There is likely much of the empty boast to this, but no doubt the Taliban hasn't given up. From AP:
CAIRO, Egypt - In a videotape made public ahead of the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden's chief deputy claimed Thursday the United States was on the brink of defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan.With an assault rifle leaning on the wall behind him, Ayman al-Zawahri said, "The defeat of America in Iraq and Afghanistan has become a matter of time, with God's help. ...The Americans in both countries are between two fires, if they continue they bleed to death and if they withdrew they loose everything."
The videotape was broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, which said it received the tape exclusively. It was not immediately clear how Al-Jazeera got the video, but the network said it was obtained Thursday.
I thought he might wait till a little closer to Nov. 2/04 before releasing that tape...
Moose
Al Jazeera, as political arm and mouthpiece of Al
Quaeda would get 'exclusive rights'.Probably one of their cameramen was there to help with the video. In fact, would say they are in DIRECT CONTACT with Osama B and Taleban. See Canada is
clearing Al Jazeera to beam its Jidahist poison into every living room. Nice one Dhimmi Canada!!
Al Jazzera is always right there to get exclusive video, I was in contact for awhile with a senior editor for the network. Talked just like a terrorist, not the bias you would expect from a journalist. The most laughable thing he said was that all the individuals that the US claimed were the 9/11 terrorists were in fact alive and well and that Isreal was responsible, ya know the same old bullshit.
We also got into a discussion about the Iraq/Iran war and he claimed that Iran gassed their own troops and the kurds, not Saddam, and claimed to have proof.
Bud
A recent book by Carmine bin Laden makes clear that the family, far from being horrified by their famous scion, is quite proud of Bin Laden, who from an early age expressed his disapproval of all things judged to be un-Islamic. And the Bin Ladens are possibly, outside of the pillaging princelings of the House of al-Saud, possibly the most solvent family in all of Saudi Arabia. He, Bin Laden, was no marginal figure.
And this brings one to Ayman Al-Zawahiri, mentioned in the article above. While it has been revealed in various posts here, no one has taken up, or repeated what was said. So here it is again. Ayman al-Zawahiri is the grand-nephew of Azzam Pasha, the Secretary-General of the Arab League, the same Secretary-General of the Arab League who, just as the five Arab armies attacked the nascent state of Israel, promised that it would be a "massacre" such as had not been seen since the time of the Mongols, and that the "booty" taken in this classic Jihad would be easily removed, once the Jews had been cast into the sea (for a lucid summary of what the Arabs at the time did, and said, see "Battleground" by Samuel Katz, pages 12-37). In other words, Ayman al-Zawahiri is Muslim Arab royalty (the reflected glory of one's relatives is a significant feature of Arab, and Muslim, life).
These are not marginal figures. They are from two of the most important dynasties -- political and economic -- in Arab life. And that dynastic aspect, from Tariq Ramadan heroically carrying on Da'wa in the same sinister spirit as Hassan al-Banna ("Islam must dominate and is not to be dominated"), the founder, in Egypt, of the murderous Muslim Brotherhood, to Moqtada al-Sadr, of a family of famous Shiite clergy -- the last, and least, of the line -- that Gertrude Bell managed to note in her letters from Baghdad, back in the 1920s.
So little in the Arab Muslim world changes. What has changed is the presence of money from oil, the technology to spread Islam with its "full message" of Jihad and hatred of Infidels and, of course, the colossal folly of permitting, without the slightest consideration of what this would inevitably mean for the lives and wellbeing of the indigenous Infidels, huge numbers of Muslims to move, unhindered and even welcomed, to the Bilad al-kufr, the Lands of the Infidels, where they arrive not as grateful refugees, but as people who, from Ramadan, to Jajah in Belgium, to the German imam who, at the opening of the Grenada mosque, called for the destruction of the Infidel economies of Europe, see Europe as, by right, the lands to which the people of Allah, and only they, are entitled -- and all that is there is booty, it belongs to them for the righteous taking.
No one is being asked to join the Resistance in France in 1942. No one is being asked to be a hero. But one owes it to oneself, to other Infidels, to one's children, to at least fully inform oneself about Islam, its central tenets, and about the treatment of non-Muslims under Islamic rule, during the past 1350 years. That is an act of study, not of bravely being a courier, or hiding British airmen, or blowing up the oilfields of Rumania, or any such feat of derring-do.
This is the only feat of derring-do you are being asked to perform: study, study, study. Not all night, not all day. But enough so that you understand what Islam is all about, so that you cannot be fooled in conversation, and so that you may, through letters, through discussions, trhough phoning in to those PBS talk shows run by Lord Haw Haws and Tokyo Roses, get the truth through.
What should this duty be called? Let us say: the Duty of Due Diligence. We are being asked to accept a "merger" of our civilization with that of Islam, without knowing very mucy about Islam. And that "merger" is supposedly to take place through the unhindered, and supposedly irreversible, movement of Muslims to the Lands of the Infidels. Well, Due Diligence demands that we study this matter very carefully.
Go ahead. Perform that Due Diligence. It is the minimum that can be asked of you.
Pakistan is helping out a bit, Naseem!
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/9/9/121234.shtml
They can film members of Bin Laden's group all they want. Sooner or later, the last thing that will show up on the tape is a Missile coming in....
This is nothing more than propaganda from Allah's Spelunkers in the Hindu Kush.
Al-Zawahri also claims that Coalition forces won't come out and fight when just the opposite is true. The Taliban, confronted by the superior firepower and training of the Coalition's professional soldiers, generally refuse to engage Coalition forces attempting to draw them out to fight. Being the cowards they are, they hide in their caves and wait for these forces to return to base, and then come out and assault lightly armed Afghan forces and defenseless civilians. They know better than to engage Coalition forces since it invariably leads to martyr-dumb.
