Counterterrorism Blog

Laura Mansfield has obtained all of the long Al Qaeda video released in part on September 7. You can see an excerpt here. UPDATE 9/10: You can see Part 1 of the video here and Part 2 here from her site. Here's an excerpt from her analysis:

The Bin Laden footage, although more than five years old, removes any lingering doubts that conspiracy theorists have about Al Qaeda’s responsibility for 9/11. The terror leader makes it clear that he was responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks. The 9/11 hijackers are shown in the video. Several, include Hamza al Ghamdi and Wael al Shehri, read poems, and make statements which they clearly hope will etch their memories in the hearts of future jihadis. It’s readily apparent from this video, and from last week’s video, that Osama Bin Laden and company are focusing their recruitment efforts for Jihad on persons in the west. The de facto appointment of California-born Adam Gadahn, who has taken the nom de guerre of Azzam the American, as the Al Qaeda spokesman for the west makes this clear.

UPDATE, 9/10: Rita Katz has the entire tape too. You can see the first half on the SITE Institute website, and the second half here. You can read her analysis of that part, and here is an excerpt:

The documentary then shows 9/11 hijacker Wa'el al-Shihri reading a portion of his will. The narrator of the documentary argues that the Blind Shaykh Omar Abdel Rahman is wrongly imprisoned, and in his will, hijacker Hamza al-Ghamdi makes mention of the Blind Shaykhl, as well as the some of the imprisoned perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing plot and the 1998 East African Embassy bombing plot. Shaykh Hamood bin Uqla al-Shu'aybi, a jihadist shaykh, appears in the video, maintaining that jihad and the sword is a necessary obligation in order to support and establish Shari'ah and Islam.