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In "...as al-Zawahiri Tries to Boost Jihadi Morale" at Global Terrorism Analysis, Stephen Ulph lays out evidence that Zawahri is trying to combat low spirits among his troops. The archterrorist also has a few harsh words for Muslims who are not aiding the jihad.
An extended audio statement from Ayman al-Zawahiri, believed to have been made in mid-September, was posted on December 9 on the al-Safinat jihadi forum (http://202.71.102.108/~alsafnat/vb). Under the rubric "Four years on since the attacks on New York and Washington," and dated Sha'ban 1426 (September 2005), the 48-minute tape was produced by al-Sahab Media Productions, an organization that has come to be known as al-Qaeda's video production company. The statement is worth examining in detail since, amid the rhetoric of denunciation and challenge, it reveals much about the present state of morale within the al-Qaeda organization.The presentation, entitled Mu'awwiqat al-Jihad (Obstacles to Jihad), is provided with English subtitles and is hence intended for the widest possible circulation. It starts off in a buoyant tone: "I wish to speak to you about the victory that, with Allah's permission, is imminent; for a simple reason, that the key to victory is in our hands." Subsequently, however, the tone shifts, indicating some exasperation at the lack of the "final push" required to ensure the success of the jihad, outlining that "the primary cause of defeat is in ourselves." As if to counter a mood of despondency, al-Zawahiri underlines how the jihad has already achieved successes. In Iraq, he maintains, the resistance "stabs America every day and makes it scream and search feverishly for a way out of its predicament there." And in Israel, "were it not for the mujahideen's confrontation of Israel and its agents (our rulers) Israel would have now expanded to many times its current size." The mujahideen have also, he asserts, effectively defended Islam from the "puppet rulers," under whom "the corruption would have worsened and they would have sought to eradicate Islam."...
For all the bullish talk of triumph, the message of al-Zawahiri's address appears equally crafted as a last-minute appeal for support to help prevent the defeat of the mujahideen. "The key to victory is in our hands," he states, "and in turn, the primary cause of defeat is in ourselves." This part of the message is particularly noteworthy, in that the reproach and call for jihad contradict the image of success he maintains the jihad has already achieved. Al-Zawahiri gives his diagnosis for the problems besetting the jihad: "The first battle we must win is our battle with ourselves, our battle with out weakness and helplessness and clinging to the earth; our preference for small gains." He then goes on to encourage the mujahideen by belittling the enemy as having little else but technology on their side, and "driven only by fear and desire; in the field they don't make a stand in any honest encounter." At root of the problem of the lack of victory is Muslims' "fear and ignorance of fighting" and their "submission to [the regimes'] terrorism and intimidation." Al-Zawahiri then develops this theme on the disastrous passivity of the Muslims; taking the example of the assassination of Anwar al-Sadat by Khalid al-Islambouli, he notes how everyone subsequently abandoned them to their fate and contented themselves with "passive praise." Another example is Saudi Arabia, where Muslims who called for reform were "left to fight alone" and (in a probable reference to the penitent Saudi jihadi shaykhs) "some callers to reform relapsed and turned around to stab their brothers, the Mujahideen, in their backs."
Al-Zawahiri appears genuinely exasperated at the lack of enthusiasm in the Muslim community for the rigors of jihad and the ability of the broader community to content itself with the war of words. He scoffs, from his position out there on the front line in the hills, at the armchair commentators. "If each one of us wants to turn into a debater, analyst, and specialist who dresses in elegant clothes, attends seminars and appears on screen, then returns to his house safe from the tyranny of the Crusaders and their agents, then there is no hope for deliverance."...
Posted by Robert at December 16, 2005 5:43 PM
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Joshua E. London gets it. See "Americas Earliest Terrorists" at http://nationalreview.com/comment/london200512160955.asp
Posted by: Stendec![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 16, 2005 6:51 PM
I read a book called "The Pirate Coast", it's the same story, except it ended basically with appeasement(Pragmatism).
Posted by: kentim at December 16, 2005 7:12 PM
"the primary cause of defeat is in ourselves."
Did I read that right??????