Stay tuned for more Baghdad Bob-style propaganda from our friendly neighborhood trolls...
BTW, Hugh's advice should be heeded by all. Knowledge, after all, is power.
HUGH
Great Post! If only we had taken notice of what Gertrude Bell and others had said instead of ignoring their wisdom. Now, somehow, we are going
to have to deal with this mess before Islam either
kills or subjugates us all.
Pakistan only did this to try and convince the Russians not to attack.
For how long has Pakistan been saying they do not have terrorist bases in Pakistan?
Now they suddenly hit a training camp that had Arabs, Chechins, and Uzbeks just days after Russia says we will hit anywhere. TOO Shocking!
Pakistan is now going to be getting real serious, because Russia is Indias buddy. I now believe we might see Pakistan turn over Osama, soon.
I suspect that there is going to be a lot of nightime Russian "wet" work in the hills of Waziristan. Unlike the Americans, the Russians have plenty of folks in their ranks who can pass as natives in the region. Just think what wonders Russian HUMINT combined with US Predators and AC130 Spectres can do. The Russians still have a lot of scores to settle with the Mujahideen who faced them in Afghanistan.
Looking forward to it, HK. I suspect there won't be much PC hand-wringing over it, either.
Hugh, I understand what you are saying.
Down here in Oz, Emeritus Professor of Sociology Jerzy Zubrzycki has used all his wisdom to put together our multicultural policy. Hordes of Muslims have arrived here and in spite of their insistance on having a Muslim in state parliament, the crimes attributed to them, their unwillingness to fit in and assimilate we are told that they will enrichen the tapestry of the Australian way of life.
Urged on by our social engineers and the stentorian voices of the media Bolshie chorus we (the ones who pay the bills) have forborne from taking unpleasant civil action.
Those who designed this catastrophe have slipped off into retirement with a sackful of money and left their mess for others to clean up.
I should point out the J Zubrzycki had no runs on the board before he was allowed to design such a critical thing as our makeup. We don't get a refund if it doesn't work out.
Your grandchildren will look nice in muslin.
Some time ago, in a moment of mental clarity, I was struck with the notion that jihad was more than a religious effort to overcome the West. That was before I began my study to learn about this lethal concept.
Who would be interested in creating an Islamic empire? Certain all Muslims will benefit but certain Muslims are more likely to gain the greatest benefit.
Oil has brought Muslim petrobillionaires to the pinnacle of wealth, now they seek the another heady substance: power. Muslims believe themselves to be worthy of dominance because, in their minds they are superior to the rest of us. Generally, wealthy people all over the world hold the same attitude. Those that are both rich and Muslim are the most dangerous.
"Gatsby" said, "The rich are different from the rest of us. He wouldn't be at all surprised by the cavalier attitude of these Islamic potentates.
If the US loses Afghanistan, it will be the result of a political decision in D.C., and not because of the military on the ground.
The islamists can be credited with determination for their cause -- they willingly die rather than compromise.
In contrast, the politicians in the West, think they are going to make some kind of deal with these people and "win the peace." They are dead wrong!!!!
It is nutty! There will be no peace until either all the islamics are KIA, or the Western politicians are neutralized by the islamists.
I really don't think the people running D.C. and Europe completely understand what they are dealing with here. Either they are in a PC denial of reality; or stupid. I don't believe the latter.
In any case, the military can take care of business if the politicians let them do the job.
If they don't, then Reza will have the last say in the end, and the statement about Afghanistan will become reality.
Let's not allow that to happen!
We now know who Reza really is! This sounds exactly like him!
The airing of this video by Arab media just shows that they are in support of the terrorist MONSTERS AND YOU’ALL KNOW WHAT I THINK OF SUPPORTERS OF TERRORIST KILL THEM TOO! If all this crap that they are sorry is true why are they airing the ISLAMIC TERRORIST MONSTERS TO KILL MORE PEOPLE SHOWS ME THAT THEY ARE IN support of Islamic terrorist monsters and must be taken out too! Simple the pack’s are worried about the reach of Russia who are not PC and I don’t mean computer’s!!!
Words mean nothing if not followed by deeds? We saw that in Clinton [I did not have sex whit that woman] and then here comes the blue dress? Sorry KJ but you know me a redneck?
Part of the American Tribe
Squirrel Hunter
Spider Killer
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces and ALL who Fight with her give them Strength,Wisdom and Courage to stay the course to Defeat islamic terrorist and Open the Eyes of the World to see the Threat Amen
Does the term "whistling past the graveyard" sound familiar?? The cowardly terrorist leaders, who are mostly rich bastard spineless cockroaches, should perhaps get a real 9-5 job and contribute to society. They obviously have lots of time on their hands with their only purpose being to kill innocents in the name of Mr. Invisible Man "Allah"; however; in the end, good will triumph over evil. The civilized world is holding back on the full force of its, military might, so as not to harm innocents; however, a few more of your ungodly attrocities, and we may have to resort to the "N" word...."nukes", albeit, low-yield, at first! These pitiful terrorist worms will eventually incur the wrath of the majority of clear and forward thinking individuals all over the planet. Wake up, terrorists: Globalization of our interwoven economies and equal rights for women is a movement that is unstoppable. In the meantime, maybe you'd better stop trying to plunge the world into an ancient Islamic 7th century mindset. You people have NOTHING to offer anyone for the good and benefit of mankind. Step aside.
Well, Mr. al-Zawahri, we're -- Americans -- here and it will be a cold day in hell before we leave here with unfinished business. We're going to hunt you and your bud down and you will be TAKEN -- Dead or Alive.
This is a promise.
In Christ,