Zawahiri on Pakistan and Beitullah

World Analysis has it, and so does YouTube of course. It's an audio with a static video background. It's labeled as a eulogy to the late TTP boss Beitullah Mehsud, but Zawahiri spends most of his 28 minutes and 6 seconds condemning Islamabad for apostasy and collaboration with the Crusaders and all that sort of stuff. Crude incitement seems to be all Zawahiri is capable of these days.

Update: Mustafa Abu al-Yazid has now also put out a eulogy to Beitullah, a video less than ten minutes long. With Beitullah-stan in disarray, the immediate future of the two Egyptians is rather uncertain.

Majahden forum predicts simultaneous AQ attacks in 3 large cities

majahden thread number 30629

initial item in the thread:
user:
الرايه السوداء
("The Black Flag")
title:
بشرى بأقتراب الضربات الكبرى ولله الحمد
content:
الحمد لله أعز الإسلام والمسلمین وأذل الشرك والمشركین، والصلاة والسلام علی قائد المجاهدین، أشرف الأنبیاء والمرسلین، وعلی آله وأصحابه ومن اهتدی بهديه أجمعین.

اخواني في الله لقد اكرم الله على برؤيا ارجو من الله ان تحقق وان تكون قريبا
وهي حصول ثلاث ضربات كبرى للمجاهدين في ثلاث مدن رئيسه وكبرى
(والله اعلم)
ونجاح الضربات حسب الطريقه والتوقيت المحدد لها
وحصول هرج ومرج كبير في اراضي الكفار

اللهم الحقنا بالمجاهدين وارزقنا الشهاده في سبيلك ان الامر كله بيدك
اللهم يارحمن يارحيم
ياحي ياقيوم
يا احد يا صمد
ياحنان يا منان
لا اله الا انت سبحانك انك كنت من الظالمين
اللهم وفق المجاهدين في ضرباتهم
اللهم انفذ بعث اسامه
اللهم انفذ بعث اسامه
اللهم انفذ بعث اسامه
بيدك الخير انك على كل شىء قدير
(ends)

Item 7 in the thread:
sender:
اسد الاسلام
("Lion of Islam", who is not just another couch jihadi)
content:
اللهم الحقنا بالمجاهدين وارزقنا الشهاده في سبيلك ان الامر كله بيدك
اللهم يارحمن يارحيم
ياحي ياقيوم
يا احد يا صمد
ياحنان يا منان
لا اله الا انت سبحانك انك كنت من الظالمين
اللهم وفق المجاهدين في ضرباتهم
اللهم انفذ بعث اسامه
اللهم انفذ بعث اسامه
اللهم انفذ بعث اسامه
بيدك الخير انك على كل شىء قدير

اللهم سدد اللهم سدد اللهم سدد
اللهم انصر المجاهدين في سبيلك
(ends)

Update 2009.09.25:

This relatively short UBL audio appeared today. As-Sahab logo on this one, with English and German subtitles. UBL tells Europeans to get out of Afghanistan and blame everything on the United States, basically, and he threateningly reminds Europe of the Madrid and London bombings. The most recent events he mentions are from Georgia around September 2008 which, since that isn't really relevant to al-Qa'ida's program, suggests that the audio is a full year old.

Please help save Hussein Murradi (repost)

Hussein Murradi is an Afghan civilian now in the UK. As a child he was forced to submit to the Muslim religion, but in Britain he has publicly discarded Islam. Now the UK has turned down his application for refugee status, and intends to return him to Afghanistan, where it is highly likely that he will be lynched for apostasy.

An NGO called the British Humanist Association is defending Murradi. Please visit:

http://www.humanism.org.uk/news/view/356

That page contains a form which facilitates an email to the British cabinet secretary responsible for refugee claims.

This article at The Independant contains some quotations from Murradi himself.

If Murradi is granted refugee status in the UK, or if he is moved to some country that has the guts to protect him, I will remove this blog entry from the web. Until then I will be watching this affair, including any involvement of the many Muslim pressure groups in the UK.

Zawahiri and Gadahn star in "The West and the Dark Tunnel"

As-Sahab video.

World Analysis has at least some of it. It is also on YouTube.

This is AQ's overdue 9/11 anniversary video. It's in a sort of TV documentary format, loaded with special effects. The makers had access to a large array of TV news footage from various places.

It contains some unremarkable new speeches from Zawahiri, Abu Yahya, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, and Gadahn.

As for its targets, Hamas is one; they eulogize the idiotic "Abu an-Noor al-Maqdisi" and his Jaish Ansar Allah people, who were massacred by Hamas in August 2009. Another target of the day is Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi defense minister, whose bribery by the British arms firms BAE was concealed by Tony Blair personally.

As in terrorist propaganda generally, lots of pieces of this AQ video are selected to incite and to nurse resentment. A frequent trick in this one is to show one person greeting another, or joking with another, or dining with another, for the purpose of spreading the viewer's hate of one of those people onto the other. For example, GWB and Blair are seen sharing a joke in front of the White House.

