Posted on 12/01/2007 9:11:38 AM PST by nuconvert
Future Jihad: How Bin Laden Outsmarts the US with al Qaeda Propaganda
Walid Phares
What is interesting about the latest audio message of Usama Bin Laden, carried by al Jazeera, is its delayed argument. Strangely he is trying to convince the Europeans - seven years later - that they are wrong to have followed the United States into Afghanistan. Why?
In his speech - irrespective of the ritual investigative questions regarding its location, technology and other details - the central issue appears to be his growing concern with the European role in Afghanistan, and perhaps because of it, the potential growth of that role in the fight against the forces of Jihadism worldwide. As a reader of the Jihadi strategic mind, I believe that the speech writers (Bin Laden himself or his “advisors”) are looking ahead in their evaluation of future European involvement in the so-called War on Terror, and are positioning al Qaeda to “own” it. The significance of this is, as al Qaeda’s war room has showed in the past, they are skilled at anticipating trends.
Don’t we remember how in February 2003, way before the US Marines brought down the Saddam statue in April, a Bin Laden audio tape called on the Jihad fighters to begin heading to Iraq, “for Baghdad, the second capital of the Caliphate would be falling into the hands of the Kuffar (infidels)”? In a sense, this is how I read this new Bin Laden tape: he is asking the Europeans to leave the battlefield of Afghanistan now, because he is projecting that events may push the nations of Europe to expand further their involvement overseas. The hidden message in his speech is by far greater than the words aired on al Jazeera, or even the entire text his followers are claiming the Qatari-funded channel “didn’t air.” We’ll come back later to the al Qaeda/al Jazeera labyrinth. The question now is about the essence of the message.
The commander of the Jihadi mother ship says the Afghans sustained the Soviet occupation for many years; hence he warns the European governments that their forces deployed in that country will be continuously attacked. That was the first salvo. Then he “informed” them that they’d made a tremendous mistake by deploying along with US troops and dislodging the Taliban in 2001. He argued that since he was the man behind the massacre of Manhattan, the regime of the Taliban had nothing to do with it. “I am responsible for the attacks of 9/11,” said Bin Laden. (I suggest making sure this declaration is well saved to document future trials and respond to current allegations that Jihadists have nothing to do with it.) He added - the classic refrain – that 9/11 “was in response to aggression in Palestine and Lebanon.” Usama insisted that Taliban ministers didn’t even know that he was launching this operation.
That part, I must admit, came as a surprise to me. Why is he attempting to distance his protectors from the Ghazwa (Jihadi raid) seven years later? We’ll come back to this later as well.
Meanwhile, US administration spokespeople rushed to “explain” that the Afghani people are “happier now because they are better administered.” I disagree with this PR logic. Nations wouldn’t be happier with foreign forces just because richer governments can distribute goodies. This argument won’t buy support among the public there.
Washington’s spokespeople must be clear on the principles, seven or seventy years afterwards: the US removed the Taliban regime because this regime was responsible for the acts of the terror group al Qaeda, executor of the massacres in New York and Washington. The Taliban - under international law - had the opportunity to arrest al Qaeda leaders and dismantle their camps, but it didn’t. As such, the Greater Middle East audience must hear solid counter arguments coming out of America and the free world about this particular issue, not “explanations” about what the Coalition is doing now in Afghanistan. After the democratic elections in that country, the legitimate government is responsible for the presence and deeds of NATO and UN troops anyway. But In the war of ideas, no allegation should be allowed to fly unchecked.
Bin Laden alleged that the Taliban didn’t know about the operation, but he ignored the fact that the Jihadi regime and its spokespeople “blessed” the attacks afterward, and that they continue, even today, to do so in their media. Usama has forgotten that in one of his videotapes he boasted that even his close comrade Sleiman Abul Ghais didn’t know about it. But even though the preparation for the terror “operations” weren’t shared with all levels of power among the Taliban or even al Qaeda, the war against America has been declared since 1998. These are simple counter arguments but they need to be made in response to this statement by the leader of the War on Terror.
Future recruits will be fed with Bin Laden’s rhetoric about the innocence of his Taliban brothers and hence, we may find these arguments made by future suicide terrorists blasting against targets in European cities. “This is in response to your illegitimate and unjust attacks against Afghanistan,” would scream the Shaheed in his or her prepared videotape before they spread mayhem. A strong and direct response to today’s false arguments, delivered in Arabic via satellite channels, would have been the appropriate response, minutes after the al Jazeera airing. What is important is not how we satisfy our perception of a good image, but how we affect the perception of those who are about to be indoctrinated or recruited to the other side.
Back to Usama’s Euro concerns. In short, he is preparing the psychological terrain for an escalation on European soil. Remember Madrid. His cells struck the trains while claiming it was because of the unjust presence of Spanish troops in Iraq. It is very possible that future strikes in Europe would be accompanied with claims related to French, British, Spanish, Danish, Dutch and other military presence in that part of central Asia. The potential forthcoming attacks are being prepared now with al Qaeda propaganda.