I've got used to it being the Zionists, crusader pigs, CIA, Imperialists, aliens, etc who are to blame.
opps, did I say aliens? Think I was getting a bit carried away there but I seriously hear the rest blamed all the time, not just in broken english from a store owner but from pHd moslems too.
It is funny how these "fighters" always see it as jihad and the enemy don't.
I am reminded of the recend attempted genocide against the Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh (usual stuff, aim for civilians, rape, saw of heads, desecrate churches, kill own civilians and invite the media to see how bad armenians are, etc) was seen as a jihad by the fighters.
The Armenians saw it as a necessary war to stay alive and live peacefully in their homes.
I am further reminded of a canadian friend trying not to be mistaken for an american when we met an iraqi by saying how much he hates bush.
The iragi said how much he loved bush and couldn't wait for freedom. I think most of these passive moslems decried in the speech just want to live in peace and get on with their lives.
I think the same which is why the more these freaks kill the more I will support the expulsion of islam from my country(or move to austalia as my bet is they will do it first)
(PS has anyone noted the irony how aussies train their young to volunteer to save lives and moslems want to have old men to patrol to stop their young raping and pilliging as they have been (I guess) trained to do by Islam. Now if they will listen to old men on the beach one presumes they have been listening all this time so these old men, logically, have been saying the girls deserve to be raped, property needs to be destroyed in retaliation, join the global jihad to save our iraqi brothers from democracy, etc, etc)
at December 16, 2005 7:22 PM
I wonder what the comment from the Democrats that desire to run now is to Zawahiri's plea to stave off defeat?
President Bush turn up the heat and make the push.
Posted by: Theway2k at December 16, 2005 7:38 PM
"I think most of these passive moslems decried in the speech just want to live in peace and get on with their lives."
I believe that this is the real reason we invaded Iraq. To create a stable, peaceful, prosperous, democracy in which moderation could flourish, thus providing an example for the rest of the Muslim world. We're doing that in Afghanistan as well, but without the prosperous aspect since that country does not have an economy (other than the poppies).
Posted by: Big G In TX at December 16, 2005 8:36 PM
Sounds like al-Zawahiri was in Multi-Level Marketing once upon a time. Funny he should say that "they don't make a stand in any honest encounter" when his troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and everywhere else around the world will not mount offensives against American military targets in a one on one attack because they know the US military will respond with greater force, and are reduced to targeting civilian targets with suicide bombers and IED's instead.
Posted by: Bohemond_1069 at December 16, 2005 9:32 PM
He then goes on to encourage the mujahideen by belittling the enemy as having little else but technology on their side....
This is good to hear, you can only take so much physical punishment before reality sets in and your delusions start to crumble. We need to advance our offensives, in particular Iran. By destroying Iran we will deliver a crippling blow to the organisational capacity and moral of the Jihadis. After this we then need to clean house across europe, shut down the mosques and give all muzzies a oneway ticket to the Islamic hell hole of their choice.
at December 16, 2005 9:36 PM
it seems that Zawahri and Dr.Dean of Dems have the same talking points...both bad losers...
Posted by: Lulu at December 16, 2005 10:24 PM
"He sounds like a coach who has a losing team and knows it but won't accept the reality of it."
I wouldn't be so optimistic. Zawahiri knows that he has another team among us working for him and scuttling our efforts.
Our own society stinks to heaven of PC, multiculturalism and apology of Islam, so even the pentagon report you mention ends on a cautious tone. Note the last sentence of it.
The fight is going to be long with so many quislings among us.
Posted by: rocky at December 16, 2005 11:29 PM
---The first battle we must win is our battle with ourselves, our battle with out weakness and helplessness and clinging to the earth; our preference for small gains." ---
When Muslims explain the 'greater Jihad' or indeed 'jihad' as internal struggle, the above is exactly what they mean.
This describes the 'greater jihad' in a nutshell.
Internal jihad is overcoming the dislike of war, nothing more, nothing less.
Posted by: Silvester at December 17, 2005 12:05 AM
I read somewhere that this animal was captured and released....if it's true then that's a damn shame.
Posted by: leviticus at December 17, 2005 12:17 AM
I wouldn't be so optimistic. Zawahiri knows that he has another team among us working for him and scuttling our efforts.
