Hussein bin Mahmoud

حسين بن محمود
Hussein bin Mahmoud

I don't know his real name, but that is the name he uses on restricted terrorist forums and in terrorism-friendly internet rooms like the one operated by al-Jazeera.
His rank in AQ, at least among those members who appear regularly on the internet, is definitely quite near the top. He could one of al-Qa'ida's financiers, possibly

ياسين عبد الله عز الدين قاضي
Yasin Abdullah Izzuddin Qadi (or al-Qadi)
Jiddah, Saudi Arabia

or, less likely in my opinion,

وائل حمزة عبد الفتح جليدان
Wa'il Hamza Abdul-Fatah Julaidan
Madina, Saudi Arabia and Sana'a, Yemen

He is one of the sixteen "writer"-level members of the senior (but declining) al-Qa'ida forum called Hesbah, where his username is "rooooh50". He even has his own logo:



Today, 2008.10.31, he uploaded a message addressed to Usama Bin Ladin. He says his 7-year-old daughter "wants to see her uncle Usama". The rest of the letter is equally sentimental.

Hussein bin Mahmoud has some sort of education, can read English, and seems to have freedom of movement and information. He has written several commentaries on material that he has read from the American RAND Corporation.

Al Qa'ida wannabes in Gaza

Since they wiped out Fatah in the Gaza Strip last year, the only opposition that Hamas cannot easily eliminate comes from the warlord Mumtaz Dughmush and his array of affiliated criminal gangs and militias in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City. Some of these anti-Hamas subsets have for months now been putting on a show of Salafism, in the hope of getting a supply of money and weapons from the same rich Arabs who bankroll al-Qa'ida. Their techniques include: aggrandizing Usama Bin Ladin, Abu Mus'ab az-Zarqawi, and the like; affecting prestigious tribal-sounding names; purporting to "refute" Hamas's policies by quoting select bits and pieces of the qur'aan -- in general just imitating al-Qa'ida and its clerics. One of the Sabra rabble-rousers who is playing the part of the cleric is a guy who goes by "Abu an-Nur al-Maqdisi" (after Bayt al-Maqdis, a Muslim name for Jerusalem).

On the Sunni terrorist websites, the flow of condemnations, threats, and oaths against Hamas has been pretty heavy and steady. Naturally some of that material is just hot air from nonparticipants, notably some so-called Palestinian refugees who have never even seen the Gaza Strip. But some of it is authentic enough.









Those are samples of the banners that accompany audio releases coming out of Gaza these days. The guy with the gray beard is Abu an-Nur. His people call themselves Salafi Jihad. They are not the same people as the more famous Jaish al-Islam, kidnappers of Alan Johnston, of whom about a dozen members were massacred by Hamas in mid-September.

Eid al-Fitr 2008 pep talk from Abu Yahya al-Libi

As in several of his previous videos, al-Qa'ida's best propagandist aggrandizes and incites "jihad" in a sermon more than half an hour long. The video was made outdoors during daytime, presumably somewhere in Pakistan. At al-Libi's feet is a group of what I presume are "mujahideen".

The religion-heavy speech is aimed in part at recruitment and fundraising, in view of the fact that he speaks in Arabic rather than in an Afghan or Pakistani language, and no interpreter is present.

Update: A transcript, in Arabic only, appeared today, 30 October.

Hani al-Siba'i on al-Jazeera, October 2008

While it lasts, al-Jazeera has al-Siba'i's latest performance on YouTube.

Audio from Abu Hamza al-Muhajir

Yusuf ad-Dardiri is his real name. Fugitive from Egypt, head of what remains of al-Qa'ida in Iraq.

43 minutes 53 seconds. Furqan Media production. It is a scripted "interview".

Dardiri threatens the UK, the USA, and Australia (in that order) at around the 39 minute point, and claims that his network was aware of the Glasgow airport bombing plot, which failed.

CBS Internet Terror Monitor has a bit about it.

Eric Breininger in another Badr at-Tawheed video

There is a copy here and some commentary at CBS News.
Badr at-Tawheed is the media name of the Islamic Jihad Union.
While in Waziristan, Breininger seems to have had the protection of the tribal chief and warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani of Miranshah, North Waziristan.
This new video was probably put together in Turkey or possibly Germany, where there are many speakers of Turkish. Breininger himself seems to have only German.

AQI statement on the death of Mohamed Moumou (Abu Qaswarah)

Via the Hesbah forum, a statement signed by the nonexistent Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. I have omitted the opening and closing formalities from the original.

