"Previously Unseen 9/11 Hijacker Warning: 'Your Blood is Delicious for Us and Your Meat Cheap'"

Via Instapundit: Al-Qaeda marked the 16th anniversary of 9/11 by releasing previously unseen footage of Mohand al-Shehri, one of the hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 175 that crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, noting that the terrorists have "longed for your beautiful lands" and find the blood of Americans "delicious."

Al-Shehri, 22, was a Saudi who trained in Chechnya and Afghanistan months before being granted a student visa to the United States. He arrived in the U.S. four months before the attacks and trained on a flight simulator in Vero Beach, Fla.

According to the video, al-Shehri shot the statement April 17, 2001, before he arrived in the United States that May.

The 35-minute English-subtitled video from al-Qaeda's as-Sahab media apologizes for the video quality of the 16-year old reel, shot back in the days when terrorists released rough cuts of videocam footage instead of the highly produced films that now come from terror groups' studios.

(Link to more)

"USS Cole commander blasts transfer of Al Qaeda Gitmo detainees to Saudi Arabia"

Fox News:  Kirk Lippold, who was commanding officer of the U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer when suicide bombers aboard a small fishing boat blew a hole in the side of the ship, told FoxNews.com Mashur Abdallah Ahmed al Sabri's release was a mistake.

"I would have liked to have seen him receive a military commission where he was tried, convicted and sentenced and then his suitability for release determined under the laws of armed conflict," Lippold said.

"From the perspective of the American people and my crew, he’s never been held accountable," Lippold added.

In addition to those killed, 39 service members were wounded in the Oct. 12, 2000 attack, which came as the Cole refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden, nearly a year before Al Qaeda would register its signature attack, on 9/11.

"Ex-Guantanamo detainee now an al Qaeda leader in Yemen"

“Detainee is an admitted veteran jihadist with combat experience beginning in 1990 and it is assessed he would engage in hostilities against US forces, if released,” JTF-GTMO [Joint Task Force Guantanamo threat assessment] found.

In 1990, Qosi met two al Qaeda members who recruited him for jihad in Afghanistan.

Qosi was then trained at al Qaeda’s al Farouq camp, which was the terror group’s primary training facility in pre-9/11 Afghanistan. In 1991, Osama bin Laden relocated to Sudan and Qosi followed. He worked as an accountant and treasurer for bin Laden’s front companies, a role he would continue to fill after al Qaeda moved back to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the mid-1990s.

JTF-GTMO found that after an attempt on bin Laden’s life in 1994, Qosi was chosen to be a member of the al Qaeda founder’s elite security detail. He was also picked to perform sensitive missions around that time.

For example, Qosi served as a courier and may have delivered funds to the terrorist cell responsible for the June 25, 1995 assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Qosi relocated to Chechnya that same year, before returning to bin Laden’s side in Afghanistan some time in 1996 or 1997.

“From 1998 to 2001,” JTF-GTMO’s analysts wrote, Qosi “traveled back and forth between the front lines near Kabul and Kandahar to help with the fight against the Northern Alliance.”

In Dec. 2001, the Pakistanis captured Qosi as he fled the Battle of Tora Bora. He was detained as part of a group dubbed the “Dirty 30” by US intelligence officials. The “Dirty 30” included other members of bin Laden’s bodyguard unit, as well as Mohammed al Qahtani, the would-be 20th hijacker. Qahtani, who was slated to take part in the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings, had been denied entry into the US just months before.

While detained at Guantanamo in 2003, Qosi was asked why he stayed true to bin Laden for so many years. According to JTF-GTMO, Qosi explained it was his “religious duty to defend Islam and fulfill the obligation of jihad and that the war between America and al Qaeda is a war between Islam and aggression of the infidels.”

Qosi made it clear in AQAP’s [Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] new production that he hasn’t changed his opinion in the twelve years since.

"Drone strikes are not creating a safer, more stable world"

"Despite extremists' deaths, counterterrorism strategy criticism mounts"

With al-Qaida and the Islamic State group enjoying safe havens across parts of Yemen, Syria and Iraq, and with terror attacks on the rise worldwide, doubts are growing about the effectiveness and sustainability of the administration's "light footprint" strategy against global extremist movements. A template predicated on training local forces and bombing terrorists from the air is actually making the situation worse, some say. Many are arguing for deeper U.S. involvement, if not with regular ground troops, then at least with elite advisers and commandos taking more risks in more places.

