What a Coincidence! New Osama bin Laden Tape Coming Soon (updated)
By Andrew Cochran
Laura Mansfield, Evan Kohlmann, and Rita Katz's SITE Institute report that Islamist websites are announcing a new OBL tape, discussing Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq, titled “The Way to Contain the Conspiracies” (revised translation). This comes on the day of the Bhutto assassination and also in the wake of the removal of several key ISI and Al Qaeda-in-Iraq operatives recently. Ahmed Turki Abbas, self-proclaimed "defense minister" of Islamic State of Iraq, was captured by the Iraqi Army in Baghdad. Abu Abdullah, a.k.a. Muhammad Sulayman Shunaythir al-Zubai and an experienced bombmaker and attack leader, was killed by U.S. forces on November 8. An unnamed "high-value" Al Qaeda target linked to suicide bomb attacks, including the car bombing of the Australian Embassy in Baghdad, was killed by missiles fired by a U.S.-piloted helicopter. I will assume that the timing of this tape has more to do with events there and not in Pakistan.
The last OBL tape was released in late November. Evan Kohlmann posted a link to the entire transcript, while Walid Phares posted his analysis.
UPDATE: A Reuters report has the tape titled, "The Path to Foiling Plots in Iraq," and quotes OBL criticizing Al Jazeera for allegedly misrepresenting his October tape: "May God expose the cover-up by Al Jazeera, the channel of the infidels." Recall that many commentators, including Walid Phares (see his post on that tape), interpreted OBL's criticism of ISI as a defeatist message.
I will update this post as more becomes available.
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