On January 23, 2009 the Islamist website Al-Faluja posted a video message from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula that consisted of messages delivered by four commanders in the organization – two of them former prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. In the messages the commanders urged Muslims to assist the Palestinians in Gaza, called for attacks on Western interests in order to pressure them to stop aiding Israel, warned imprisoned mujahideen about the Saudi "counseling program to reeducate extremists,"[i] and warned the Saudi regime to stop protecting Western embassies, churches, and military bases.
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The following are excerpts from the video message:
Deputy Emir of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Former Guantanamo Prisoner: We'll Continue Jihad Until "We Set Up an Islamic State and Establish a Caliphate... And Until the Law of Allah Is Implemented"
In his message, deputy Emir of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and former Guantanamo prisoner Abu Sufyan Al-Azdi Sa'id Al-Shihri promised to continue in the path of jihad until "we set up an Islamic state and establish a Caliphate... and until the law of Allah is implemented." Al-Azdi accused the Arab regimes of cooperating with the Americans at Guantanamo by sending their security agents to help "interrogate the prisoners, extract admissions from them, and press charges against them." He promised to export the jihad from the Arabian Peninsula to "Palestine, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all Muslim countries, in order to defend our lands and sanctuaries and in order to [ensure] that religion is given over entirely to Allah."
Emir of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula: "We Must Cut Off the Aid to the Zionist-Crusader Military Campaign and Kill Every Crusader in Our Lands; [We Must] Destroy All Western Interests"
Referring to the conflict in Gaza, Abu Basir Nasir Al-Wahishi, Emir of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, stated: "It is necessary to proceed from demonstrations to explosions and from civil disobedience to military rage. We must cut off the aid to the Zionist-Crusader military campaign and kill every Crusader in our lands. [We must] destroy all Western interests until Europe and American stop supporting the Jews, halt the killing there [i.e. Gaza] and instruct its collaborators..., the Arab regimes, to open the passageway into Gaza and Palestine."
Military Commander of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula: "Your True Enemies Are... Those Who Speak Your Language"
Urging Palestinians to assist their brothers in Gaza, Abu Hurayra Qasim Al-Rimi, military commander of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, stated: "The calamity which you experience suffices for you to realize who your true enemies are: [They are] those who speak your language... but besiege you and deprive you of medical treatment, food and water, and those who prevent your brothers in Amman, Cairo, Damascus, Beirut, Riyadh and San'a from assisting you."
Directly addressing Hizbullah Sec.-Gen. Hassan Nasrallah, Abu Hurayra said: "Tell me, what is all this crying about Gaza and its people? Didn't you claim that you possess close to 20,000 missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv? Don't our brothers in Gaza deserve that you fire a thousand, two thousand, or three thousand missiles as assistance instead of this crying...? Is the Lebanese land dearer and more important to you than the blood of the Palestinian Muslims? Tell me, by God, what is the difference between you and Hosni Mubarak? Hosni is the safety valve for the Jews in Egypt and you are the safety valve for them in Lebanon. By Allah, if we were in your place, we would have advanced... to Palestine..."
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Field Commander and Former Guantanamo Detainee: "We Warn Our Imprisoned Brothers About the [Saudi] Counseling Program"
Addressing the issue of the Saudi counseling program for reeducating extremists, Abu Al-Hareth Muhammad Al-'Ufi, field Commander and former Guantanamo detainee, stated: "We warn our imprisoned brothers about the counseling program, which is promoted by the tyrant and ignoramus Muhammad bin Nayef and by his criminal helpers like Turki Al-'Atyan (Saudi Interior Ministry psychologist). [The latter] headed a delegation to Cuba [to conduct] interrogations using psychological methods, in order to help the Americans... extract confessions from us by [the same] psychological means used in Saudi prisons against mujahideen, in order to dissuade us from ourJana Islam and our path... as part of the counseling program..."
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Endnotes:
[1] See Memri Inquiry and Analysis 260, "Reeducation of Extremists in Saudi Arabia," January 18, 2006, Reeducation of Extremists in Saudi Arabia.
