How al Qaeda Remembers 9/11

So how does al Qaeda remember 9/11? They have Zawahiri release another video, calling for the destruction of the West, and specifically mention taking revenge on the United States, especially for our imprisonment of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Islamic fundamentalist cleric who was the mastermind of the 1993 WTC bombing. He's currently serving life in a supermax prison in Colorado.

CNN said the video was available on Islamist Web sites, but it could not be found on the mainstream sites often used by militant groups. It quoted Zawahiri as saying that “new events” were on the way.

“Your leaders are hiding from you the true extent of the disaster,” Zawahiri said. “And the days are pregnant and giving birth to new events, with God’s permission and guidance.”

The video showed Zawahiri dressed in white and sitting in front of a book case. It appeared to be part of al-Qaida’s own commemoration of the attacks on New York and Washington which killed almost 3,000 people.

Zawahiri held the U.S.-allied governments of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia responsible for the killing of Muslims in the Middle East, Al Jazeera said.

“Israel has been able to dominate Lebanon and Gaza only because Egypt has been totally removed from the conflict with Israel,” Zawahiri said.

Zawahiri also calls for the destruction of Israel and threatens the Persian Gulf states that are friendly to the West.

However, Zawahiri's comments about Israel dominating Lebanon and Gaza are interesting because it offers a stark contrast to what Hizbullah has been saying about Israel. Zawahiri thinks that Israel is the one determining the pace and outcome of events there, not Hizbullah, but Zawahiri wants that to change, and calls for the ultimate destruction of Israel.

CNN has more on the video's contents, including Zawahiri stating that all infidels are targets - that would be any civilian:

Al-Zawahiri says any attack on Westerners and Jews anywhere can be considered fair, because "the reality of international politics is the humiliation and repression of the Muslim at the hands of the idol-kings who dominate this world."

Nice of him to separate out Jews from the rest of Westerners. It's not entirely a distinction without a difference, although Zawahiri's brand of Islamist fundamentalism calls for submission to Islam or death. The specific call to eliminate Jews is a call for genocide.

The statement calls on Muslims to fight U.S. allies in Somalia, where an Islamic militia recently pushed an American-backed alliance of warlords out of the capital Mogadishu.

This isn't the first time that al Qaeda has considered Somalia an important battleground. Al Qaeda needs to find new safe havens considering that Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan aren't safe for them to operate in the open. A failed state like Sudan or Somalia is perfect for this terrorist group to regroup and rearm. It's also a sign that their capabilities to do damage in places like Iraq and Afghanistan has been degraded to the point that they need to find other locations from which to operate.