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Terror Networks
New tapes on al-Qaeda-linked website
2003-12-05
A little more on the revelation that al-Qaeda was training in Soddy ...
THE MENACING new al-Qaida video obtained by NBC News features a new look — a terror cell that claims to be training inside Saudi Arabia mugs for the camera with most faces blurred to conceal identities.
Hmm, that implies that the level of technical professionalism in their IT department has risen somewhat over the last two years ...
Their attire and weapons look like a professional assault team and they appear to be practicing an entry drill consistent with tactics used in bombings this year in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where small teams of shooters breach security to get car bombs in place.
Amazing that they can do all of this in secret but that Shi’ites or Christians can’t even organize a prayer group without the religious police at their doorstep, isn’t it?
It’s apparently the latest propaganda piece from al-Qaida, with dire warnings for the West and the Saudi royal family.
"Yar! We're warnin' youse! Y'r gonna get it!"
Terrorism analyst Ben Venzke, who supplies material to U.S. law enforcement, downloaded the material from a known al-Qaida Web site: “It’s significant that al-Qaida is training terrorists within Saudi Arabia because it would appear they are preparing for a continued campaign of regular strikes both against the Saudi regime and Western interests,” Venzke said.
Now, who'da thunk that? Guess the princes weren't about to reach an accomodation with the clerics, huh?
The only man who is identifiable is Abdel Al-Otaibe, killed by Saudi security forces only days before the November bombings in Riyadh. “I strongly encourage young Muslims to join the jihad for Allah’s sake, to protect our land and to drive Christians and Jews out of Muslim countries,” Al-Otaibe said on the tape.
"Look at all it's done for me! You, too, can be a deader!"
The tape appears to be real, because it was posted late Wednesday night on a known al-Qaida Web site — produced by a company that has made other bin Laden tapes. The tape also contains what U.S. counterterror experts say may be never-before-broadcast video of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York’s World Trade Center shot from across the East River in Brooklyn. The FBI says it is familiar with the video, which was provided by a friendly bystander.
Interesting ...
But that raises the question — how did a tape that was not widely circulated end up on a known al-Qaida site?
Posted by:Dan Darling

#6  Would have been beter if the Al Quaida guys had been wearing Groucho Marx masks. (cf Woody Allen's movie "Take the money and run")
Posted by: JFM   2003-12-5 4:15:34 PM  

#5  Maybe they finally managed to learn the basics of Premiere.....

Yeah, there are dozens of how-tos for blurring faces in every video package out there.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2003-12-5 3:58:37 PM  

#4  Where's Benny and Omar? And what about the 'Mother of all Attacks' which Al-Q has promised?
Damn! Security must have been compromised, and they learned about the 400 bombers the United States had sitting ready, armed with large nuclear weapons, designed to turn most of Saudi Arabia into an even larger, even emptier Rub al Khali (Empty Quarter, for the geographically challenged). Hard to get funds from glass... especially radioactive glass.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2003-12-5 2:00:59 PM  

#3  Where's Benny and Omar? And what about the 'Mother of all Attacks' which Al-Q has promised? Geeze! You cant trust anyone these days :((.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2003-12-5 11:10:01 AM  

#2  Hmm, that implies that the level of technical professionalism in their IT department has risen somewhat over the last two years ...

Maybe they finally managed to learn the basics of Premiere.....
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2003-12-5 10:40:23 AM  

#1  Hope the FBI is targetting the A/V nerds at major colleges.
Posted by: BH   2003-12-5 1:49:13 AM  

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