Purported Qaeda statement claims Kenya attacks

This would actually be out of character for Al Qaeda .

And now the news is reporting that the Kenya attack can be linked with another attack -- in Saudi Arabia? By the missle.

Why? Multiple coordinated attacks, involving vehicular bombs and targeting Jewish interests? Sounds like AQ to me.

Why? Multiple coordinated attacks, involving vehicular bombs and targeting Jewish interests? Sounds like AQ to me.

No, taking credit for the attack.

Oh, yeah. That does seem a bit quick for them.

The subdivision of al-Qaeda claiming responsibility for the attacks, which should read "politburo" rather than "Political Office of al-Qaeda Jihad" is the Shura Majlis, the organization's board of directors (which has lost at least 3 of its members as the result of Operation Enduring Freedom).

Al-Qaeda generally waits for all of its operatives to be outside of the realm of immediate investigation area and then doing a quick head count before claiming responsibility for the attacks.

For example, after 9/11 the organization clearly underwent a process of internal review to see how many of its members were still active inside the continental US (remember, the FBI rounded up ~1,000 Arab males right after 9/11 and there's a good chance that more than a few of them were al-Qaeda sleepers). According to US intelligence, Abu Musab Zarqawi (the successor to Abu Zubaydah as global operations chief) has been performing a similar review process in the case of al-Qaeda worldwide to see how many members escaped from Afghanistan as well as overseeing the recruiting and training of the hundreds of new recruits who joined right after 9/11.

In the case of the Bali bombing, al-Qaeda had to make certain that most of its most visible Indonesian affiliates had already gone to ground or "disbanded" before claiming Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility in the recent audiotape (and I personally think that the Swiss methodology was flawed, but that's a discussion for another thread).

However, the most likely culprits for the Kenyan attack are al-Ittihad al-Islamiyyah, a Somali affiliate with roughly 2,000 mujahideen who run al-Qaeda's operations in Ethiopia and Central Africa. Given the deplorable state of the Kenyan-Somali border, any culprits have probably already fled the country into al-Ittihad's enclave in southern Somalia. With the safety of operatives on the ground no longer in doubt, al-Qaeda is free to brag about the attack.

As for the missiles, from what I can determine they were all part of a batch that al-Qaeda obtained from a missile factory near Moscow, probably with the assistance of either corrupt government officials or the Chechen mafia (remember, the leaders of the Chechen rebellion are themselves members of al-Qaeda). A Sudanese al-Qaeda operative was sent to Prince Sultan Air Base last May to destroy the US fighters based there, but he missed his target and was arrested by the Saudis, after which he was deported back to Sudan.

I hope Sharon orders a Jeep full of Israeli soldiers to invade Kenya, and simultaneously take control of the evidence for further examination.

"The fighters of al Qaeda return to the same place where the Crusader-Jewish coalition was hit four years ago," said the statement...

This definately looks fake to me. OBL & his group never refer to themselves as "al Qaeda". The name is only a govt/media label for the various groups.

I hope Sharon orders a Jeep full of Israeli soldiers to invade Kenya, and simultaneously take control of the evidence for further examination. ---Mikhailovich

Hmmm ...that would be interesting however i think you should know that Kenya is one of Israel's closest allies since the time it helped the Israeli military rescue a hijacked plane that had been taken to Uganda! Since then the Israeli and Kenyan governments have been closely linked with each other in a myriad of ways, ranging from economical (a lot of trade occurs between the two nations), cordial, and geo-political (Kenya was the biggest hub for the Israeli Mossad outside Israel).

As for sending "a Jeep full of Israeli soldiers to invade Kenya" i think that might not be possible! The Kenyan military is jointly trained by the Israelis and the British, and is a professional bunch of guys! The Israelis may be among the best soldiers on the planet, however they will need a lot more than one 'jeepful of soldiers' to 'invade Kenya.' If you had done some prior research you might have discovered that unlike most African nations (which are in essence cesspools with the dregs of social malaise) Kenya is actually a very westernized place, and this is one of the reasons the terrorists have been hitting it since 1980 (the Norfolk hotel attack) because it has a very large western population, it has an affluent base, and when the islamist kooks attack news of the even will spread around the globe!

As for your advocation of an 'Israeli jeep attacking Kenya' i would say that is rather asinine because all that would do is remove one of Israel's major allies in the whole region (some have said that apart from the US Kenya is the only other nation that has been known to support Israel unconditionally, to the effect that since the 80s there have been several Mossad/Kenyan CID operations to weed out Palestinians terrorists who in the 80s were trying to attack Kenya due to its linkages to Israel. This terror thing did not start last week, although for some reason based on your statements i doubt you knew that).

As for the 'denial of evidence' it was not a denial, and as i write this the decision has already been reversed so in essence it is a moot point! However the decision was not to deny access to evidence but instead to make it not leave the country. The Israelis (and the Americans) would have carte blanche over the evidence ...it just would not leave the country! This stems from some bad blood from the 1998 terrorist attacks (i hope then you were also not saying the US military should send a jeep full of soldiers to invade Kenya) when the Kenyan CID turned over all the evidence to the FBI and it was taken out of the country (and yet all the arrests were done by the Kenyan CID, and then the suspects were turned over to the US for prosecution) and their investigation was stymied since all the evidence was 10,000 miles away. I guess that is why the CID is a little apprehensive to turn over all of the evidence and would rather have the Israelis come to Kenya (since there are already loads of Israelis in Kenya) and carry out the investigation there! I think that is not a big deal ....however the Associated Press (which broke the news) kind of made it into a 'denial' when all it was was saying the evidence would nto just be Fedexed to Israel! After all Kenya is a sovereign nation!

And the issue has already been resolved.