نُعزي ونهنئ رجال دولة الإسلام, وخاصةً فرسان الشمال بشهادة عَلَم من أعلام الدولة, وبنَّاء ماهرٍ حريص من عُمَّارها, فقد ترجل الفارسُ العجيب والحبيبُ القريب ( أبو قسورة ) جوادَ العز ليمتطي جوادَ الكرامة.

ولئن كان رحيل أبي قسوة أميرِ الشمال مؤلماً وقاسياً فلقد فرحت له لأنه أدرك ما كان يرجو وإليه يسعى ويحبو أن يموت على هذا الدرب دربِ الجهاد وعقيدةِ التوحيد, غير مبدلٍ ولا مُغير ولا مُفرط. فرحتُ لأن الله أكرمه واختاره للشهادة وبين جنوده قائلاً لهم بأصدق لسان .. لسان الحال: ها أنا ذا أميركم أقاتل ثم أفجر حزامي الناسف دفاعاً عن ديني وتمسكاً بطريقي وعملاً بوصية أميري, فمن كان لنا محباً فليقبض على دينه وليحمل الراية ويتقدم الصف قائلاً ألا لا نامت عيون الجبناء.

يا ولياً يولي الأيادي سراً *** ووزيراً فليس يكسب وزرا

مـا رأيـنا والله في من رأينا *** لك مثـلاً من البرية قراً

مات أبو قسوة شهيداً -نحسبه والله حسيبه- بعد رحلةٍ طويلة على درب الجهاد بدأت من معسكرات أفغانستان, فلقد عرف الجميع طلحةَ المغربي مُحباً لصاحب العقيدة ولو كان بخيلاً جباناً, يكره فاسدها ولو كان كريماً شجاعاً.

رمى أبو قسورة جنسيته السويدية في سلة المهملات, و هي التي يلهث وراء بريق فتاتها الكثيرُ الكثير, ولم يركن إلى زوجة أوروبية وأولاد خمسة كالبدر جمالاً, إنما فارقهم وهو المحب العاشق لهم, فلم يعرفوا خبره ولم يرَ أولاده منذ ثلاث سنين ولكن بعد أن رحَّلهم إلى مكان يحسب أنهم يكونون أقرب إلى مولاهم منهم في ديار الكفر.

وكان دائماً واثقاً من حفظ الله لهم مُردداً قوله تعالى : (وَأَمَّا الْجِدَارُ فَكَانَ لِغُلَامَيْنِ يَتِيمَيْنِ فِي الْمَدِينَةِ وَكَانَ تَحْتَهُ كَنْزٌ لَهُمَا وَكَانَ أَبُوهُمَا صَالِحًا).

فهي إذاً العقيدة التي حمل همَّها, وقاتلَ لأجلها, وماتَ في سبيلها وتحت لوائها لواءِ لا إله الا الله محمد رسول الله.

فاثبتوا يا فرسانَ الشمال ورجالَ دولة الإسلام على ما مات عليه حبيبنا أبو قسورة, فعيبٌ على الفارس أن تفتنه زوجة حسناء أو ولد يبكي عند قدميه, قال الله تعالى : (يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنَّ مِنْ أَزْوَاجِكُمْ وَأَوْلادِكُمْ عَدُوّاً لَكُمْ فَاحْذَرُوهُمْ). مات أبو قسورة تاركاً وراءه إخوةً رجالاً يعرفون كيف يثأرون لدمه, فقد أحبهم وأحبوه, وأكرمهم وأكرموه, فحاشاهم أن يقعدوا خلفه أو يتركوا ثأره.

نم يا عبيد قريرة أجفانك

ماكنت يوماً كاذباً إخوانك

كنت النصوح لدينهم مشفاقا

فافرح بفوز قد أتتك جنانك

فمن كان للشهيد محباً, ولدربه سالكاً, ولقتله متألماً, فليصدق وليقتل قربة لمولاه وثأراً لأخيه ومن معه كافراً من الكفار سواءً أكان مرتداً أو كافراً محتلاً, وإن كنتُ أعلم أن صاحبكم كان يعشق دماء العملاء والخونة وعلى رأسهم الحزب الشيطاني. 

(يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا قَاتِلُوا الَّذِينَ يَلُونَكُمْ مِنَ الْكُفَّارِ وَلْيَجِدُوا فِيكُمْ غِلْظَةً وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الْمُتَّقِينَ).

والله غالبٌ على أمره ولكن أكثر الناس لا يعلمون



أخوكم أبو عمر القرشي البغدادي

Update: There is an audio version of the announcement, by the voice-actor who plays Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, mentioned here at CBS News.