On Thursday, the Pentagon announced that a June 16 air strike had killed Tariq bin Tahar al-'Awni al-Harzi, an Islamic State group leader who had facilitated suicide bombings. "His death will impact ISIL's ability to integrate foreign terrorist fighters into the Syrian and Iraqi fight," military spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said.

But for how long, critics are wondering, including former Defense Intelligence Agency chief Michael Flynn, who accuses the administration for which he once worked of "policy confusion." Former Army deputy chief Lt. Gen. Richard Zahner says the Obama administration's policy of "benign neglect" toward strife-torn Yemen and Syria has ensured the existence of terrorist safe havens there for both al-Qaida and Islamic State militants.

"US military pilots complain hands tied in ‘frustrating’ fight against ISIS"

Making the world safe for ISIS...

U.S. military pilots carrying out the air war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are voicing growing discontent over what they say are heavy-handed rules of engagement hindering them from striking targets.

They blame a bureaucracy that does not allow for quick decision-making. One Navy F-18 pilot who has flown missions against ISIS voiced his frustration to Fox News, saying: "There were times I had groups of ISIS fighters in my sights, but couldn't get clearance to engage.”

He added, “They probably killed innocent people and spread evil because of my inability to kill them. It was frustrating." (read more)

Meanwhile, The Free Beacon reports Al Qaeda in Syria is "Tweeting Jihad to Over 200,000 Followers"

Though al Qaeda’s ongoing operations have taken a backseat to the exploits of IS, the group founded by Osama bin Laden is thriving on Twitter, according to MEMRI.

“It should be noted that as Twitter’s removal of accounts on its platform linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) has gotten a lot of attention, accounts belonging to many other Designated Terrorist Organizations, notably to Jabhat Al-Nusra (JN), Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria that was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department in December 2012, have not received any attention, and its many accounts, which have a total of over 200,000 followers, are thriving,” MEMRI wrote in a recent report.

“This is another reminder of Twitter’s failure to effectively address this issue and its lack of a true strategy for doing so,” the group concluded.

The Weekly Standard: The Taliban Five are even worse than you’ve heard

"One of the five senior Taliban leaders transferred to Qatar in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl played a key role in al Qaeda’s plans leading up to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Mohammad Fazl, who served as the Taliban’s army chief of staff and deputy defense minister prior to his detention at Guantánamo, did not have a hand in planning the actual 9/11 hijackings. Along with a notorious al Qaeda leader, however, Fazl did help coordinate a military offensive against the enemies of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan the day before. And Osama bin Laden viewed that September 10 offensive as an essential part of al Qaeda’s 9/11 plot." (read more)

In some alternative universe (in a place far far away) there would be a mad dash of enterprising reporters staking out the homes and neighborhoods of 9/11/2001 survivors, seeking a comment, a reaction. Did you know the president swap included the release of people involved in the 9/11 attacks? ... while a camera rolls.

Thank goodness, however, in the real world we live in, decent enterprising reporters do not use surviving family victims that way... except maybe now and then, when... someone is telegenic enough and... they are physically in the right coast. You can't expect people in NY to make good compelling television. No offense Trooper.

"Activists: Syrian jihadis mistakenly behead ally"

"Syrian activists say al-Qaida-linked jihadists have mistakenly beheaded a wounded fellow fighter."

Rami Abdurrahman of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and another activist in the northern province of Aleppo say fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant found the wounded rebel in a hospital after a battle with government forces on Wednesday.

The fighters later displayed the man's head before a crowd in Aleppo city. But residents identified it as belonging to a leader of another hard-line rebel group, Ahrar al-Sham.

AP

Yemen new home for al Qaeda?

Nasir al Wihayshi

Yemen is speculated to become the new "strategic" home of al Qaeda. Nasir al Wihayshi , the head of AQAP (al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula),  is reported to be a very patient, soft-spoken man who is able to withstand pressure from top al Qaeda leader, Ayman al Zawahiri, "to act." Intercepted communications between the two have contributed to the the temporary closing and reinforcement of  22 American foreign offices.

The US and Britain have been issued warnings to their citizens to leave Yemen immediately, and have evacuated non-essential personnel.