Friday, September 7, 2007

Bin Laden shows his face again


Osama bin Laden has finally ended his longest-ever communications silence, though not entirely on his terms. The half hour video, which was supposed to have been released on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, was somehow obtained by the SITE Institute, which released its pirated copy on September 7. A number of transcripts have been made available by assorted news organizations; the most legible is available here.

This is a somewhat peculiar video. While As-Sahab's make-up team seems to have done a fine job making bin Laden look as healthy and photogenic as possible,
whoever it was that put the speech together did considerably shoddier work. I have read from various sources speculation that Azzam al-Amriki influenced the content; while I am unfamiliar with Amriki's rantings, I am still inclined to agree, because much of the speech does not seem to have been put together by bin Laden, and indeed appears to have something of an American touch. Compare, for example, the following, from a 2006 audio tape:

As for us, we do not have anything to lose. The swimmer in the sea does not fear rain. You have occupied our land, defiled our honour, violated our dignity, shed our blood, ransacked our money, demolished our houses, rendered us homeless, and tampered with our security. We will treat you in the same way. You tried to deny us the decent life, but you cannot deny us a decent death. Refraining from performing jihad, which is sanctioned by our religion, is an appalling sin. The best way of death for us is under the shadows of swords. Do not be deluded by your power and modern weapons. Although they win some battles, they lose the war. Patience and steadfastness are better than them. What is important is the outcome.¹

with this, from the just-released video:

It has now become clear to you and the entire world the impotence of the democratic system and how it plays with the interests of the peoples and their blood by sacrificing soldiers and populations to achieve the interests of the major corporations. And with that, it has become clear to all that they are the real tyrannical terrorists. In fact, the life of all of mankind is in danger because of the global warming resulting to a large degree from the emissions of the factories of the major corporations, yet despite that, the representative of these corporations in the White House insists on not observing the Kyoto accord, with the knowledge that the statistic speaks of the death and displacement of the millions of human beings because of that, especially in Africa. This greatest of plagues and most dangerous of threats to the lives of humans is taking place in an accelerating fashion as the world is being dominated by the democratic system, which confirms its massive failure to protect humans and their interests from the greed and avarice of the major corporations and their representatives.

Since when does Osama bin Laden care about the Kyoto Accords? He's pissed off at us because of our alleged war against Islam, not our lack of concern for the environment. He cares about the smoke rising from our bombs, not the smoke rising from our smokestacks. These seem more to be the words of a former American Leftist than of a former Arab mujahed. Either Osama spent some time cruising the blogosphere for issues he thought Americans would identify with, or the issues were selected by someone who was himself an American — al-Amriki.

There are also important stylistic differences. Osama is fond of using flowery metaphors like "the swimmer in the sea does not fear rain" and "[George Bush is] like the one who plows and sows the sea: he harvests nothing but failure." This seems to me to be a very Arab way of speaking; I am reminded of the words of the Prophet Muḥammad when He said, "By God, if one man were to be guided at your hands, it would be better for you than red camels." (Bukhari 2942). This presumably made a lot of sense to 'AlĂ­, to whom t was addressed, but it seems a mite peculiar to Americans. Although parts of this speech are in this highly Arab style, other parts seem to be in the much more direct manner of speech characteristic of Americans. This is also noticeable in terminology; compare the above mentioned audio tape's "influential people and war merchants in America" with the new video's much blander "major corporations".

Also present are things that I just can't imagine Osama bin Laden saying on his own. In particular, his depiction of Islam as tolerant of Christians and Jews seems inconsistent with "Every Muslim, from the moment they realize the distinction in their hearts, hates Americans, hates Jews and hates Christians."² Also somewhat curious is the sentence, "This innocence of yours is like my innocence of the blood of your sons on the 11th - were I to claim such a thing." Osama has, in fact, claimed precisely that, and I doubt he would have voluntarily risked drawing attention to
this dishonesty.

It seems to me that this speech was most likely written by Azzam al-Amriki and then sent to bin Laden who, after making some adjustments, read it for the video. As I said, though, I know very little about Amriki other than that he is an American convert to Salafism; a follow up post profiling him should shed further light on the situation.

UPDATE: The follow-up has been posted.

11 comments:

Circle Takes The Square said...

Hmm, hadn't thought of Azzam al-Amriki.

PJ said...

"Since when does Osama bin Laden care about the Kyoto Accords?"

Never, and he still doesn't.

He uses whatever psychological resources he can to promote his own anti-Western/anti-Capitalism ideology (which I call "IslamoStalinism). This is what he has always been about, from his 1996 Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places, (in which he claims that the Saudi princes are, in fact, not Muslims, because they are too Westernized), to this latest message (in which he sites Chomsky and other heroes of the Left).