The video continues a recent pattern in al-Qa'ida propaganda, of calling attention to Abu Qatada, who for the time being is being kept out of circulation by his British hosts. Abu Qatada is the most senior al-Qa'ida member in the UK. AQ regards him as a cleric. One of the URL's of AQ's main online library is named for him. In the past, Abu Qatada has been AQ's go-to guy when they want religious authorization for mass murders in Europe, such as the Madrid train bombings.

Shabaab endorsing Bin Ladin

CBS News describes a recent Shabaab video in which they make obeisances to Usama Bin Ladin.


As-Sahab logo on this one. 48:33 in length. English subtitles for the voices using Arabic or Somali, and Arabic subtitles in some other portions. No Somali subtitles. It contains a variety of preexisting propaganda and TV video plus its own TV-style decorations. "An Eid present", they call it.

No doubt, one of the aims of this video is to attract sponsorship (weapons, money, travel documents, and publicity) from the same Arabs who support the other al-Qa'ida franchises, several of which they salute in this video. But there is also quite a bit of footage of young guys training. So, recruitment from outside Somalia is another motive of Shabaab's on this occasion.

The video makes no mention of the recent killing of Saleh Nabhan in Somalia, or any subsequent events.

Bekkay Harrach video of September 2009

It's on YouTube, among other places.

حراش البكاي
Harrach al-Bekai

أبي طلحة الألماني
Abu Talha al-Almani

Bekkay Harrach alias Abu Talha the German grew up in Bonn, the capital of West Germany before the reunification of the country.

Although German forces played a part in the highly publicized air strike of 4 September which killed about 60 armed Taliban and 30 unarmed collaborators, Harrach does not mention that incident. Thus the video seems to have been made earlier than that date.

In 2007 a Lebanese gem merchant "Aleem N" was sentenced in Germany to 8 years imprisonment for his actions in support of al-Qa'ida. Aleem N was the guy who introduced Bekkay Harrach to the Islamic Jihad Union, a Turkish-European franchise of al-Qa'ida, in Pakistan. Aleem was convicted largely on the testimony against him by his son, who is a member of the German armed forces. This may be part of the reason why the German army is on Harrach's mind, assuming that the contents of the new video were up to Harrach at all.

IJU is not mentioned in this video. Instead there is a rather self-conscious introduction "al-Qa'ida presents" and a "promise from al-Qa'ida". The logo of Fajr (not as-Sahab) is attached. Fajr has been in conflict with the GIMF propaganda computer people lately, claiming that some GIMF personnel have been captured in Egypt and their stuff is no longer to be trusted.

It would be nice to know why Harrach goes out of his way to say that the city of Kiel will not be attacked. The only theory that I have is that he wants the security of that city to be relaxed.

In this video, the original background has been digitally removed and replaced with a still photograph.

Update: There is now an audio from Harrach as well, as-Sahab rather than al-Fajr this time, mocked up as a video with an old photo of a masked Harrach. It is more religious in nature than his other material or than terrorist propaganda in general. There is no indication that it is recent, and its release was presumably timed merely to try to influence the upcoming German election.

Update 2009.09.25: Another piece of the same (IMO insignificant) kind of material appeared today. YouTube will soon have a dozen copies of it, I'm sure.

A Turk in Stuttgart has been arrested after he uploaded the second of Harrach's recent pieces:

CNN in English.
Der Spiegel in German.

Jakarta, 17 September 2009

Update:

Massari of Londonistan trying to get back in business

Muhammad al-Massari lives in London with the status of a political refugee. Under British government protection he has run pro-terrorism web forums with various names over the years, most recently Midaad as-Siyuf (Ink of Swords, i.e. blood). He's back now, reusing his old Tajdeed trademark. Midaad went down not long after a conflict broke out between Massari on one side, and al-Qa'ida cleric Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi and his Londonistani sycophant Hani al-Siba'i on the other.

Maqdisi versus Massari

Hani al-Siba'i clashing with Muhammad al-Massari

Maqdisi sides with al-Siba'i; al-Massari backs down

Now Massari on his newest forum has taken the title "Imam" and has written some excuses about why the previous forum went down. In particular, he's claiming that the dispute had taken a profane and abusive tone "unworthy of a Muslim, let alone a mujahid" (my translation, from his Arabic). He makes obeisances to Maqdisi and Siba'i, and I think lately he has been flattering the Egyptian side of al-Qa'ida a little, presumably to ingratiate himself with Siba'i, who is a publicity hub of al-Qa'ida's Egyptian component.

Update:
Massari has numerous YouTube accounts, whereby he is busily uploading pro-terrorism propaganda videos. His terrorist forum is not getting much traffic, but he's using it to publicize and distribute some of his previous writings which endorse suicide bombings, indiscriminate mass homicide of noncombatants, and everything about his fellow Saudi Usama Bin Ladin.

