Sayyid Imam wraps up his new book today. Much of his final criticism is aimed at Bin Laden, whom he describes as incurious and incapable of holding himself accountable for his errors. Regarding the latter, Imam compares Bin Laden negatively to Hassan Nasrallah, who apologized and offered compensation to the Lebanese civilians whose homes had [...]
Archive for the ‘Bin Laden’ Category
The Denudation Of The Exoneration: Part 13 (Final)
Posted: 2nd December 2008 by Will McCants in AQ Leadership, Bin Laden, Egypt, Hezbollah, Uncategorized, ZawahiriTags: Bin Laden, Sayyid Imam, Zawahiri
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The Denudation Of The Exoneration: Part 10
Posted: 29th November 2008 by Will McCants in Afghanistan, AQ Leadership, Bin Laden, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, ZawahiriTags: Sayyid Imam, Zawahiri
Amidst the personal attacks on Zawahiri in part 10, Sayyid Imam mentions a few more interesting historical tidbits. First, he notes the opposition of two prominent Jihadis, Abu Mus`ab al-Suri and `Abd al-Rahman al-Kindi (died in 2003), to the attacks on the U.S. He also discloses that Zawahiri’s imprisoned brother, Muhammad, has been trying [...]
The Denudation Of The Exoneration: Part 8
Posted: 28th November 2008 by Will McCants in AQ Leadership, Bin Laden, Egypt, Hamas, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Syria, WMD, ZawahiriTags: Bin Laden, Sayyid Imam, Zawahiri
In part 8, Sayyid Imam continues to hammer al-Qaeda for bringing disaster to the Middle East and for the hypocrisy of its leaders. He puts forward the odd claim that AQ lied to the U.S. about WMD in Iraq and about AQ ties with Iraq to push the U.S. to invade observes that Iran and [...]
Zawahiri the XO
Posted: 11th September 2008 by Will McCants in AQ in Iraq, AQ Leadership, Bin Laden, Iraq, Islamic State of Iraq, Jihadi media, Recruitment, tactics, ZawahiriTags: Abu Ayyub al-Masri, al-Qaeda Central, al-Qaeda in Iraq, Bin Laden, Islamic State of Iraq, Zawahiri
The US military has given CNN letters that Zawahiri wrote in March 2008 to senior al-Qaeda commanders in Iraq (hat tip SK). Much of the content has been filtered through an MNFI spokesman so it’s hard to use CNN’s summary to assess al-Qaeda’s fortunes in Iraq. Nevertheless, since the summary fits with the bleak picture [...]
Bin Laden Message Prompts Speculation on AQ Strategy in Palestine (Part 1)
Posted: 20th May 2008 by Will McCants in Bin Laden, Hezbollah, Israel, Palestinian Territories, StrategyTags: Bin Laden, Hezbollah, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Strategy, Zawahiri
Bin Laden’s statement on May 18th has prompted several Jihadi pundits to speculate on AQ’s future strategy in the Palestinian territories. Over the next few days, I’ll post the most interesting speculation. For part one, we’ll look at a short post by Ekhlaas member Khalid al-`Asqalani. According to `Asqalani, Bin Laden has presented a complete [...]
Bin Laden Message on 60th Anniversary of Israel
Posted: 16th May 2008 by Will McCants in AQ Leadership, Bin Laden, Israel, Palestinian TerritoriesTags: Bin Laden, Israel, Palestinian Territories, statement, Zawahiri
Today, al-Sahab (the organization that distributes Bin Laden and Zawahiri’s messages) sent around a statement by Bin Laden on the 60th anniversary of Israel. In his address, Bin Laden stated the “Palestine question” is the chief cause of conflict between Western nations and the Muslim community. It is the ultimate reason why AQ attacked the [...]