September 2012 Periodical Review: Summary of Information from Jihadi Forums The First Half of September 2012 This report summarizes notable events discussed on jihadist Web forums during the first half of September 2012. Following are the main points covered in the report: Ayman Al-Zawahiri calls on mujahideen and Muslims to focus their efforts on liberating Palestine through da’wa [proselytizing] and jihad. Once Syria has become an Islamic state, he believes, it will serve as a base from which mujahideen can infiltrate Israel. In a video clip, Ayman Al-Zawahiri confirms the death of senior Al-Qaeda leader Abu Yahya Al-Libi, adding that his death will fuel jihad against the US and the West. Al-Qaeda issues a videotaped appeal by Jewish American Warren Weinstein, whom it abducted in Pakistan in August 2011, to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to mitigate for his release, as the US has failed in this. Al-Qaeda issues a video clip on the eleventh anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001. Following the release of the anti-Islamic movie, “Innocence of Muslims”, global jihad groups threaten Western, especially US, targets. The Islamic State of Iraq takes responsibility for a series of murderous attacks to avenge the execution of Sunni prisoners, in which more than 90 Iraqi soldiers met their deaths. The group promised that this was only the beginning. The Salafi-jihadist Coordinating Councils of Ansar Al-Sharia in Morocco is officially established on September 7, 2012. This is one more in a series of Islamist groups that, since the advent of the Arab Spring, have sprouted up in places where they had never before existed. P.O. Box 167, Herzliya, 46150, Israel | Tel: +972.9.952.7277 | Fax: +972.9.951.3073 1 www.ict.org.il | [email protected] September 2012 New Publications Ideology On the eleventh anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the jihadist media institution Al-Sahab published a video clip titled, “The Sun of Victory Breaks Over the Victorious Muslim Nation and the Vanquished Crusaders”.1 In it, Al-Qaeda leader Sheikh Ayman Al-Zawahiri declares that the Crusader Zionist occupation of Muslim lands, especially Palestine, was the chief impetus for the September 11th attacks. The video clip also shows, for the first time, the last testaments of two of the terrorists involved in the attacks: Khalid Al-Mihdhar (1975-2001) and Salem Al-Hazmi (1981-2011). Both claim to have sacrificed their lives to avenge the shedding of Palestinian blood and to send a clear warning to the US to leave Muslim lands. Al-Zawahiri also uses the video clip to explain that Israel is trying to “Judaize” Palestine and destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He claims that Arab governments have no intention of liberating Palestine, and accuses them of turning a blind eye to Palestine’s distress and thereby supporting the Israeli occupation: “Most of [the Arab regimes] know Israel, in one way or another. All of them know of or openly ratify the UN resolutions that divided Palestine and granted Israel the larger portion. All of them recognize the government of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), who scurries about trying to procure 10% of Palestine”. Al-Zawahiri criticizes Turkey for its military ties and treaties with Israel, for recognizing Israel, and for exchanging ambassadors with Israel. Given this state of affairs, Al-Zawahiri asks the Muslims and mujahideen in Turkey to pressure their government to cease sharing intelligence and holding joint military exercises with Israel, and to put a stop to the Crusaders’ hostility to the Muslims in Afghanistan. Al-Zawahiri accuses Egypt of committing a sin by insisting on preserving its peace agreement with Israel. He urges the Egyptian military not to protect Israel’s borders and not to comply with Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. Al-Zawahiri claims that no Muslim state can be trusted to liberate Palestine. Moreover, many Muslim countries collaborate with the West: Pakistan aids the Crusader campaign within its own borders and in Afghanistan; Iran assists the US in its occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and is helping to murder the Syrian people; Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states let the Crusader armies use 1 http://al-fidaa.com/vb (Arabic). P.O. Box 167, Herzliya, 46150, Israel | Tel: +972.9.952.7277 | Fax: +972.9.951.3073 2 www.ict.org.il | [email protected] September 2012 their territory and waters. Most heinous of all, he says, is the participation of certain Islamist movements in secular politics, and their readiness to honor peace agreements with Israel so that they can enter the political arena. In this way, Al-Zawahiri admonishes, the peace agreements with Israel have become a fait accompli, just as did the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which was signed at the end of the First