Interestingly Bin Laden mentions Blair, Brown, Aznar and Sarkozy. While the first three past and current prime ministers have ordered troops into and within Iraq, the French President has inherited a previous military policy in Afghanistan. What links all these leaders in the mind of Bin Laden? In my estimate, it is not only the past; rather it is the future. The Jihadi supreme commander has been advised by his operational emirs and advisors in Europe that the fight is coming to that continent. Many combat Salafists are already deployed and preparing for violence in Britain, Spain, Scandinavia, Germany and the Benelux. The so-called youth gangs in French suburbs – manipulated by the radical clerics - are already in a state of war against the French state.
Global Jihad in Europe has begun. Al Qaeda wants to claim it, own it and boast about its coming spread. That’s what is on Bin Laden’s mind.
As a classic leader of Jihadism, he wants to warn beforehand that what is to come in Europe is “because” of its alliance with the US and its military presence in Afghanistan, an “occupied Muslim land.” In reality, the dice has already rolled: the Jihadists have already waged their campaign on that continent but the al Qaeda master wants to father it and widen it.
EXACTLY
“The Jihadi supreme commander has been advised by his operational emirs and advisors in Europe that the fight is coming to that continent. Many combat Salafists are already deployed and preparing for violence in Britain, Spain, Scandinavia, Germany and the Benelux.”
“Global Jihad in Europe has begun. Al Qaeda wants to claim it, own it and boast about its coming spread. That’s what is on Bin Laden’s mind.
pong
Let’s not forget the free help he gets with the MSM.
Thought this might be of interest.
Yet the official and unofficial responses from the killer religion apologists is that this represents "a few criminals", not islam. The U.S. and Europe both seem to be buying this absurd response (at least officially), but ordinary people are not.
There is but one way to stem the spread of the cancer, which would eventually kill us all:
Deport every muslim who is not a "legal resident" immediately.
Reclaim our rights as American citizens and deport every single "legal resident" who demonstrates or rails against American culture and American ideals. Free speech does not accrue to obvious foreign enemies.
As an aside, I have always rejected the notion that our rights and freedoms apply equally to casual visitors and temporary residents. They do not. They should not. Our Constitution is not a suicide pact.
Prohibit the travel of foreign muslim nationals except for clearly limited "diplomatic" purposes. No students, no "tourists", no "en route" travelers, no nothing.
Finally, "temporal reciprocity" should be applied, while all muslims are returned home. Crimes committed by them to be judged according to the laws of their home country, including limited rights.
Does this make us "as bad as they are?" Irrelevant. It only applies to dealing with them. Fight or submit. Their rules.
That is the very scary part of the article.
Double Agent Walid Phares
Double Agent ?
Notice how WP makes UBL into a larger than life heroic figure? But,in reality UBL is merely a rich punk kid, a trust fund brat, he's got his Daddy's car out of the arabic garage with the old man's wallet full of money UBL didn't earn. Money he uses to play small "g" god to a largely illiterate muslim umma, all the while spewing out a failed 8th century pedophiles syphallitic theological ravings.
Pathetic like an "Intervention" at the Kennedy compound; load the whole wagon. Picture WP as a sanitary worker that has the impossible task of following behind the emir's camel herd. WP peddles this same dung over and over again with his hand out for "secret" contacts. I saw him on TV before Fox figured out that WP was working both sides of the street. Do you think that WP might have another agenda? I sure do; do you got it nuc?
Anyone else but you have this opinion about about Walid Phares? I’d appreciate links or names.
Thanks
No. As a matter of fact, I didn't.
And, upon review, still don't.
Why oh why do we give this poor, misguided fool any press time at all? He is playing the ‘blame game’ and we are falling for it. It really isn’t our fault that the ‘cradle of civilization’ has turned into a cesspool. It is due the the value system, and dare I say the belief system, of so many in that part of the world. An unbelieveable amount of wealth has been generated in that part of the world for generations now, yet they suffer at the hands of a few feudal lords who hold the wealth and power and support the ‘religious leaders’ all the while holding the people down. Our interventions, and those of our ‘allies’ over the years have had no positive results. The elite over there sent their offspring to our colleges and universities, only to submerge them in Western culture. If you look at the ‘brain pool’ of all the terrorist leaders, you will find educated people who are conflicted, yet still hold beliefs about the ‘old ways’. ; Of course, their sponsors are interested mainly in maintaining the status quo. Being off balance, it is easier to blame the ‘infidels’ for what is wrong with their world. Will the lights ever come on in their heads?
“Why oh why do we give this poor, misguided fool any press time at all? He is playing the ‘blame game’ and we are falling for it.”
To whom are you referring?
He’s concentrating on Afghanistan because he has already been forced to admit that he lost in Iraq.
He’s hoping to kick-start AQ back into some sort of relevance by threatening homicide attacks or other forms of terrorism in Europe — using Afghanistan as a justification, but my reading on that is that the European states have had just about as much of that crap as they are willing to stand.
I may be wrong, but with Paris burning again, Sarko running the government there, the Tories posed to regain power in the UK, and rumblings of discontent in many of the most liberal European socialist states, any attack he manages to launch is going to hurt a lot more Muslims, long term, than it does Europeans.
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