Thanks to Joe Biden’s disastrous retreat from Afghanistan and his open borders, Al-Qaeda is poised to attack the United States again, and in a much more shocking operation than its 9/11 attacks
22 years since 9/11 and counting – until Al-Qaeda strikes the United States again.
Al-Qaeda has recruited an estimated 40,000 fighters since Sept. 11, 2001, when the Osama bin Laden-led extremist group attacked the United States, according to the not-for-profit Council on Foreign Relations.
Forces loyal to Al Qaeda and its affiliates now number in the tens of thousands, Bruce Hoffman, senior fellow for counterterrorism and homeland security at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in an article in March headlined, “Al Qaeda’s Resurrection.”
Al-Qaeda is no longer a hierarchical organization taking orders from its famous, charismatic leader, as it was on 9/11. But it is stronger and more resilient than it was under bin Laden. And the “war on terror” has helped, not hurt it. 30 years after the terror group’s founding, its numbers are strong and seeing a resurgence, following ISIS’s near-defeat in Iraq and Syria
MEMRI – Steven StalinskyThe late-August revelation that a migrant smuggling ring with ties to ISIS had assisted over a dozen individuals reach the U.S. from Mexico must be understood as a reminder, as the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is commemorated Monday, that terrorist groups have not given up hopes of carrying out more attacks on the homeland. Little is known about these people’s whereabouts, and the worst should be expected. At the same time this revelation has led to an extensive amount of chatter by jihadis online about even more specific ways to enter the U.S. both from Mexico and also Canada.
Those jihadis whose attacks have succeeded have had to settle for small-scale strikes with limited impact. But this is not for lack of trying nor for lack of desire to perpetrate a mass casualty attack of even greater scope than 9/11. To mark last year’s 9/11 anniversary, Al-Qaeda published a 270-page book, authored by the group’s late deputy leader Abu Muhammad Al-Masri, that stresses the need for obtaining and using nuclear weapons.
One thing jihadis have that we do not is patience. Twenty-two years is nothing in jihadi history, and they have been telling the West so for decades. One of the Al-Qaeda commanders closest to bin Laden, Abu Salma Al-Hijazi, promised, in an interview with the Al-Qal’a (“The Fortress”) Islamist Internet forum in 2003, that “we are patient. Our patience will only end with the collapse of America.” The commander of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi, called on his followers in February 2005 to be patient because Allah had promised victory against the American “tyrant.” In a May 2007 interview posted on jihadi websites, Al-Qaeda’s deputy leader at the time Sheikh Mustafa Abu Yazid advised his followers to “be patient and to persist in the path [of jihad], whatever the hardships…”
Further, Al-Qaeda operative Abu Talha the German said on the Al-Faluja Islamist forum in January 2009: “The mujahid is the only vehicle that cannot move backwards… He is patient.” Most recently, an Al-Qaeda magazine stressed for last year’s 9/11 anniversary: “As for America, your frailty is noticeable to the mujahideen and the American leadership perceives this well. Our struggle is very long and our patience does not lack… Victory is patience…”
A glimpse of the jihadi understanding of time was relayed by the Canadian news magazine Macleans in September 2017: During the Afghan war, many years before the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, a Taliban commander who had seen his forces lose battle after battle nevertheless told Rick Hillier, Canada’s then Chief of Defense Staff: “You have the watches, but we have the time.” Thus the Taliban model serves as an example for the global jihad movement to emulate.
Every anniversary that passes since 2001, more Americans forget the visceral impact of the attacks. We read the names of the victims and observe annual media commemorations of that day – as jihadis commemorate in their own way. On their websites, they disseminate photos and videos of the attacks, celebrate them, and post eulogies for them and for the planners.
A leading Al-Qaeda women’s magazine described how the jihadi world marks the 9/11 anniversary: “[T]oday in the year 2022, we continue to talk with great pride about the September 11 attacks and the acts of bravery undertaken by our 19 courageous [hijacker] brothers.” It added: “Our children should remember this glorious date and our women should teach them about it. It should be taught in every school. All Muslims should take pride in it…”
Just this week a pro-ISIS writer posted online a picture of a Boeing 737 cockpit detailing each item in the cockpit writing “just in case Ikhwan,” a reference to the 9/11 attack. Without counterterrorism officials’ tireless efforts every day for the past 22 years, there would have been scores of deadly attacks around the world. But should their efforts let up for a single minute, terrorist groups inside the U.S. and around the world will be ready to attack.
MEMRI On September 10, 2023, the Al-Sahab Media Foundation, the official outlet of Al-Qaeda’s Central Command, released Issue 11 of its Arabic-language UmmahWahidah (One Ummah) periodic magazine. The current issue is “dedicated to the 22nd anniversary of the #September_attacks,” perpetrated by Al-Qaeda against the U.S. on September 11, 2001
The cover of the 56-page magazine depicts the destruction caused to the Pentagon on 9/11, along with the Quranic quotation: “And they thought their strongholds would put them out of Allah’s reach. But Allah came upon them from where they never expected. And He cast horror into their hearts, so they destroyed their houses with their own hands and the hands of the believers. So take a lesson, O people of insight!”
