombings in Madrid.

It should be noted that the Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigades claimed responsibility for the August 2003 blackout in the U.S. (which was a large-scale technical failure), calling it “Operation Quick Lightning in the Land of the Tyrant of This Generation.” [2]

The following is the translation of the statement, followed by commentary:

… and we promise the Muslims in the world that the strike of the Winds of Black Death (the anticipated strike on America) is now in its last phase [of preparation]. [It is] 90% [complete], Allah willing… Soon (when it suits the Jihad warriors), the believers [i.e. Muslims] will rejoice at Allah’s victory.