World War and which divided the Middle East into nation-states. This is why all mujahideen must concentrate on freeing Palestine. Al-Qaeda and other jihadist organizations have long since been aware of the sorry state of the Muslim Nation, and of the ineffectuality of Muslim regimes. Therefore, says Al-Zawahiri, the attacks of September 11th were meant to thwart the Western Crusader conspiracy to control Muslim territories. The attacks strengthened Al-Qaeda which, thanks to them, has expanded, [establishing] four official branches and garnering thousands of supporters everywhere (Although Al-Zawahiri does not name these branches, he is referring as we assume to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the Islamic State of Iraq, and Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen in Somalia.). Thanks to the blows leveled by the mujahideen, the US has been defeated in Afghanistan and Iraq. Moreover, the four regimes that were known to collaborate with the US have collapsed and the Arab peoples have begun a revolution they have no intention of ending until Palestine has been liberated and shari’a [Islamic law] imposed. The September 11th attacks were also meant to prevent the US from arresting Muslims, especially mujahideen. Similarly, adds Al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda abducted the Jewish American Warren Weinstein to bring about [the release of Muslim prisoners]. Al-Zawahiri proposes the following plan to liberate Palestine: 1. Increase awareness in mosques, schools – everywhere – of the following: a. Only Allah is the victor and commander. Only He can help his frail believers against the powerful Jews. b. Muslim governments cannot free Palestine, because they refuse to. c. The Muslim Nation must prepare for jihad, which is an individual religious obligation. d. Peace treaties with Israel must be annulled. The Zionist entity must not be recognized. P.O. Box 167, Herzliya, 46150, Israel | Tel: +972.9.952.7277 | Fax: +972.9.951.3073 3 www.ict.org.il | [email protected] September 2012 2. Establish a warring Muslim state, governed by Islamic law, and dedicated to liberating Palestine. This state will acknowledge its ultimate obligation to liberate every last grain of sand of Islamic lands, from eastern Turkistan to Andalusia including, of course, Palestine. 3. Support and join the mujahideen wherever they are, especially in Iraq and Al-Sham [the Levant]. Work to establish a Muslim state in Al-Sham, from which to sally forth against Israel [and regain] Jerusalem. 4. Set common goals and maintain Muslim unity, by following the jihadist leadership, which has amassed experience and established pioneering forces. Use da’wa [proselytizing] to enlist Islamic groups in the struggle to do the following: a. Inculcate shari’a [Islamic law], and reject all other forms of government. b. Liberate occupied Islamic lands. c. Cease the West’s deliberate, systematic plunder of Muslim resources, such as oil. d. Support the revolutions of Muslims against despotic rulers, and arouse awareness of the need to implement shari’a. e. Help all those who are oppressed by the arrogant. f. Establish an Islamic caliphate. Al-Zawahiri adds that the Arab and Islamic Nation must exploit the weakness of the US at this time to rid Muslim lands – especially Saudi Arabia and the Maghreb [North Africa] – of their corrupt rulers. To this end, the popular rebellions must continue. P.O. Box 167, Herzliya, 46150, Israel | Tel: +972.9.952.7277 | Fax: +972.9.951.3073 4 www.ict.org.il | [email protected] September 2012 A banner advertising a video clip featuring the last testaments of terrorists Salem Al-Hazmi and Khalid Al-Mihdhar, and comments by Ayman Al-Zawahiri The jihadist media institution Al-Sahab published a two-part video clip titled, “Truth Has Come and Falsehood Has Perished”. Issued on the eleventh anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the clip was made available in Arabic, English and Urdu.2 The banner for a video clip issued on the anniversary of the September 11th attacks 2 http://www.as-ansar.com/vb (Arabic). P.O. Box 167, Herzliya, 46150, Israel | Tel: +972.9.952.7277 | Fax: +972.9.951.3073 5 www.ict.org.il | [email protected] September 2012 The jihadist media institution Al-Sahab published a video clip titled, “A Message from the Prisoner Warren Weinstein to the Zionist Netanyahu”. In it, a Jewish American named Warren Weinstein who has been held by Al-Qaeda since his abduction in Pakistan in August 2011, urges Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure his release, because the US has not been able to do so.3 Al-Qaeda captive Warren Weinstein seeks the Israeli prime minister’s help The jihadist Web forum Al-Fida published another video clip titled, “A Selection of Advice from Sheikh Ayman Al-Zawahiri”. In this particular clip, Al-Zawahiri asks Muslims in Turkey to help their brethren in Syria in their fight against the Alawite regime.