Threat against US Embassies

Laura Mansfield has made available a new video from As-Sahab (Al Qaeda's media/propaganda wing) which makes threats against US Embassies. (h/t: Jawa Report.)

The WMV video is available here, at Laura Mansfield's website. The video runs about an hour and seventeen minutes.

Much of the video focuses on Al Hafez Othman (h/t Hot Air), the suicide bomber which carried out the attack that killed a US diplomat in Karachi in March 2006.

The video starts off with a computer animation of this attack. It shows a white vehicle backing out as a vehicle caravan passes by, ramming into a vehicle and exploding.

Much of the video seems to be Othman's farewell video, complete with requisite weapon propped up against a tree. The video shows the bomb being prepared in the back of the four door white car, and the video ends with Othman saying farewell to some individuals and driving off, with the usual nasheed singing him to his glory.

(Just wondering. Othman is wearing a white robe and white cap. The vehicle used in the suicide bombing is white. I believe in Islam white is a color of purity. Also, I think in some Eastern cultures white is associated with death. Is that true with radical Islamists? Perhaps the white car was deliberately chosen.)

Says Mansfield,

The video includes footage of the aftermath of the US Embassy bombings in Africa in 1998, the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Madrid bombings in 2003, and the London bombings in 2005.

I also saw and heard Kashmir mentioned, where radical Islamsists fight against India.

It seems that so much attention is given to Othman because the purpose of this video is to issue a threat against US Embassies, and Othman's attack was on a US diplomat.

About an hour into the video Adam Gadahn appears. He is an American who is now a spokesman for Al Qaeda. He starts off by saying:

The Crusader West's so-called diplomatic missions in the Islamic world have long been breeding grounds of intrigue and conspiracy against Muslims and their religion. For centuries, the enemies of this [believing?] nation have successfully implemented their anti-Islam, anti-Muslim designs by exploiting the protection which Islamic Sharia affords to international delegations and peaceable unbelievers.

Mansfield adds,

Gaddahn says:

“As for our message to the Americans and their Crusader allies, it is this: The amount of respect we have for your international law is even less than the respect you hold for defined shari’ah, and our observance of it is comparable to your observance of sharia’h. How can we comply with a law which contradicts divine law in whole and in part? How can we recognize a law which states that the Embassy or Consulate is for all intents and purposes an inviolable fortress which the host country has no right to enter or monitor and when our sharia’h commands us to liberate every handspan of Islamic land occupied by the unbelievers?”

He continues:

“How can we comply with a law whose inequities and double standards are more obvious than the noonday sun? The diplomatic immunity and freedom from arrest and prosecution behind which you hide and which international law theoretically sanctifies apparently didn’t apply to Mullah Abdul Salam, Ambassador of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, in Islamabad, whom you forced out of Pakistan so you could arrest him and send him off for torture and humiliation in the dungeons of Guantanamo Bay? Nor is the right of states to establish foreign missions in friendly states which your law is supposed to uphold given to the Islamic Emirate whose Embassies and Consulates in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, and Pakistan, you’ve forcibly closed down through threats and intimidation.”

The video also seems to portray a strongly anti-Pakistan sentiment.

An article in the Washington Post today suggests US pressure has brought about a renewed desire on the part of Musharraf to go after the radicals in his country.

The July 17 U.S. claim sparked outrage in Islamabad but helped yield the result that U.S. officials sought. Musharraf abandoned his truce with tribal leaders and on July 19 formally launched a military offensive aimed at breaking the terrorists' grip on the frontier provinces.

No doubt US pressure has played a role,, but don't forget, the violence at the Red Mosque came about because the radicals there were openly defying the government, and setting up their own religious police force. Musharraf couldn't let that continue in the capital itself. Also, the Blotter has this:

Al Qaeda Commander Ayman al Zawahri also appears on the tape paying his respects to Othman. "And when God granted him freedom, he returned to battle the Christians under the direction of the leader of the believers, Mullah Mohammed Omar, who is victorious with the permission of God. He made the decision to take his car, full of explosives, and drive it into the American Embassy in Karachi," says Zawahri.

Musharraf cannot let the Taliban or Al Qaeda give orders to attack US diplomats inside Pakistan. He has little choice but to act now, though it's a dilemma largely of his own making.

This threat against US Embassies may play well to its radical audience, but like so much of what Al Qaeda has done, it will only reinvigorate efforts to stamp it out.

Related post

* More on the latest Al Qaeda video (8/6)