Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Bin Laden's haunting last words, a decade after 9/11

Al-Qa'ida's anniversary video reveals a weakened and inept group

By Robert Fisk

"....But the whole video production, organised by al-Qa'ida's Egyptian successor-leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, only emphasized the decay of the organisation's ideology and its palpable failure to overthrow the Arab dictators who are being slowly pulled from their thrones by secular Arab revolts. True, they needed the help of Nato in Libya, but the tape made no mention of this. Instead, we had to listen to Zawahiri congratulating the Arabs who had overthrown their regimes – without any help from al-Qa'ida – and then sermonising that the "blessed attacks" on 11 September 2001 were "a mighty event which shook and continues to shake the pillars of the global crusade".....

Did Zawahiri think his declining legions would be impressed? Did he really believe that the Arab millions who had paid – thousands of them in blood – for the Middle East revolutions, would thank al-Qa'ida for this encouragement?....

Was the irony lost on him? Yes, the Americans lost. But so did al-Qa'ida. Entitled "The Dawn of Imminent [sic] Victory", the whole video affair suggested that only by "an era of true (another sic here, of course) Islam and Sharia-based governance" would real victory be achieved.

Well, maybe. But how come no Bin Laden portraits, no al-Qa'ida banners, adorned those epic crowds during the Arab awakening?....."

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