Media Messages From Al Qaeda

Al Qaeda's media wing has delivered a bunch of videos today - including another one by Osama (although I suspect that it will be along the lines of a voice over and a static photo of Osama), and one by Zawahiri that calls for jihad against Pakistan and Musharraf. Guess that the jihad against the infidel in Iraq and Afghanistan is going so well that they've got to call for jihad against their safe haven in Pakistan to keep things going. Musharraf's government says that this doesn't change anything since they're dedicated to fighting the Islamists and extremists anyway. The videos call on continued jihad in Afghanistan, North Africa, Darfur, and Pakistan. Zawahiri's tape included footage of Mohammad Atta, the 9/11 fiend who led the 9/11 attacks and murdered nearly 3,000 people along with the 18 other Islamic terrorists who hijacked the four planes.

Al-Zawahiri began by condemning the Pakistani military's July assault on Islamic militants who took over the Red Mosque in Islamabad, and he paid tribute to one of the militants' leaders, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed in the fighting.

The siege "revealed the extent of the despicableness, lowliness and treason of Musharraf and his forces, who don't deserve the honor of defending Pakistan, because Pakistan is a Muslim land, whereas the forces of Musharraf are hunting dogs under (President) Bush's crucifix," al-Zawahiri said.

"Let the Pakistani army know that the killing of Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his male and female students ... has soaked the history of the Pakistan army in shame and despicableness which can only washed away by retaliation," he said.

Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri are thought to be hiding in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, where many analysts believe they have rebuilt al Qaeda's core leadership.

Al-Zawahiri called for attacks on French and Spanish interests in North Africa and on U.N. and African peacekeepers expected to deploy in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

"What they claim to be the strongest power in the history of mankind is today being defeated in front of the Muslim vanguards of jihad six years after the two raids on New York and Washington," al-Zawahiri said, speaking in what appeared to be an office, with shelves of religious books and an automatic rifle leaning against them.

The reason that Zawahiri has to keep making these kinds of appeals for jihad all over the place is that they need to take the pressure off their al Qaeda brethren in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. They've been getting hammered and al Qaeda's brand of Islam has been rejected in places like Anbar Province in Iraq because the Muslims living there have seen the brutality and rigid ideology inflicted upon Iraqis there, and want no piece of it.

Al Qaeda spreads their militant Islamist version of Islam by the sword, and in doing so, it has the potential to alienate less observant Muslims. Those less observant Muslims are treated no differently than infidels, meaning that they're subject to the same kind of bombings, terrorist attacks, murders, intimidation attacks, and that has had a detrimental effect on al Qaeda's ability to find safe haven in increasing areas of Iraq.

This isn't the first time that al Qaeda's propaganda videos have called for jihad in places like Darfur, and it's notable that they're once again making the call for jihad in failed states/regions. Those are the places from which al Qaeda needs safe havens in order to expand their operations against the West. If they can't get a foothold there, that puts a serious crimp in their long term plans.

UPDATE:
Best headline thus far on the video: Bin Laden Tape to Declare War on Perv

UPDATE:
Bryan at Hot Air wonders whether al Qaeda has tacitly admitted that it has lost the battlefront in Iraq and Afghanistan and is instead seeking to regroup in Pakistan to fight against Musharraf. That's further than I would go, as I think al Qaeda is trying to relieve pressure on its minions in all three countries by trying to expand the battlespace to other regions of the world - hoping to spread the West's response too thin to do any real good. It's like swatting at a bunch of flies with a pea shooter. You might get some of them, but not all the terrorists. However, I agree that angering the Pakistani government by threatening them directly may be a real bad career choice.