Anyways if i were you i would be wishing that Congress stopped being so p@$$yfooted with the Saudis (who finance virtually all terror in the world ranging from 9-11 to Chechnya to Bali to the FARC in S. America to the Kenyan attacks) and tell the Saudi scoundrels to stop!

That will do more good than wishing that Sharon orders a Jeep full of Israeli soldiers to invade Kenya

Always know who your target is ....and who your ally is! As i said before instead of wishing for a jeep of israeli grunts to invade Kenya you should be praying that Congress and GW will realize that Saudi Arabia is not an ally, and that Islam is not peaceful! That will be more productive.

And remember, before 9-11 more Kenyans had died or being injured due to terrorist actions against Americans than Americans themselves. They deserve more than some person wishing Sharon sends a solo jeep to invade Kenya!

To. Mikhailovich:More background info on how the whole terrorism thing started in Kenya when foreign terrorists would strikve to strike at Kenya, and foreign interests in Kenya!

For example in the 70s (this stuff started decades ago), five Arabs suspected to be members of the PFLP were arrested in the vicinity of Nairobi's Embakasi Airport planning to gun down an El Al airliner. They were flown to Israel and jailed there.

During the Entebbe raid (when Pali terrorists had taken over an Israeli airliner and flown it to Uganda, where Kenyan forces assisted the Israelis to the effect without Kenyan assistance the Entebbe rid would not have been possible), the hijackers demanded the release of the Palestinians serving their sentences in Israel.

In the same period, an Egyptian airliner was forced to land at the airport by Kenyan jet fighters for violating Kenya's airspace. There was word that there might have been intentions similar to what happened in 9-11 (and remember this was in the early eighties). It was released only after high-level diplomatic talks

At the same time several special branches of the Kenyan military has been used by Israel to strike at some Libyan interests when Gaddhafi used to be in the news during the late eighties! In essence Kenya has stuck its neck out repeatedly for the Israelis, which is why i find it weird that you would advocate what you said in your post.

Anyways take care!

While this was true pre-9/11, it no longer is. Go to MEMRI and look at the al-Qaeda communiques ("Why We Fight America," for example) and you'll see that post-9/11, al-Qaeda has indeed referred to itself as al-Qaeda.

Also, this was posted on one of their websites, so it may have been only intended for internal consumption, with the "Army of Palestine" being used to confuse the international media.

It was a joke, and moreover a compliment to the Israeli military. Funny, the way this site is loaded with jokesters, hi-fiving each other's silly comments, yet when I dare do the same, I'm called to the carpet for it ???

You obviously have more faith in Kenya than I. In times when an obviously inept Kenyan investigation is underway for such a heinous terrorist attack, such staunch "allies" need to lay it on the line for each other, rather than to bicker back and forth and lose time and potentially valuable leads.

"This would actually be out of character for Al Qaeda ."

Then again, so were Jumbo-Jet Kamakazi attacks against sky-scrapers....

this was true pre-9/11, it no longer is. Go to MEMRI...post-9/11, al-Qaeda has indeed referred to itself as al-Qaeda.

Good point. MEMRI does indeed have those communiques. I'm surprised because it contradicts several other sources on this issue (as well as the bizarre apparently semantic discussion in the shoebomber case about rejecting the "al Qaeda" label even after he pleaded guilty to his charges). I'm left wondering: does MEMRI explicitly changes the names to "al Qaeda" when they do their translations from Arabic to English to aid the reader's understanding? Are these articles (from the original newspaper sources) all legit? I guess they could have come around and taken up the name - I'm still a little puzzled though...

Well, post-9/11, al-Qaeda became this massive, shadowy conspiracy that was everywhere and plotting attacks according to the media. While don't think that the group is quite that extensive, there's a certain fear factor that comes as a result of its name both in the Arab world and in the West.

Once this sense of ominous menace was established there was really no need to really on bogus front names anymore. More to the point, the name al-Qaeda and reference to how the group is set up allows its sympathizers adopt a quasi-nationalistic mindset in terms of fighting for the jihad, rather than global jihad being just some kind of a vague movement.

More to the point, MEMRI's communiques are largely designed for internal consumption between the group's members and supporters, such as the articles posted by Azzam Publications or Jehad.net calling for the annihilation of infidels.

I don't think MEMRI changes the names to al-Qaeda for a number of reasons. The first is that MEMRI generally has an excellent reputation for accurate translations and would prefer to make such clarifications through foot notes (as they do when explaining the finer points of Muslim theology) rather than by altering the actual text. The second is that the other names that al-Qaeda uses to refer to itself are names like "the bretheren," "the mujahideen," and the "Islamic Army for the Liberation of Holy Places."

Most of MEMRI's al-Qaeda communiques were posted on Jehad.net or al-Neda and attributed to Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the group's spokesman, and I see no reason to dispute that attribution. However, these were intended only for group members and supporters to read, not the larger audience.

The only al-Qaeda communiques that were released to the general public posted on MEMRI are:

- The announcement of the creation Palestinian branch of al-Qaeda.

- The theological argument by the Chechen al-Qaeda that the sha'riah allows for the killing of civilian hostages.

- The "Why We Fight America" editorial by Suleiman Abu Ghaith printed in the independent Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat.

- The "Fourth Generation Warfare" article by al-Qaeda military commander Abu Ubeid al-Qurashi that appeared in al-Quds al-Arabi.

These are the MEMRI articles where al-Qaeda refers to itself as al-Qaeda post-9/11.

Regarding Richard Reid, I think the reason he wanted the al-Qaeda charge removed was because he believes that if he's convicted of acting alone with his exploding sneakers he'll face a far easier time than if he acknowledged his membership in bin Laden's shadow army.