9/11 Attacks Continue To Harm The U.S. Decades Later
A ten-page article, “The Future of the World Order After the Eleventh of September,” by ‘Isam Al-Maghrebi, argues that the severe losses sustained by the U.S. in the 9/11 attacks gradually led it to lose its status as the leading world power, which was one of Al-Qaeda’s goals in “waging war on the Zionist-crusader tyranny in the Islamic world.”
Describing the 9/11 attacks as an act of “unparalleled military creativity,” the editorial credits them with “awakening the Islamic ummah [nation],” making the U.S. and its allies lose their aura of invincibility, “expanding the expanse of the conflict and battle from the Islamic countries to include American and Western soil,” and bringing “the spread of jihad and the ignition of its spark throughout the world,” leading to the outbreak of the Arab Spring revolts and eventually causing U.S. forces to be “expelled from Afghanistan vilified and defeated.”
The editorial continues: “The War on Terror was actually one of the greatest causes of the increase of terror and its spread through the world. […] The Islamic ummah‘s attack continues to act and make an impression for more than two decades, and will achieve its future goals without the slightest doubt [bold in original].”
Western-Led Global Order Is Collapsing
Later, the editorial states: “Today everyone sees the signs of the global order’s death throes, Western culture’s entering the countdown, the dissolution of unbelief-based systems, and their coming apart from within. So is there still a need for repeating the September attacks? Yes, the September raids were an intentional purposeful blow to achieve great strategic goals within a series of open battles with no borders, so it would be foolish to evaluate them in the present before their dust settles on the battlefronts and before the war ends. Its goals were long-term and its perpetrators wagered decades ago on the element of time.
The American enemy, however far his showy military strength reaches through the world, will continue to stagger from the effects and reverberations of the September raids until Allah wills it to fall to pieces and vanish. […] Despite the succession of Islamic attacks against it all over the world, it has not managed, until today, to strengthen and develop its mental capacities to anticipate and be on the lookout for risks.
Coming Attack Will Be Unexpected And Surpass 9/11
“The coming Islamic blow must be beyond its expectations and out of what it conceives. It must also be extremely shocking and surprising. It is not important for it to occur deep inside America or to be a copy of the slap of the September Day of Victory.
What matters is that its effects and reverberations surpass those of the September raids, and that it be [carried out] with new, accurate, creative planning, based on good intentions and sincere, pure action, so that it is effective in snatching away America’s prestige, shaking its domination in our region, limiting its capabilities vis-a-vis the international community, and creating as many deep fissures and vertical cracks in the structure of the global order as possible.
Then, Allah willing, Al-Qaeda and its heroes will play a great role in redrawing the maps of power in the world. Whether the strategy adopted relies on the principle of pursuing the enemy to his doorstep and homeland, to settle the score with him and collect the debt he owes, or on the principle of exhausting him in regional Islamic lands which he entered, in either case, the coming blow must burden the enemy with exorbitant costs forcing him to leave the entire region.
Al-Qaeda Does Not Need Many Funds Or Operatives To Perpetrate Devastating Attacks; It Remains Strong While The U.S. Has Weakened
“History testifies that it is not difficult for weak nations to make powerful empires fall into lethal traps, then direct smart blows at them and inflict defeat on them
They should know that it is only a matter of time and study to achieve the coming blow, for modern jihad does not need large armies, abundant funds, or safe havens. The Al-Qaeda group – with success from Allah alone – carried out the greatest attack in history with the smallest number of knights and the lowest military cost. For the September raids took place – by Allah’s grace – with only 19 knights and at a cost of less than half a million dollars. It is not unlikely that the coming raids will be similar in a way to their previous sisters, for the matter will require only scant funds and few men.
We are not exaggerating or boasting with what we mentioned precisely, for we are absorbed in our work and planning for the coming attack, which will – Allah willing – be harsher and wider in scale. We promise you that compared to it, the September attacks will be just a small party, Allah willing. We are also – as many of you testify – more committed than you to fulfilling our promises, threats, and commitments which we have made to our dear ummah. We also commit to you and your allies to fulfill Sheikh Osama’s oath and our promises which we made to everyone […] and through all this we will achieve the greatest possible comparative advantage over you, Allah willing.
“Hamza has increasingly taken a leadership role within al Qaeda — a role for which he has been groomed his entire life,” Katherine Zimmerman, lead analyst on Al Qaeda for the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project said. “Hamza’s calls for jihad echo his father’s, and the bin Laden name gives Hamza credibility within the Salafi-jihadi movement.”
The U.S. has officially designated Hamza bin Laden a terrorist.
U.S. Leaders Must Change Their Policies To Ward Off Future Attacks
We warned and cautioned you many times before the events of Somalia, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, and before the destruction of the destroyer [USS] Cole, but you paid no heed to our warnings until Al-Qaeda’s axe reached the head of the Pentagon and the Twin Towers. We told you many times, ‘Do not infringe on our Islamic ummah‘s security or interfere in our affairs.’ But you fail every time and only wake up when we plant the axe in your head. So until when will this dominant crusader stupidity continue? And for how long will you continue to harvest bloodshed?
“Be assured that our Islamic ummah‘s knights – by Allah’s power and might – will make you forget the horrors of September, the day when they stormed your fortresses and strongholds shielded by seas in broad daylight. You should be completely assured that today you are in greater danger than on the day of September 11. America must be well aware of its rights and obligations in its political decisions, for correct political management may be most able to avert the coming Islamic attack from America.
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