NEFA Foundation: The ISI's Abu Omar al-Baghdadi Responds to U.S. Urban Withdrawal in Iraq
By Evan Kohlmann
The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated a new audio recording from the Amir al-Mumineen (“Commander of the Faithful”) of Al-Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. In the tape, al-Baghdadi noted that " if the American occupiers have a presence even in a small region in the Iraqi desert, away from all forms of life, it is a duty for every Muslim to carry Jihad against them until removing them from that region..." He pointed out that "reports and studies confirmed that war on Iraq is the first and real reason behind the American…economic crisis, and its reflections on world countries. A receiver of the Nobel Prize confirmed that the war on Iraq expense reached $150 billion annually; the expenses for an American soldier are continuously rising as in 2008 alone, $20 billion were spent to buy better armored cars, and the expenses for psychological and physical treatment of American soldiers and their families."
An English transcript of Abu Omar's recording can be downloaded from the NEFA Foundation website.