Just like Saddam Hussein, OBL is a neo-Stalinist. But unlike Saddam and Stalin, OBL is on the run and he does not a country under his control.

Sergei Andropov said...

The 1996 fatwa makes it abundantly clear that Osama conceives of his struggle as a war between Islam and the "Zionist-Crusader alliance", not as one between classes. Indeed, as you will recall, Osama is a veteran of the war against the Communist/Stalinist Soviet Union, and the only time communism is ever mentioned is the '96 fatwa, it is called an "enemy of the Muslims." It is true that bin Laden has in the past made a few references to corporate influences on White House policy, but that has never comprised the bulk of his ideology.

Incidentally, Noam Chomsky is an internationally respected, if not outright worshiped, intellectual who has made significant contributions to (among other things) the scientific study of propaganda. It seems to be in this capacity, rather than his anti-Bush one, that he was cited.

PJ said...

Sergei Andropov,

I would argue that Stalinist Russia was not Marxist/Communist at all, but, in fact, Stalin used popular rhetoric to incite violence toward the "enemy" (whomever it happened to be at the time).

You will find in the "Declaration" a denouncement of the Saudi royalty, on the grounds that they have been corrupted by the Western "Zionist-Crusaders"

"As the extent of these infringements reached the highest of levels and turned into demolishing forces threatening the very existence of the Islamic principles, a group of scholars-who can take no more- supported by hundreds of retired officials, merchants, prominent and educated people wrote to the King asking for implementation of the corrective measures. In 1411 A.H. (May 1991), at the time of the gulf war, a letter, the famous letter of Shawwaal, with over four hundred signatures was send to the king demanding the lift of oppression and the implementation of corrective actions. The king humiliated those people and choose to ignore the content of their letter; and the very bad situation of the country became even worse."


The "bad situation" that he refers to is the result of,

"a curse put on them by Allah for not objecting to the oppressive and illegitimate behaviour and measures of the ruling regime: Ignoring the divine Shari'ah law; depriving people of their legitimate rights; allowing the American to occupy the land of the two Holy Places; imprisonment, unjustly, of the sincere scholars. The honourable Ulamah and scholars as well as merchants, economists and eminent people of the country were all alerted by this disastrous situation."

So while the American/Zionist-Crusaders are indirectly responsible, I would say, judging from the passages cited above and others, that OBL places the blame on the Royal family and the Saudi bourgeoisie.

Sergei Andropov said...

Where do you get the part about the "Saudi bourgeoisie" from? He quite explicitly states that his beef with the House of Saud is that they:

1)do not impose super-super-strict Islamic law (merely super-strict isn't good enough, apparently),
2)deprive people of their rights,
3)don't kick out the Americans, and
4)are mean to him and his buddies.

I don't see what any of this has to do with the structure of the Saudi economy.

As for Stalinism not being the same as Marxism/Communism, your earlier definition of "IslamoStalinism" as "[Osama bin Laden's] anti-Western/anti-Capitalism ideology", as well as your later reference to the "bourgeoisie", had led me to believe that that's the part of Stalin's legacy you were focusing on. If all you were talking about was the fact that Stalin was a jerk, something like "Islamodictatorialism" or even good old "Islamofascism" would get the point across less ambiguously.

PJ said...

Where do you get the part about the "Saudi bourgeoisie" from?
--------------
One of OBL's beefs is that the Saudi princes/regime did not give to the poor Muslims of the country:

(5) The financial and the economical situation of the country and the frightening future in the view of the enormous amount of debts and interest owed by the government; this is at the time when the wealth of the Ummah being wasted to satisfy personal desires of certain individuals!!

As for the definition of "Stalinism," Stalin used the rhetoric of Lenin (who followed Marx), but Stalin really didn't care about anything except maintaining power. He was a fascist who used the language of Marxism/Leninism to assert his power.

OBL is turned on Muslims because he felt slighted, he doesn't really follow the "Islamo" part as much as he wants people to believe. However, he uses the rhetoric of Islam to demonize his own people, and the US becomes a scapegoat. He appeals to the lower classes who feel oppressed by the rich.

But, it is true that Stalinism is really just Socialist fascism.

Anonymous said...

The swimmer in the sea does not fear rain. You have occupied our land, defiled our honour, violated our dignity, shed our blood, ransacked our money, demolished our houses, rendered us homeless, and tampered with our security. We will treat you in the same way. You tried to deny us the decent life, but you cannot deny us a decent death...

Love and life to the righteous death to the wicked!!!

Blessings and Jah Guidance to all the Muslim brothers and sisters who hold the Fast during Ramadan. May the most high see you through!!!

One perfect love from

RasTinny

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