As an aside, I am heartened that six years after September 11, 2001, our enemy still needs to boast about the 2001 attack. They've failed to come close to matching that strike since then.
After the last tape that droned on about every Leftist cause, including global warming, this new tape contains gems to ponder:
It begins with an audiotape introduction by bin Laden. While his voice is heard, the video shows a still image of him, raising his finger. In the image, bin Laden has the same dyed-black beard and the same clothes — a white robe and cap and beige cloak — that he had in Saturday's video.But it was not known if the audiotape was recently made. In the past, al-Qaida has used footage and audio of bin Laden taped long ago for release later.
In the tape, bin Laden praised al-Shehri, saying he "recognized the truth" that Arab rulers were "vassals" of the West and had "abandoned the balance of (Islamic) revelation."
"It is true that this young man was little in years, but the faith in his heart was big," he said."So there is a huge difference between the path of the kings, presidents and hypocritical Ulama (Islamic scholars) and the path of these noble young men," like al-Shehri, bin Laden said. "The formers' lot is to spoil and enjoy themselves whereas the latters' lot is to destroy themselves for Allah's Word to be Supreme."
"It remains for us to do our part. So I tell every young man among the youth of Islam: It is your duty to join the caravan (of martyrs) until the sufficiency is complete and the march to aid the High and Omnipotent continues," he said.
At the end of his speech, bin Laden also mentions the al-Qaida leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in an U.S. air strike there. Al-Zarqawi followed in the footsteps of al-Shehri and his brothers who "fulfilled their promises to God."
"And now it is our turn," bin Laden says.
After bin Laden speaks, the video of al-Shehri appears. Al-Shehri — one of the hijackers on American Airlines Flight 11, which hit the World Trade Center — is seen wearing a white robe and headscarf, with a full black beard, speaking in front of a backdrop with images of the burning World Trade Center.
"We shall come at you from your front and back, your right and left," al-Shehri said, asserting that America would suffer the same fate as the Soviet Union.
He also praised the losses the United States suffered in Somalia in late 1993.
"As for our own fortune, it is not in this world," he said. "And we are not competing with you for this world, because it does not equal in Allah's eyes the wing of a mosquito."
Al-Shehri warned Muslims who strayed to return to their religion and deplored the state of those who abandoned Muslim holy war, or jihad.
"The condition of Islam at the present time makes one cry ... in view of the weakness, humiliation, scorn and enslavement it is suffering because it neglected the obligations of Allah and His orders, and permitted His forbidden things and abandoned jihad in Allah's path," he said.
Isn't this fascinating? No mention of all the usual Leftist causes. No mention of Israel. No mention of Iraq sanctions. Indeed, the young thug explicitly says they are not competing in our world but the higher world. There doesn't seem room for global warming or any other Lefty cause in this view of the war.
But the 9/11 murderer and his jihadi buddies do drone on a lot about Islam. Arab rulers are slammed as vassals of the West. Even Islamic scholars don't know as much about Islam as these pond scum. Moslems have strayed, he says, and must wage jihad.
What does this tell us?
It tells us that our jihadi enemies do indeed hate us for who we are. Or rather for who we are not--submissive Moslems waging jihad. It is pointless to adjust this policy or that and expect the jihadis to be satisfied.
Osama (if he is still alive and this isn't old footage) asks for more volunteers to die:
Osama bin Laden urged sympathizers to join the "caravan" of martyrs as he praised one of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers in a new video that emerged Tuesday to mark the sixth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
This sounds obsolete. It might have been scary on September 12, 2001, when we assumed such a terror caravan was in motion.
But now, after six years of nothing to match 9/11, it sounds pathetic. Like a high school football star recalling the big game on his break as a shoe salesman (sorry, Al Bundy).
Indeed, there has been a caravan of martyrs. We've dispatched his so-called holy warriors every day for six years. We've been coming at them from left and right, front and back. Paradise is getting full courtesy of the United States Armed Forces and our allies. The mind boggles at the number of virgins required at 72 per head. For the sake of Paradise accountants, I surely hope that the so-called martyrs have misinterpreted their texts and that they are merely issued 72 raisins upon arrival.
I'm not saying that al Qaeda can't hurt us. I assume they will because I assume they are still trying and I assume that we can't catch every plot.
But do try to remember the last statements of one of the 9/11 killers. He didn't fly a plane full of hostages into one of our buildings in order to struggle for a 1.5% flat tax or save the Palestinians.
They hate us, people. All of us. You think they'd let Rosie O'Donnell live just because she refuses to believe that al Qaeda thugs struck us on 9/11? Hell, it's their proudest moment.
