Al Qaeda Gloats Over 911 New Videotape

Juan Cole 09/08/2006

Al-Qaeda Gloats over 9/11

A new videotape surfaced on Aljazeera Thursday showing Usamah Bin Laden with Ramzi Bin al-Shibh [al-Shibihah], Wa’il al-Ghamdi and other 9/11 hijackers. Bin Laden is shown urging followers to pray frequently for these martyrs, as a way of accelerating the progress of their own souls.

The tape is a way of celebrating the fifth year anniversary of the monstrous September 11 attacks, and tries to parlay Muslim resentments against US policies into support for al-Qaeda, which has declined and fallen on hard times in recent years.

They play the old suicide tape of al-Ghamdi, which complains about the treatment of Muslims in Chechnya, Kashmir, the Philippines, Bosnia, and Kosovo.

It is to weep. The US helped save the Muslims of Bosnia and Kosovo. Al-Ghamdi did not know that. Does anyone, over there? Why is the US so bad in getting out the word of the positive things it has done for the Muslim world? Doesn’t anybody care?

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page