Pakistan arrests a curious group of Swedish and Turkish nationals

Associated Press via Fox News.

Much of the web presence of al-Qa'ida and affiliated Sunni groups is run from Turkey, with assistants in Germany, Sweden, and the UK.

Update: A Swedish paper, Aftonbladet, says the ex-Guantanamo Swede Mehdi-Mohammed Ghezali had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia. They quote an anti-Guantanamo pressure group who in turn quote the guy's father in Sweden.

Update: The story broke when some official in Pakistan gave AP a list of the names of those arrested. It turns out that they were picked up "last week at a checkpoint in the southern town of Dera Ghazi Khan" according to the Pakistani news website The Nation.

Update: Sweden confirms 3 nationals held in Pakistan from Dawn News.

Update: All the big news organs now have this story. Mehdi-Mohammed Ghezali is indeed one of those arrested.

Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and the UK

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is the head of a pseudo-charity in Libya, called the Gaddafi Development Foundation, which says it is mediating a "reconciliation" between Tripoli and more than 1000 members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who are now in Libyan prisons. After publicly recanting and foreswearing violence, they will be let out of prison. The story is being covered by two Arab newspapers in London (Ash-Sharq al-Awsat and al-Quds al-Arabi), whose reports are corroborated by one of the most senior al-Qa'ida mouthpieces in Londonistan. The UK is currently harbouring at least nine LIGF members:

GHUMA ABD’RABBAH, Birmingham
ABDULBASIT ABDULRAHIM, London and Birmingham
ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-FAQIH, Birmingham
FARAJ FARAJ HUSSEIN AL-SA’IDI, possibly Manchester
MAFTAH MOHAMED ELMABRUK, London
MOHAMMED BENHAMMEDI, Midlands somewhere
ABDELRAZAG ELSHARIF ELOSTA, London
ABDULBAQI MOHAMMED KHALED, Birmingham
TAHIR NASUF, Manchester

Those nine are all under worldwide embargo by the UN Security Council as known affiliates of al-Qa'ida. Without a doubt, Saif al-Islam has already told Brown and company what he wants done about those guys, and they will do their best to fulfill his wishes. Specifically, my guess is that Whitehall will start to play up the reconciliation and put on a show of regarding those guys as retroactively blameless.

Faraj al-Sa'idi has been convicted and sentenced in Italy. It is possible that he is the "AF" whom the UK recently released even while they conceal his identity from their own people. The release could well be part of London's secret arrangements with Tripoli.

At least two top-rung al-Qa'ida bosses are ex-LIFG: Abu Yahya al-Libi (Hassan Qaid) and Atiya Abdur-Rahman. Those people won't approve of the UK's collaboration with the Libyan regime on behalf of BP.

Update: I cannot yet definitely identify "AF". The UNSC Committee 1267 says this about Sa'idi:

Name: 1: FARAJ 2: FARAJ 3: HUSSEIN 4: AL-SA’IDI
Name (original script):
فرج فرج حسين السعيدي
Title: na Designation: na
DOB: 28 Nov. 1980 POB: a) Libyan Arab Jamahiriya b) Gaza c) Jordan d) Palestine
Good quality a.k.a.:
a) Mohamed Abdulla Imad, born in Gaza
b) Muhamad Abdullah Imad, born in Jordan
c) Imad Mouhamed Abdellah, born in Palestine
d) Faraj Farj Hassan Al Saadi
Low quality a.k.a.:
a) Hamza Al Libi
b) Abdallah Abd al-Rahim
Nationality: Libyan
Passport no.: na National identification no.: na
Address:
a) Leicester, United Kingdom, (as at Jan. 2009)
b) Viale Bligny 42, Milan, Italy, (under a.k.a. Imad Mouhamed Abdellah)
Listed on: 12 Nov. 2003 (amended on 31 Jul. 2006, 21 Dec. 2007, 11 Aug. 2008, 30 Jan.
2009, 13 Feb. 2009)
Other information: Sentenced to five years of imprisonment by the Court of first instance of Milan on 18 Dec. 2006. Sentenced in absentia to five years and ten months of imprisonment for membership of a terrorist association by the Appeal Court of Milan, Italy, on 7 Feb. 2008. Resident in the United Kingdom as at Jan. 2009 (since Mar. 2002).

An al-Qa'ida member comes in from the cold

I don't know anything about Fawwaz al-Otaibi who was wanted by KSA since February and who, some time between then and now, returned to KSA to surrender. But I'm curious about where he was immediately before he packed it in. Riyadh isn't saying. The February hotsheet, naming 83 Saudis and 2 Yemenis, says that al-Otaibi's last known location was in Iran. That could mean that he had entered Iran openly, at a border station or airport. But was he en route to some other place, such as Pakistan? If anybody knows, get in touch please.