Our own society stinks to heaven of PC, multiculturalism and apology of Islam, so even the pentagon report you mention ends on a cautious tone. Note the last sentence of it.
The fight is going to be long with so many quislings among us.
Posted by: rocky at December 16, 2005 11:29 PM
I couldn’t of put it better myself, in terms of warfare, nothing like this has occurred before, previously struggles of this magnitude met a fairly solid military response and coherent nation state i.e. WWII.
Now the enemy is amongst us right now, anyone who has ever seen the destruction brought by Islamified neighborhoods and the insidious way it maneuvers its self to dominate local politics knows the danger we are in.
The thing I find most amazing is the indigenous enablers that insist on helping them reach their goals. ‘Oh they will eventually contribute to society, we owe them a chance, Islam is niiiice &&&& peaceful blah blah blah’. Well the chance is up in my book
We need to be as vocal as possible about how we deal with this threat and from what I see on the available evidence unless, we drive Islam from Europe we are doomed, this generational war is going to last 100 years unless we stop it now. Better 50million dead than 1 billion.
The question is what is the likely trigger that will cause Europe to actually stand up and deal with the Islamic threat, I just hope this cataclysmic trigger is sooner rather than later.
Would anyone care to make a prediction about what could be the cause for the great showdown? My personal predictions are as follows.
Israel launches pre-emptive attacks :
Consequence: Israel can maintain attacks for 24-48hours using conventional aircraft and conventional missile technology, after which Israel its self starts to take heavy casualties, e.g. a successful missile campaign.
This will force the US/UK/Aus to retaliate; we then enter into a war of attrition with the principle lines drawn across the Iraq. To kill 25million with conventional weaponry is going to require months of dedicated effort.
Major terrorists attack in London or Paris:
http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/AOL/world/national/2005/12/15/20051214-frenchterrorism.html
The ethnic Europeans start dishing out violent responses on Mosques, and anything associated with Islam. Remember this is going to be Mob violence mostly, so you are going to see a Balkanizing of the urban areas the muzzies have already established control over. It isn’t so easy to wipe out 100,000 people concentrated in an urban area in Western Europe before the quislings step in. Then the politics will start and then they have the biological advantage and will outbreed and colonize the continent, this leaves Islam access to Western technology and the consequences of that are too dire.
at December 17, 2005 12:46 AM
Although Al-Zawahiri has captured our imagination of late, it would be well to remember that he is only one officer in the "terror corps." There are thousands of such units, many of which are guised as peaceful enterprises, all working toward the same goal: the triumphalism of Islam.
Posted by: epg at December 17, 2005 8:53 AM
"The archterrorist also has a few harsh words for Muslims who are not aiding the jihad."
Yes, and not even a "thank-you" to the many troops who could have planted a .223 between his shifty eyes but chose to follow orders and didn't; no kind words for the troops who obeyed orders and let him go when he was captured?
Gracious sakes -- what is the world coming to?
at December 17, 2005 9:21 AM
"The thing I find most amazing is the indigenous enablers that insist on helping them reach their go" posted by km
Two motivators: FEAR (e.g., Stephan Gaghan, as a recent example), and GREED (georgy galloway is the perennial poster child)
If it comes to a "shooting war" as you suggest, I don't think the "useful idiots" will have much utility, for either side.
Posted by: Infidel33 at December 17, 2005 12:29 PM
RE: In Iraq, he maintains, the resistance "stabs America every day and makes it scream and search feverishly for a way out of its predicament there."
He is desperate because of the thousands of high level al Qaeda people that have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
al Qaeda is also being decimated by the intelligence that we also capture.
Morale is low in al Qaeda because while there may be thousands on minions, the leadership is harder to restructure.
In addition to the War, the CIA has been nabbing them in other countries also, it just isn't made public.
So Pres Bush's strategy of taking the fight to the enemy seems to be working.
Rest assured that bin Laden is dead, nothing is ever mentioned about the "hunt for bin Laden
anymore.
Read "The Shadow War" by Richard Miniter > get the "real" nitty gritty as to what is going on!!
Posted by: learjet0450 at December 17, 2005 6:46 PM
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