Exclusive: Interview with a Foreign Fighter from Al-Qaida's "Islamic State of Iraq"

By Evan Kohlmann

On April 27, 2007, the administrators of a radical Arabic-language chat room on the Paltalk online network announced a special live question-and-answer session with Abu Adam al-Maqdisi, a Palestinian national fighting with Al-Qaida’s “Islamic State of Iraq.” In advertisements posted on other online forums, the organizers explained that the interview had been arranged in order to address questions from Al-Qaida supporters and to “offer an accurate picture of the jihad in Mesopotamia.” The discussion, conducted entirely in an audio stream provided by Paltalk, lasted for over two hours.

An English translation of the discussion is now available from Globalterroralert.com.

Highlights include:
- "There are no specific fixed training camps inside of Iraq. Training is conducted in hidden secret places or in areas that, for obvious reasons, I can’t share them with you...Our most urgent need is for martyrs [suicide volunteers], we need martyrs more than anything else... To those of you who want to join the jihad in Iraq, then I would ask you to be patient and to organize everything before doing so. You should contact the brothers in Iraq before getting there. The whole notion of ‘passionate jihad’ and going to Iraq without having anyone to contact there is useless... so you should plan your departure and journey ahead of time.
- "The brothers in Iraq are kept up-to-date about the events happening in Iraq via the various forums on the Internet... In response to the question ‘what is the best way to prepare yourself while in your country before joining the jihad in Iraq’: O’ brother, there are many military courses distributed by various jihadi websites—such as the Al-Hesbah, Al-Ekhlaas, and the Al-Boraq forums."
- "The brothers from Algeria, they used to come to Iraq and then return to Algeria. There is coordination between us and them. Once, I met a brother from Tunisia who later died [in Iraq]... Once, I met a brother who was American and his mother was British—and yet in spite of this, he still joined the mujahideen... there are many Moroccan brothers who have joined the Islamic State."
- “The beheadings are still happening, but we have an order not to broadcast them. Everything is videotaped but we can’t broadcast them. We do seek to capture and imprison American soldiers, but you have to understand that it is very difficult to do so because they patrol in groups, at least 15 soldiers at a time. We hope and pray to capture them."
- “In regards to the bill in the U.S. Congress for the upcoming withdrawal from Iraq, I would comment that this is a normal response to what is occurring. It is the result of the efforts of your brothers among the mujahideen... our next step... is to establish an Islamic State. We will start by setting free all of the Muslim lands from the oppressor regimes. Of course, we have not forgotten about Palestine, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Andalusia [Spain], the Philippines, and all the other countries… The Islamic State of Iraq is seeking to export the jihad to neighboring countries... The jihad that began in Muslim Afghanistan and then spread to Iraq shall not stop there and will limited by any border... The Islamic State of Iraq will make sure the jihad will not stop until it reaches Jerusalem... We inform the Jews, we inform the lowlife Olmert, and we inform the apostate [Arab] rulers who support them that the jihad is here, Islam is here, and the followers of the Prophet are here."
- "I would like to draw your attention to the entity calling itself the Shariah Front for Iraqi Salvation, which is a group that has no impact whatsoever on what is happening in Iraq. It is a group created by the media and serves no purpose whatsoever in Iraq.”

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