Zawahiri posts an important new video - and reveals al-Qaeda's jihad strategy

Al-Qaeda second in command Sheik Ayman al-Zawahiri has a new video posted through al-Qaeda's propaganda arm, As-Sahab Media.. and of course it's being promulgated worldwide by the usual outlets like al-Jazeera (AKA Jihad TV).

The complete transcript (or the video with English subtitles)is available at LauraMansfield.com

Most of the commentary I've seen focuses on Zawahiri's call for 200,000 - 300,000 US dead in Iraq, and his ridicule of US Democrats' attempt to legislate a pullout. That's all very well, and so are the rather blatant factual distortions in Shaykh Zawahiri's address, which I won't bother analyzing. What's important about this video is that it offers a superb glimpse of both the people and more importantly the mindset and the strategy we're facing. This is a serious message to the West, and one which I've edited for brevity. I urge Joshua's Army members to read it carefully, in it's entirety.

The message Zawahir istarts out with is one guaranteed to resonate in many corners...that the corrupt Sunni autocrats ( President Bush's allies) are in league with `the Crusaders and Zionists' against the Muslim umma and must either change their selfish, corrupt ways or be overthrown.

I praise Allah for what has been suffered by the Americans, their Crusader allies and their helpers, the worshipers of thrones,{ here, Zawahiri is talking about the Sunni autocrats} in terms of disasters and defeats over the last four years in Afghanistan and Iraq, and I give the good news to the Muslim Ummah - and not just it, but all the world's oppressed, the victims of Western Crusader repression - that the Empire of Evil is about to come to an end, and that a new dawn is about to rise, Allah permitting, over a mankind liberated from the Caesars of the White House, Europe and the Zionists.

We are going through a historic period of utmost importance in the history of the Muslim Ummah and, indeed, all of humanity: a period in which many truths have been revealed and a number of masks have fallen away. It seems that the Muslim Ummah was in need of this period, for it to be shown the way; for the deception to become clear to it; for it to know who its enemy is, who is betraying it, who is loyal to it, and who is defending it; for it to be cleansed of its diseases and illnesses which sapped its strengths; and for it to make a new start enlightened by the light of the Quran and guided by the guidance of the Prophet (peace be upon him) as it advances towards its honor, dignity and freedom.

Zawahiri then discusses the American involvement in Iraq and the sectarian warfare, and makes a specific call for Sunni and Shiite to be united against the West to establish the new Caliphate and rise up against what he sees as Muslim collaborators:

The Jihad in Iraq today, by the Grace of Allah, is moving from the stage of defeat of the Crusader invaders and their traitorous underlings to the stage of consolidating a Mujahid Islamic Emirate which will liberate the homelands of Islam, protect the sacred things of the Muslims, implement the rules of the Shari'ah, give the weak and oppressed their rights back, and raise the banner of Jihad {...}

(the Iraq funding bill mandating a US pullout) reflects American failure and frustration. However, this bill will deprive us of the opportunity to destroy the American forces which we have caught in a historic trap. We ask Allah that they only get out of it after losing two hundred to three hundred thousand killed, in order that we give the spillers of blood in Washington and Europe an unforgettable lesson which will motivate them to review their entire doctrinal and moral system which produced their historic criminal Crusader/Zionist entity.

The ones who have stirred up strife in Iraq are those who today are begging the Americans not to leave, and those who are asking the Crusaders to prolong their occupation, and not the Mujahideen who are defending the faith, honor and sanctities of their Ummah.

I call on everyone who declares that he loves the Prophet (peace be upon him), his purified family and righteous Companions (with all of whom Allah was pleased), to bear arms in the face of the Crusader invasion of the lands of Islam, and to help and support the Mujahideen, who have broken America's back in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I call on him to ask himself: if our masters Ali bin Abi Talib, al-Hasan and al-Husayn (with whom Allah was pleased) were alive today, would they have been sympathetic to the Crusader invaders, become part of their organs, police and army, and begged for the continuation of their occupation? Or would they have declared Jihad against them? {ff notes: this is a direct appeal to the Shiites}

I call on him to ask himself these questions, and if he doesn't, then let him await Allah's punishment for him, which He mentioned in His Noble Book, "O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: they are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them [for friendship] is of them.

Thus, I warn everyone who has helped the Crusade against Iraq and Afghanistan that the Crusaders are departing - by their own admission - and soon, with Allah's permission, so let him ponder his fate and future.

Zawahiri goes on to discuss a statement of his, that the West was not negotiating with `the real powers' in the Muslim world, and then goes on to show how closely aligned al-Qaeda, radical Islam and the Angry Left are:

{Discussing what Zawahiri refers to as the real powers in the Muslim world} I mean the Mujahid powers in the Islamic world, which is witnessing, by the Grace of Allah, a Jihadi awakening which is shaking its very being and breathing life into its veins {...}the fact that {the Western leaders and opinion makers}..are all participants in the conspiracy of silence, in an attempt to rescue what remains of their prestige after the strength of their fire and iron failed to save them or protect them after their defeat - by the Grace of Allah - in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in an attempt to deceive their peoples, whose youth they are driving like blind sheep to the mires of death in Afghanistan and Iraq, and whose taxpayers they blackmail in order for them to continue to fund the projects of their leaders - the emperors of evil - in their greedy plans to enslave mankind.

