By Firouz Sedarat
The delay of the much-touted 87-minute video, caused in
part by the main Islamist websites crashing, has thwarted al
Qaeda's yearly celebration of its attacks on U.S. cities in
2001.
But the full version hit websites on Friday, eight days
after the anniversary.
On it, senior al Qaeda commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazid vowed
that Western forces in Afghanistan would face "more large-scale
attacks ... where they least expect it" and called for
militants in Pakistan to step up their fight.
"In order for jihad in Afghanistan to continue and be
victorious, you must stand with your Mujahideen brothers in
Afghanistan and ... strike the interests of Crusader (Western)
allies in Pakistan," said Abu al-Yazid, a commander of al Qaeda
fighters in Afghanistan.
A suicide car bomber attacked the Marriott Hotel in the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Saturday, killing at least 40
people and starting a fire that swept through the hotel.
Al Qaeda has marked the anniversary of September 11 in the
past with releases including a tape on September 7 last year in
which its leader, Osama bin Laden, appeared on video for the
first time in nearly three years, addressing the American
people.
It was unclear why the websites normally favored by al
Qaeda had gone down. By Saturday, the two most popular were
still out of action.
TONGUE-IN-CHEEK
Some suspected they had been targeted by hackers. India's
Hindustan Times pointed the finger at intelligence websites
that track militant sites on the Internet, which responded in
tongue-in-cheek fashion.
Rusty Shackleford of My Pet Jawa (www.mypetjawa.mu.nu)
denied his web group was behind any cyber-attack on the
websites. "But if I was responsible I'd deny it," he said.
Aaron Weisburd of www.internet-haganah wrote: "The
actual reasons for this are not known to me (and I would say
that even if I actually knew what was going on)."
This further delayed the release and unnerved al Qaeda
sympathizers, one of whom wrote: "May God bless you my
brothers, but the password is wrong."
The video also showed al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman
al-Zawahri accusing predominantly Shi'ite Muslim Iran of taking
part in a Western "crusade" against Islam.
The closure of the Sunni websites coincided with a
widespread cyber attack which shut down some 300 Shi'ite sites,
Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said. Fars blamed this on
hardline Wahhabi Sunni hackers in the United Arab Emirates.
al-Sistaniyoutube
(Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
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