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Terror Networks
Al-Zawahiri refers to Iraq in audio message
2006-01-21
Just a day after Osama bin Laden resurfaced in a lengthy audiotape, a new recording by his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, appeared today, praising the "martyrs of holy war" in Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories and elsewhere.

The Central Intelligence Agency confirmed today that the voice on the 18-minute audiotape, posted on an Internet forum that has carried Al Qaeda communiqués before, was Mr. Zawahiri's.

He read a poem honoring the "martyrs of jihad," or holy war, and dedicated it to "Muslim brothers everywhere, to the mujahedeen brothers in Islam's fortified borderlines against the Zionist-Crusader campaign in Palestine and Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya and to the lions chasing the crusaders' gangs and hired hands in Afghanistan's mountains and valleys and its wounded capital, Kabul."

"I am honored to present this mujahedeen poem, written by Maulai Muhibbulla al-Qandahari, who carried the pen and the sword and was known in the circles of scholars and the training camps and the battlefields of jihad," he said.
Posted by:Dan Darling

#7  cool Doc - did not know that...
Posted by: Frank G   2006-01-21 15:30  

#6  Regarding the French resistance and WW2, another bit of trivia is that BBC broadcasts had as prelude, the signature notes of Beethoven's Fifth - ironic to be sure that a German composer would be heard on British radio. But looking further, the dot dot dot dash cadence had other significance in Morse - the Letter "V" ... for Victory. Quoting Paul Harvey - "And now you know the rest of the story.
Posted by: doc   2006-01-21 15:00  

#5  eltoroverde, one thing I fear more than anything else, it is what a wounded and desperate animal might do when confronted with the inescapability of it's demise

I agree with you. One thing that I think is too often underestimated is their collective desire to "bring it on" for devout religious reasons.
Posted by: 2b   2006-01-21 11:00  

#4  I think it's not an accident that during the second world war, in 1944, the code message sent by the French service of the BBC to the resistance movement in France to warn them of the Normandy [D-Day] landings [of Allied troops] was two of the famous lines of [French poet Paul] Verlaine. 'The long sobs of autumn's violins wound my heart with a monotonous languor,'" de Villepin said.

just saving others the google time :-)
Posted by: 2b   2006-01-21 10:55  

#3  What concerns me about the latest OBL tape is that it is part of muslim military custom, going back to the days of Saladin, to offer a truce before striking the enemy. Taking this into account, along with this latest audio tape of "poems" from Al-Zawahiri (a possible 'go time' signal for cells to implement their missions), tells me that something is in the works for AQ. This concerns me.

That said, once a conflict has begun, one only asks for a truce when they are losing, not when they are winning.

So the most troubling thing about all of this is the fact that we are winning the war against AQ, and we are winning big. They are but a speck of the force they were back on 9/11/01. They've been beaten down hard and their capabilities significantly diminished. They are a wounded and desperate animal on the verge of death. And if there is one thing I fear more than anything else, it is what a wounded and desperate animal might do when confronted with the inescapability of it's demise.
Posted by: eltoroverde   2006-01-21 10:43  

#2  ...I remember another poem, read over the BBC one night in early June, 1944:

The long sobs of autumn's violins wound my heart with a monotonous languor.

Zawahiri reading poetry CANNOT be a good thing.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2006-01-21 10:06  

#1  Nothing in this tape suggests when it was made so Zawhiri's Death is still in play. It is possible that the appearance of these two tapes is a signal to other merry bands of thugs to perform their appointed tasks.
Posted by: doc   2006-01-21 09:51  

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