The USG Open Source Center summarizes and partially translates the new audio release by Usama Bin Laden. He urges a focus on Iraq and Israel, and he praises the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for having attacked the Shiites. He also pledges to attack Israel and accused HAMAS of selling out. Bin Laden sounds increasingly desperate, appearing to realize that the Iraqi Sunnis have turned against the Salafi Jihadis who often admire him. The Palestinians have worked hard to keep al-Qaeda out of Palestine, and Israeli security has forestalled effective al-Qaeda attacks in Israel. That is a hard target, not like the US in 2001, and he is likely to be shown up as an ineffective braggart if he starts taking on the hardy Israelis. In fact, he seems beside himself with frustration that the Arab League has offered full recognition to Israel for a return to 1967 borders. Bin Laden continues the stupid policy of attacking the Shiites, both Hizbullah in Lebanon and those of Iraq, thus dividing the Muslims. Muslim publics have increasing turned critical of tactics like suicide bombings. And Bin Laden’s own popularity has been plummeting among most Muslims. Fawaz Gerges has written about how a lot of al-Qaeda members are furious at him and Ayman al-Zawahiri for bringing the full wrath of a superpower down on them, scattering them from Qandahar, forcing them to live as fugitives, and virtually destroying the organization.
FYI — Bin Ladin Vows Jihad for ‘Liberation of Entire Palestine’ After Iraq
Jihadist Websites — OSC Summary
Saturday, December 29, 2007
On 29 December, a participant in a jihadist website posted several links to a 56-minute audio message by Al-Qa’ida Organization leader Usama Bin Ladin entitled “The Way to Foil Plots” produced by the Al-Sahab Media Production Organization, the media arm of Al-Qa’ida Organization.
The audio recording plays against the background of a still image of Bin Ladin and a map of Iraq.
Bin Ladin begins his message by addressing the Islamic nation in general, the “patient and steadfast people in Iraq’s fronts and fortress towns,” the “leaders of mujahidin groups and shura councils,” and “the chieftains of free and proud tribes.”
Bin Ladin says: “My talk to you is about the plots that are being hatched by the Zionist-Crusader alliance, led by America, in cooperation with its agents in the region, to steal the fruit of blessed jihad in the land of two rivers, and what we should do to foil these plots. It is no secret that America is using all military and political means to entrench its troops in Iraq. Having realized its military failure, it stepped up its political and media efforts to deceive Muslims. One of its wicked schemes was to tempt the tribes and buy their allegiance to form the councils of dissension, which they termed as awakening councils.”
He notes that “many” tribes refused to form such councils. He beseeches God to help these tribes to adhere to this stand. He accuses late Abd-al-Sattar Abu-Rishah, founder of Al-Anbar Awakening Council, of “betraying the religion and nation.”
Bin Ladin adds: “Recruiting hypocrite chieftains of tribes is one axis. America, along with its agents in the region, is seeking through the other axis to form a new government that is loyal to it, like the Gulf countries’ governments, instead of Al-Maliki government. This government will also be called a national unity government.”
He says: “In the name of the homeland and patriotism, the Crusaders are being strengthened in the land of two rivers too by installing a government that is agent to America, a government which agrees in advance to the existence of major US bases in the land of Iraq and gives the Americans whatever they want of Iraq’s oil according to the oil law to continue to subjugate it and maintain absolute hegemony over the rest of the countries of the region.”
He criticizes the “leader of the so-called Islamic Party” for calling for signing a security agreement with the United States.
Bin Ladin calls on the “sane people” to learn a lesson from the fate of HAMAS Movement’s leadership. He says: “It (HAMAS leadership) relinquished its religion and did not achieve worldly gains when it obeyed the ruler of Riyadh and others by entering the national unity state and respecting the unjust international charters. Will the honest ones in HAMAS correct its course?”
Bin Ladin says: “Just as the rulers of Riyadh tempted the leaders of HAMAS, they are seeking to tempt the mujahidin groups in Iraq. They allow some groups to confidently move in the Gulf countries to receive support, but not official support, which these groups reject. The support is channeled under the banner of raising donations by some unofficial scholars and preachers. Many of them, however, are loyal to the state and seek to implement its policy in Iraq by pulling the rug from under honest mujahidin’s feet. The mission of these scholars and preachers is to convince the leaders of these groups of the same previous condition; that is, accepting a national unity government, in addition to urging them to air tendentious propaganda against the Islamic State of Iraq and fight it if possible. This is one of the secrets of the fierce military and media campaign against the state.”
