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| Terror Networks |
| Ayman still in touch with al-Qaeda PR wing |
| 2006-02-03 |
| Ayman al-Zawahri's ability to produce a video-taped message soon after escaping a US air strike suggests he is in close touch with al-Qaeda's propaganda arm, a US counter-terrorism official said on Monday. The official noted that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden used audiotape to communicate his own latest message earlier this month, while Zawahri was able to quickly disseminate a videotape of himself. "That would suggest that Bin Laden is in a more isolated location," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Zawahri videotape was aired by al-Jazeera television on Monday less than three weeks after a January 13 air strike in Pakistan that was directed at Zawahri but killed 18 other people. Pakistani officials have said four or five foreign militants, including several top al-Qaeda figures, were believed killed in the attack, but have produced no hard evidence of it. "At this point it's still unclear who may or may not have been killed," the counter-terrorism official said. Zawahri referred in his message to the air attack on the village of Damadola, saying it was carried out "under the pretext of wanting to kill me and my four companions." "The entire world has discovered the extent of American lies," he said. Communications from top al-Qaeda leaders like Zawahri and bin Laden are dated by references they make to real world events such as the air strike. Past messages have often contained allusions to events that were months, if not years in the past, leaving the impression that al-Qaeda's leaders were hiding in remote, inaccessible areas. However, the counter-terrorism official said it was no surprise that, having survived the air strike, Zawahri would try to get his message out as quickly as possible. "Part of it is an effort to assure the al-Qaeda rank and file that he is alive, but one cannot and should not minimize the propaganda aspect to this," the official said. The Zawahri message seeks in part to tap into the public anger aroused in Pakistan over the air strike. "What it also shows is that he is still fairly well plugged into the al-Qaeda propaganda apparatus," the official said. "It demonstrates that the al-Qaeda propaganda effort is still functioning, given the fact that he was able to produce a video and disseminate it in short order," he said. Zawahri has issued at least seven public statements over the past year, making him the public face of al-Qaeda, the official said. Bin Laden, on the other hand, had been silent for the more than a year before his latest audiotape surfaced on January 19. In it, Bin Laden threatened new attacks on the United States, but also offered a truce. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 ... al-Qaeda's propaganda arm ... That would be the New York Times. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2006-02-03 18:53 |