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Um, so: Anyone want to interview al Qaeda?

Sky News reports that a new video, perportedly from the terrorist organization, includes an invitation for journalists to interview al Qaeda number two Ayman al Zawahri.

"If genuine, it represents the first such offer by the terror network to interview one of its leaders since the attacks of September 11, 2001," Sky notes.

Zawahri may be trying to cast himself not as a terrorist but a legitimate thinker and organizational head, one who should be treated with respect – a tall order, to say the least. The interview offer seems to be part of al Qaeda's public relations strategy: The organization's videos have gotten increasingly professional, and this week one was released showing "Zawahri in a classic, well-lit TV interview situation."

Interested parties are asked to send written questions to the web forums where al Qaeda's video production division, Al-Sahab, posts messages. (Al-Sahab means "The Clouds" in Arabic.)

Last year, Al-Sahab Media released a video called "An Invitation to Islam: An Al-Sahab Produced Video Featuring Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri and Azzam the American AKA Adam Gadahn."

According to a report posted at this discussion forum, "The majority of the video, nearly forty-five minute, features Azzam the American explaining the perceived benefits of Islam over Judaism, Christianity, and other religions, and criticizing Western leaders for their alleged presentation of Islam as barbaric and Muslims as bogeymen."

Here's what Zawahiri reportedly has to say:

“And as our brother Azzam the American talks to you, he talks to you as one concerned about the fate which awaits his people, and as a perceptive person who wants to lead his people our of darkness into the light. So listen to him, because what he is talking to you about is serious and significant. He is talking to you about the fate which awaits every human, an extremely grave issue in which there is no joking, procrastination or backtracking.”

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In light of the anniversary of 9/11, we're getting the usual media commemorations – with William Safire deconstructing the term itself and USA Today accusing us of not really caring about the date anymore. (Was I the only one insulted by that?)

And we also got an update about al Qaeda's new media prowess, courtesy of the Washington Post.

Since 2000, al-Qaeda has run its own media production company, al-Sahab, which means "the clouds" in Arabic, an allusion to the misty mountain peaks of Afghanistan.

Until two years ago, al-Sahab was dependent on broadcasters such as the al-Jazeera satellite television network to air its videos and could distribute only short clips on the Internet. But then it achieved a spectacular breakthrough. Taking advantage of technological advances and bandwidth expansion, it began posting videos directly on the Internet, relying on an anonymous global network of webmasters to shield their electronic tracks.
In 2005, al-Sahab released 16 videos. This year, it has produced four times that number. Quality has improved markedly, with most videos now including subtitles in several languages and sometimes 3-D animation.
"If you want to stop al-Qaeda on the communications front, you should concentrate on their IT manager instead of Osama," said Muhammad Amir Rana, director of the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, a research group in Lahore, Pakistan, that studies militant groups.

Read full post…

In light of the anniversary of 9/11, we're getting the usual media commemorations – with William Safire deconstructing the term itself and USA Today accusing us of not really caring about the date anymore. Yeah.

And we also got an update about Al Qaeda's new media prowess, courtesy of the Washington Post.

Since 2000, al-Qaeda has run its own media production company, al-Sahab, which means "the clouds" in Arabic, an allusion to the misty mountain peaks of Afghanistan.

Until two years ago, al-Sahab was dependent on broadcasters such as the al-Jazeera satellite television network to air its videos and could distribute only short clips on the Internet. But then it achieved a spectacular breakthrough. Taking advantage of technological advances and bandwidth expansion, it began posting videos directly on the Internet, relying on an anonymous global network of webmasters to shield their electronic tracks.
In 2005, al-Sahab released 16 videos. This year, it has produced four times that number. Quality has improved markedly, with most videos now including subtitles in several languages and sometimes 3-D animation.
"If you want to stop al-Qaeda on the communications front, you should concentrate on their IT manager instead of Osama," said Muhammad Amir Rana, director of the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, a research group in Lahore, Pakistan, that studies militant groups.

Read full post…