He accuses the “ruler of Riyadh’ of being the “main US agent in the region.”
He hails late Abu-Mus’ab al-Zarqawi for exposing and fighting Shiite militias in Iraq.
He calls for unity among “all honest mujahidin” in Iraq to “foil all plots.”
Bin Ladin cites as an example “an effort in the past to unify the leaders of Afghan mujahidin.”
Bin Ladin goes on to say that “those leaders are tradesmen who care about their leadership and give priority to their personal interests over the cause.”
He goes on to speak about the Northern Alliance, led by (former Afghan President Borhanoddin) Rabbani and (Abd-al-Rasul) Sayyaf, which has become a helper and a supporter to America against the mujahidin in Afghanistan.
He adds that the same applies to Iraq where “the Islamic Party and some groups, which are involved in fighting, support America against Muslims” saying that this is “outright infidelity.”
He urges the Iraqi Islamic Party and other factions that are involved in fighting “to disavow their leaders and correct the course of their parties and groups”, saying that “if this is not possible, they should leave those hypocrite leaders and join honest mujahidin in the Land of the Two Rivers.”
He adds: “America exerted great efforts in the past to convince Afghan leaders through the governments of Riyadh and Islamabad to join a national unity government with communists and secularists who came from the west.” He goes on to say that “the government of Riyadh continues until this day to carry out the same malicious roles with many Islamic action leaders and commanders of mujahidin in our nation.”
He goes on to speak at length about the reasons behind the Afghan leaders’ failure to achieve unity and urges the mujahidin to be wise and consider matters thoroughly before pledging allegiance to their leaders.
He urges the mujahidin not to be misled by the names of parties or their leaders. He says that Sayyaf was one of the most prominent leaders of mujahidin, but he helped America against Muslims. He adds that the same applies to Rabbani and Ahmad Shah Mas’ud.
He condemns the leaders who committed one of the “nullifiers of Islam” by supporting “the infidels against Muslims.”
Bin Ladin concludes by saying that “the brother mujahidin, especially in the Shura councils, should not yield to the excuses of the amirs of groups by obstructing unity and accord.”
He adds that “Muslims were pleased when a number of the amirs of groups, which are fighting for the sake of God, and a number of chiefs of steadfast and mujahid tribes unified their stand under the banner of monotheism and pledged allegiance to honorable Shaykh Abu-Umar al-Baghdadi as amir of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI).”
Bin Ladin says: “The states that call themselves Muslim states are many. However, those with discerning know that they all lack the prerequisites that are regarded as the most important prerequisites of Muslim states, chief among which is upholding God’s shari’ah, not to mention that the sovereignty of all of them is flawed, and that they all, without exception, cooperated, in one way or another, with America in the world war on Islam, which is a nullifier of one’s Islam. Nonetheless, many people treat these states as if they were sovereign Muslim states. This treatment is religiously impermissible, given all that has been said.”
Bin Ladin adds: “Had complete empowerment been a prerequisite of the establishment of an Islamic state at present, Islam would not have seen a state of its own. This is because everybody knows that given the huge military superiority of the adversaries, the latter can invade any country and topple its government, as happened in Afghanistan. They toppled the Ba’thist Iraqi Government. Nonetheless, the fall of the state is not the end of the world, nor does it mean that the Islamic community and the Islamic imam collapsed. As a matter of fact, jihad against the infidels should continue, as is happening in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia.”
Bin Ladin argues that “complete empowerment” is not a prerequisite of making a pledge of allegiance to the imam, or of establishing an Islamic state. He adds that the leader to whom a pledge of allegiance is made should be obeyed. Bin Ladin says that repeated appeals were addressed to “the mujahidin leaders” urging them to get together. However, some of them failed to heed these appeals while some others heeded the appeals. He urges all jihadist groups to come together under one banner.
Bin Ladin says: “He who follows the local and global campaigns of infidelity can see that they are primarily targeted against the Islamic State of Iraq. For America is repeatedly carrying out campaigns, one after another, against the same city. As a matter of fact, there has been an ongoing campaign against the whole of Diyala for the past six months. The same holds true for Mosul and Salah al-Din. Other campaigns are being carried out by the army, the National Guard, and the police, not to mention other campaigns carried out by the Al-Sadr and Al-Hakim militias. Besides, all neighboring countries without exception are targeting the Islamic State of Iraq, not to mention the awakening councils, parties, and groups of dissension led by Tariq al-Hashimi, who betrayed the faith and the Ummah. This is to be added to the media campaigns aimed at misrepresenting the Islamic State of Iraq for which the Riyadh rulers, their scholars, and their media outlets are to blame.”
