A very quiet Al Qaeda in Waziristan suggests terror attack in offing: Experts

Washington, May 14 (ANI): Experts monitoring audio and video messages released by the terror group, Al Qaeda and its number two leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, feel that it has suddenly “gone dark,” and too quiet in Waziristan, and suggest that this could be the lull before the (terror) storm.

Some intelligence analysts believe such absences precede major terror attacks by al Qaeda.

“I don”t like it, it”s too quiet,” said a person who monitors websites for al Qaeda and terror-related messages.

Zawahiri has not been seen or heard since December 2009, “the longest gap he has had in nearly six years,” according to Ben Venzke of the IntelCenter, which monitors al Qaeda messages for governments, businesses and the media.

A US official said there is “no reason” to believe that Zawahiri has been killed or injured in recent months but that “it is possible” he and other al Qaeda leaders “have new concerns about their security.”

Al Qaeda safe havens in North Waziristan in Pakistan have been under a sustained air attack by
CIA directed Predator aircraft.

The ABC quoted Venzke, as saying the disappearance of another frequent al Qaeda speaker, Abu Yahya al-Libi, is the longest gap “since he first began to regularly appear in al Qaeda messaging in 2006.”

He has not appeared in an al Qaeda propaganda tape for 137 days, reported the IntelCenter. (ANI)

Osama declares decades of war on ‘powerless’ Obama

Islamabad, Sep 14 (ANI): Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has said that US President Barack Obama is “powerless” to stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a transcript of a tape released by the terrorist organization’s media wing.

Al Qaeda’s As-Sahab Media released a video featuring a still image of Osama and audio statement entitled “A statement to the American people,” said the organisation IntelCenter.

SITE Intelligence Group, a terrorist-monitoring firm that translated the address, says Osama blames the wars on the “pro-Israel lobby” and corporate interests.

IntelCenter, another company that monitors terrorist propaganda, reports that the 11-minute video is an address to the American people, two days after the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

The group described the release as an address to the American public. Osama usually releases a statement around September or October each year, The Times reports.

In his last previous known message in June, Osama said US President Barack Obama had planted the seeds of “revenge and hatred” towards the United States in the Muslim world and warned of decades of conflict to come.

That audiotape aired on Qatar’s Al-Jazeera news channel less than an hour after Obama landed in Saudi Arabia.

Obama “has followed the steps of his predecessor in antagonizing Muslims… and laying the foundation for long wars,” Osama said in the June release, referring to deadly clashes in Pakistan between the US-backed government and Islamist militants.

“He gave his orders to (Pakistani President Asif Ali) Zardari and his army to prevent the people of Swat from applying Sharia (Islamic) law,” he said.

“Obama and his administration have sowed new seeds of hatred against America. Let the American people prepare to harvest the crops of what the leaders of the White House plant in the next years and decades,” said the Al-Qaeda leader. (ANI)

Al-Qaeda video sends warning to Germany

Berlin – Germany was urged to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in a video believed to have been made by a member of the terrorist network Al-Qaeda.

A German-speaker wearing a black turban and facecloth that left only his eyes visible spoke in the 30-minute video, which was posted on the internet on Saturday.

The message, delivered by a man calling himself “Abu Talha, the German,” was titled “Rescue Plan for Germany”. It contained Arabic subtitles.

It made no direct threats against Germany, but said the country was “gullible and naive” to believe it could “emerge unscathed” from having the third-biggest contingent of foreign troops in Afghanistan.

The message, dated October 2008, appeared on the same day as a car bomb killed five people, including a US soldier, near the German embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Afghanistan’s radical Taliban movement claimed responsibility. for the blast, which injured 30 persons, among them a German and two other embassy staffers.

The German parliament approved legislation in October, increasing the number of German troops serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan to 4,500.

The Washington-based IntelCenter, a US security organization that specializes in screening Islamist internet pages, said the video appeared to have been produced by al-Qaeda.

“This is the most significant and high-profile address by al-Qaeda to Germany and perhaps any European country,” the centre said. dpa