America and the Crusader West pretend not to see these powers, despite the daily losses they are inflicting on them, and despite these powers' rapid development and intensifying growth due to the fact that they are the hope of the Muslim Ummah, and indeed, the hope of weak and oppressed all over the world in confronting aggression, oppression and repression; and they prefer to deal with the lowly ones among the rulers of the Muslim Ummah or with the traitorous religion-sellers and the fanatical secular nationalists in Iraq and Afghanistan. But none of these can rescue America from its predicament, because they depend for their survival on America, and the one who is missing something can't give it.

Q:You talk of an American failure and an American predicament, but Bush says that his security plan has begun to bear fruit. What is your opinion?

It bears its fruits in his pockets and the pockets of Halliburton. And lest Bush worry, I congratulate him on the success of his security plan, and I invite him on the occasion for a glass of juice, but in the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament in the middle of the Green Zone! {the site of a particularly horrific recent homicide bombing)

Then, Zawahiri goes on to detail Jihad's strategy:

There will be no reform in the Peninsula so long as Crusader forces continue to desecrate the Arabian Peninsula, and so long as Al Saud and their brothers, the proprietors of the kerosene and benzene shops on the coast of the Gulf, remain where they are. The Arabian Peninsula is suffering from {...} financial corruption which has made everyone and everything above the ground and under it property of the ruling family which controls resources and markets; and which has led to moral decline and administrative corruption.

The road to reform, and Allah knows best, requires, in the Arabian Peninsula and the other Islamic lands, work on two plans. The first is in the near term, and seeks to strike Crusader and Zionist interests so that the ground erupts in flames under the feet of the Zionists and Crusaders in our countries and theirs and everywhere we are able to strike their interests until they leave our countries and stop their continuous and increasing interference in our affairs.

And the second plan is for the longer term, and depends on two pillars: the first is preparation for the confrontation, by going forth to arenas of battle like Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, and the second pillar is diligent work to change the corrupt and corruptive regimes through invitation, incitement, mobilization and planning, and to persevere in that however much time it takes or sacrifice it requires. And every time we achieve victory in one arena, that will ease - with Allah's help - victory in the next one.

And from this, the critical importance of the Jihad in Iraq and Afghanistan becomes clear, because the defeat of the Crusaders there - soon, Allah permitting, will lead to the setting up of two Mujahid Emirates which will be launch pads for the liberation of the Islamic lands and the establishment of the Caliphate, with Allah's permission. {....}

The American regime is attempting to show its people that it's achieved some results in its war against Islam, which it calls the war on terror. And with that it is deceiving its people twice: the first time is when it portrays the war as being against an organization or a few people and flees from the biggest fact, which is that it is neither facing individuals nor organizations, but rather, is facing an angry Jihadi awakening which is shaking the lands of Islam.

As for the second deception, it is its portraying to the American people that with its arrest and killing of a few people, it has destroyed al-Qaida. They pretend to forget that Ramzi Yousef tried to demolish the two Trade towers, and success was not decreed for him, but Khalid Shaykh came along after him and destroyed them with the squadron of martyrdom-seekers, with much more than Ramzi Yousef had expected. And now Khalid Shaykh has become a role model for hundreds who are following in his footsteps, and they shall achieve more than he achieved, with Allah's permission and help.

Zawahiri goes on to discuss specifics in Egypt and Israel, in which he makes clear that the destruction of Israel is only a part of a continuing jihad - bad news for those who cling to the fantasy that pressuring Israel into compromises that lead to its destruction do not mean safety for the rest of us..and he speaks of what he calls the `culture of concessions':

the culture which claims that the Jihad of the Palestinians is confined to Palestine only, and they have nothing to do with other lands of Islam, and that its people are eager to have good relations with the Crusader West which slaughters their brothers and sisters in Chechnya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Zawahiri then reveals another major plan of the Jihad,that of dawa, indoctrination.He spends a great deal of time quoting Malcolm X and appealing to America's minorities to join with Muslims in jihad.

I want blacks in America, people of color, American Indians, Hispanics, and all the weak and oppressed in North and South America, in Africa and Asia, and all over the world, to know that when we wage Jihad in Allah's path, we aren't waging Jihad to lift oppression from the Muslims only, we are waging Jihad to lift oppression from all of mankind {...}

I also invite all the world's weak and oppressed ones to Islam, the religion of freedom and rejection of tyranny, the religion which destroyed the emperors and Khosraus and produced the 19 martyrs who demolished the symbol of America's arrogance.

Zawahiri isn't ranting, foaming at the mouth or brandishing an AK47. Instead, he's doing something far more dangerous, and instructive - giving a rational explanation of his beliefs, based on his notion of Qu'rannic values, and history. And he gives an assessment of his enemies and the strategy needed to defeat them, including utilizing fifth columns and propaganda from within.

He understands something many of us would rather not look at - that this is a war between two civilizations that cannot co-exist, and only one will be victorious. And there are apparently a fair amount of Muslims that agree with him..