Bin Ladin adds: “Amir Abu-Umar (al-Baghdadi) and his brothers are not of those who would bargain over their faith and accept half-solutions, or who would meet the enemies halfway. Rather, they come out openly with the truth and satisfy the Creator even if this were to result in angering the creatures.” He adds that they refuse to pander to the governments of Muslim states.
Elaborating on this issue, Bin Ladin says: “Had the leaders of the Islamic State of Iraq joined hands with any neighboring state so that the latter may provide it with backing and support, as some groups and parties have done, the situation would have been different,” as these groups and parties have huge budgets compared to the budget of the Islamic State of Iraq.
Bin Ladin condemns the acceptance by Hizballah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 on Lebanon, which authorized the entry of “Crusader armies into Lebanese territory.” He wonders: “Are people unaware that these armies are the other face of the US-Zionist alliance?” He adds: “Nonetheless, (Hizballah) Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah is deceiving people. He welcomed these armies in public and promised to facilitate their mission even though he knows that they were coming to protect the Jews and seal off the borders in the face of the honest mujahidin.” He contends that Nasrallah did so to accommodate the wishes of the states backing him.
Bin Ladin says that the conduct of the “amirs of mujahidin” in Iraq is not known to many people, attributing this to “the circumstances and security requirements of the war.” He adds: “However, I reckon that ignorance about the affairs of the amirs of the mujahidin in Iraq is harmless ignorance if they have been recommended by trusted, fair persons, such as Amir Abu-Umar (al-Baghdadi), who has been recommended by trusted, fair mujahidin. He was also recommended by Amir Abu-Mus’ab (al-Zarqawi), may God have mercy on him, and War Minister Abu-Hamzah al-Muhajir.” Bin Ladin adds: “Refraining from pledging allegiance to one of the amirs of mujahidin in Iraq after their recommendation by trusted, fair persons under the pretext of not knowing their conduct leads to great evils, one of the gravest of which is obstructing the establishment of the great Muslim nation under one imam.”
Concluding his statement, Bin Ladin says: “In conclusion, I assure Muslims in general and our people in the neighboring states in particular, that they will see nothing from the mujahidin but all that is good, God willing. We are your sons. We are defending the religion of the nation, and we are defending its sons. The Muslim victims who fall during the operations against the infidel Crusaders or their usurper agents are not the intended targets. God knows that we are deeply saddened when some Muslims fall victim. Yet, we hold ourselves responsible and seek God’s forgiveness for that. We beseech God to have mercy on them and let Paradise be their final abode and to compensate their families and relatives. You must be aware that the enemy deliberately takes its positions among the Muslims to let them serve as human shields for it.”
Bin Ladin then urges the militants to avoid common Muslims in their strikes. He says: “In fact, our enmity is with the agent rulers, to whom we give no assurances. Rather, we are seeking to topple them and to refer them to the Islamic judiciary. How can we assure them while they have befriended the enemies of the nation and have done this nation great harm? How can we assure them while they have mixed the law of humans with the law of God Almighty? How can we assure them while the path to the broadest front for the liberation of Palestine passes through the lands that are under their control? I assure our kinfolk in Palestine in particular that we will expand our jihad, God willing, and we will not recognize the Sykes-Picot borders or the rulers appointed by the colonialists. By God, we have not forgotten you after the 9/11 events. Will anyone forget his own family? However, after those blessed raids, which hit the head and heart of global infidelity, the biggest ally of the Zionist entity, America, we are now busy fighting it and its agents, especially in Iraq, Afghanistan, Islamic Magreb, and Somalia. If it is defeated along with its agents in Iraq, God willing, then soon will the legions of mujahidin march, in successive brigades, from Baghdad, Al-Anbar, Mosel, Diyala, and Salah al-Din to restore Hittin to us, God willing. We will not recognize a state for the Jews, not even on one inch of the land of Palestine, as did all the rulers of the Arabs when they adopted the initiative of the ruler of Riyadh years ago.”
Bin Ladin adds: “Nor will we respect the international conventions recognizing the Zionist entity over the land of Palestine, as the HAMAS leadership did, or as stated by some Muslim Brotherhood leaders. It will be a jihad for the liberation of entire Palestine, from the river to the sea, God willing, joining hands with the sincere mu jahidin there from the cadres of HAMAS and other factions.”
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