NEFA Foundation: Sheikh Abu Yahya al-Liby - “Algeria; Between the Sacrifice of Fathers and Loyalty of Children”
By Evan Kohlmann
The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated a June 25, 2009 video featuring Sheikh Abu Yahya al-Liby entitled, “Algeria; Between the Sacrifice of Fathers and Loyalty of Children.” In the video, al-Liby sent “a greeting of love, kindness, honor, brotherhood, loyalty and support to the Muslim Algerian people and its pure selected people in al-Qa'eda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, and atop them the mujahid sheikh our brother Abu Musab Abdulwadud.” He added, “O Muslim people of Algeria, your period of sacrifice is recent, and many of the wounds of that era are still bleeding, and is it possible for a deep wound the blood remained flowing in its depth for more than one hundred and thirty years to become forgotten or erased? No!” Al-Liby also assailed France for seeking to “corrupt this Muslim populace in belief and creation.” Al-Liby, who was being held by the U.S. government, escaped from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in July 2005. The State Department’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism asserted that “Abu Yahya is a senior Al-Qaida member, a top strategist for the group, and trusted and presented as one of the group’s most effective promoters of jihad.”
A transcript of Abu Yahya's remarks can be downloaded from the NEFA Foundation website.
