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New Al-Qaida Transcripts, Terrorism Legal Documents Now Available

By Evan Kohlmann

In recent weeks, Al-Qaida-led terrorist franchises based in Afghanistan and Iraq have released several new recordings of speeches by senior Al-Qaida leaders--including both Usama Bin Laden and the commander of Al-Qaida's "Islamic State of Iraq" known as "Abu Omar al-Baghdadi." English-language transcripts of these various speeches are now available for download care of the NEFA Foundation website. The audio recording released on September 14 from Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was particularly significant--especially to those who follow the very serious internal schisms opening up between Al-Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq. In his address, al-Baghdadi directly attacked other Sunni insurgent groups--such as the 1920 Revolution Brigades, Hamas in Iraq, and the Iraqi Islamic Resistance Front (JAAMI)--as "backstabbing" traitors who have abandoned their commitment to jihad. Needless to say, al-Baghdadi also reserved a strong dose of vitriol for the "degenerate crusader nation of Sweden", where cartoons were recently published that were viewed as disrespectful to the Prophet Mohammed. In response, al-Baghdadi promised to launch punitive terrorist attacks by mid-October on Swedish "industrial giants" such as Volvo, Scandia, Ikea, and Ericsson--in addition to killing both the cartoon artist himself and his Swedish editor.

The NEFA website also features a collection of new terrorism-related legal documents, including exhibits filed in the criminal case against Pete Seda, a former official of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation in Oregon. Earlier this month, I testified as an expert witness on behalf of U.S. federal prosecutors during an initial bond hearing for Seda, and--among other things--I offered comment and analysis regarding several of these exhibits.

These new documents can be accessed via the NEFA Foundation "Featured Documents" website sub-section, or else from the main NEFA homepage.

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