Released today on the 18th anniversary of Sept. 11, Osama bin Laden’s 68-year-old former Egyptian doctor now head of al-Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahri urged jihadists to attack U.S., Israeli, European and Russian targets. Zawahri inherited al-Qaeda, the global terror group responsible for Sept. 11, May 2, 2011, the day U.S. Navy Seals tracked Bin Laden down in Abbottabad, Pakistan, killing the Saudi-born al-Qaeda founder. Zawahri never had Bin Laden’s charisma, nor the poetic gift for jihadist-inspired language, mobilizing disenfranchised youth to strap on suicide vests for the cause. Driving into hiding by the U.S. military, Zawahri now boasts how the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] took a beating for hosting its caliphate, seizing chunks of Iraq and Syria. Criticizing “backtrackers” now in jail, who’s changed their views about jihad seeing the damage al-Qaeda wreaked on youthful lives.
Bin Laden’s model from the early days in Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan was to pluck disenfranchised youth from their families, morphing them into suicide bombers for the cause. President Donald Trump tweeted today, “Never Again,” promising that he intends to hit al-Qaeda, ISIS and other terrorist groups hard. When Trump cancelled his backdoor meeting at Camp David with the Taliban Sept. 9 after a recent terrorist attack in Kabul killing a U.S. marine, he realized that terror groups cannot be placated. Pentagon officials spent nearly a year negotiating with the Taliban for a U.S. troop withdrawal, something that proved bogus once the Taliban lashed out in Kabul. Yet the media blames Trump for considering a meeting, when the Pentagon spent nearly a year negotiating a withdrawal deal. What became obvious was the Taliban’s disingenuous motives for holding talks.
Getting the U.S. out Afghanistan gave the Taliban the best chance of toppling the U.S.-backed government of Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, who, if nothing else, is committed to a democratic Afghanistan. Loyal to the memory of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban wanted nothing short of re-introducing strict Sharia law in Afghanistan. Today’s Sept. 11 commemoration reminded Trump that terrorists cannot be placated, no matter what their promises. U.S. forces hit al-Qaeda with 40 tons of carpet bombing yesterday at safe havens in remote parts of Iraq. Zawahri let Trump know the mission of the terror group to create mayhem in civilian populations wherever possible. “If you want Jihad to be focused solely on military targets, the American military has presence all over the world, from East to West,” Zawahri said, justifying hitting defenseless civilians.
Blasting Muslim countries with U.S. military bases, Zawahri criticized Mideast and North African governments. “Your countries are littered with American bases, with all the infidels therein and the corruption they spread,” spreading Bin Laden’s only message about the superiority of Islam and decadence of the West. Zawahri’s speech was traced to March 25 when the U.S. recognized the Golan Heights as Israel’s sovereign territory. Calling on Palestinians to suicide bomb Israel, Zawahri shows how an underground terror organization has more clout fighting a guerrilla war. Unlike ISIS, that would like to get its caliphate back, al-Qaeda seems content to strike civilian targets wherever they present themselves. Living in hiding like Bin Laden, Zawahri is on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, carrying a $25 million bounty. Zawahri asks young people to martyr themselves for al-Qaeda, just not himself.
Zawahri’s message should remind anyone who lived through the horror of Sept. 11, that al-Qaeda, ISIS and other terror groups are just as bloodthirsty as ever. Sept. 11 should remind U.S. citizens that the price of freedom remains high for the next generation faced with dealing with terror groups in a post-Sept. 11 era. Recent U.N. reports indicate that the “immediate threat posed by al-Qaeda remains unclear,” noting that the U.S. has not been hit with another major terror attack since Sept. 11. Al-Qaeda prefers to go about its business quietly in the Mideast and North Africa, exploiting local and regional conflicts in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Syria. Yemen’s al-Qaeda branch sows conflict into a war-torn areas going through a bitter civil war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Zawahri goes, like Bin Laden, into any area where anarchy prevails over civil society.
Al-Qaeda’s model of creating mayhem wherever there are soft targets around the globe should remind the White House not to let its guard down. If yesterday’s carpet bombing of al-Qaeda and ISIS safe havens along the Tigris Rivers in Saladin province.is any guide, it shows that Trump takes seriously his fight against Islamic terrorism. Zawahri lets Trump know that al-Qaeda intends to continue its mission of hitting soft civilian targets wherever they present themselves. Civil war in Yemen, Somalia, Libya and other war-torn areas provide al-Qaeda the best breeding ground for recruiting disenfranchised youth as suicide bombers. With Bin Laden’s 38-year-old son Hamza killed July 31, only the aging Zawahri carries Bin Laden’s torch, finding it more difficult to finance and recruit the next generation of suicide bombers. Whether al-Qaeda remains lethal or not, Trump cannot take down his guard.
