This is sick stuff folks.
One of the top Al-Qaeda leaders who is still at large all these years later has taken to the airwaves and released a truly disgusted statement.
He praised the 9/11 attacks and referred to them as “blessed raids”.
These are declarations of war.
Here’s what MSN reported:
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri appealed to Muslims on Wednesday to attack US, European, Israeli and Russian military targets in a speech on the 18th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon, became al-Qaeda chief following the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by US commandos.
He is believed to be hiding somewhere in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
“If you want jihad to be focused solely on military targets, the American military has presence all over the world from the east to the west,” he said in a 33-minute, 28-second video produced by the group’s as-Sahab Media Foundation.
“Your countries are littered with American bases with all the infidels therein and the corruption they spread.”
The al-Qaeda hijackings on September 11, 2001 – its most notorious attack – killed nearly 3,000 people when commercial airliners slammed into the World Trade Center’s twin towers and the Pentagon while another crashed in rural Pennsylvania.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks online activity of armed groups, reported in the video al-Zawahiri, 68, called the 9/11 attacks unacceptable because civilians were harmed.
He also criticised “backtrackers” – referring to former fighters who changed their views in prison.
“Just as they conspire and join forces against us everywhere, we must chase them down everywhere at a time and place of our choosing. Be inventive and creative in your methods,” he added.
Over recent years, al-Qaeda has been engaged in fending off competition in from its chief rival, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS).
ISIL rose to prominence by seizing large swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014, declaring a “caliphate” and establishing affiliates in multiple countries across the Middle East and North Africa.
A UN report said the “immediate global threat posed by al-Qaeda remains unclear”, but it warned some would-be ISIL recruits could turn to the older organisation.
Al-Qaeda members, meanwhile, have taken a lower profile using regional conflicts in Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen to entrench themselves.
From YouTube:
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri put out a video Wednesday to again cheer the slaughter of thousands of Americans on 9/11, 18 years ago.
The CIA and U.S. military is still trying to find the elusive Al Qaeda leader who is believed to be hiding in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.
Analysts believe he does not use cell phones and has little contact with the outside world in order to avoid being captured or killed.
But al-Zawahiri is still releasing video and audio messages to try to inspire his thousands of followers, with three recordings released in just the last few weeks — including the one today.
In the tape released for 9/11, al-Zawahiri called the killing of 3,000 people in New York, the Pentagon and on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania “blessed raids.”
As minority leader, New York Sen. Charles Schumer is one of the few leaders on Capitol Hill to get regular intelligence briefings on the hunt for al-Zawahiri.“
He was number two. He has the blood of thousands of Americans on his hands,” Schumer said of al-Zawahiri’s role back in 2001. Schumer said he is hopeful progress could soon be made in finally bringing al-Zawahiri to justice.“
A lot of the briefings we get are classified … but I can tell you finding al-Zawahiri is an extremely high priority for our law enforcement.”
Al-Zawahiri was alongside Osama bin Laden when the 9/11 attacks were planned.
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