NEFA Exclusive: Translation of Controversial Interview with Al-Qaida in Iraq Leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajir

By Evan Kohlmann

The NEFA Foundation has transcribed and translated a highly controversial new interview with Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq. During the interview, produced by the official media wing of Al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Hamza pointedly accused various other Sunni insurgent groups—including the Islamic Army of Iraq (IAI), the Mujahideen Army, and the 1920 Revolution Brigades—of treachery and collaboration with U.S. forces and the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government. When asked by the Al-Qaida interviewer, “do you have military operations outside Iraq, such as in Western countries, for example? Do you have the intention of targeting Western interests?”, Abu Hamza responded, “Every country which has participated in the aggression on Iraq and in the crimes against the rights of our people are legitimate targets for us—for even if time grows long, rights are not forgotten or grow old. Indeed, we have already carried out many operations outside Iraq—one of which that should be particularly mentioned is the most recent operation in Britain, when part of [the mission] was carried out at the airport, and rest was a failure, due to a mistake committed by one of our brothers a few days before the operation, when he called to break the news that the operation was about to take place. However, we should give the leaders of Britain, America, and Australia some news about what is to come. What Allah has inspired in us, they have no power to counter and, with the help of Allah, no capacity to detect.”

Separately, the NEFA Foundation has also obtained and translated a new communiqué issued by the Ansar al-Islam Organization in Iraq (formerly known as the Ansar al-Sunnah Army), in which the group distanced itself from “illegal actions” and “criminal behavior” allegedly committed by unspecified factions from within the jihadi movement in Iraq. Rejecting any responsibility for these “incidents”, the statement argued, “May Allah forbid that Ansar [al-Islam] would remain silent in the face of abominable actions as an approval of them—to the contrary, we have relied on remaining silent as our policy for a specific stage and for a specific purpose, which we consider to be crucial for us. Our silence is not based on actions—if it were so, it would be a false silence according to Shariah—but, rather, the silence was aimed at [avoiding] publishing condemnations in the media, because the enemy uses a strategy of media publicity for propaganda and to create rifts within the ranks of the mujahideen.”

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