lanning the Great Ramadan Offensive Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> User-Agent: eGroups-EW/0.82 X-Mailer: Yahoo Groups Message Poster X-Originating-IP: 66.94.237.42 X-eGroups-Msg-Info: 1:12:0:0 X-Yahoo-Post-IP: 85.18.136.86 From: "gwen831" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Yahoo-Profile: gwen831 Sender: [email protected] MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list [email protected]; contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Delivered-To: mailing list [email protected] List-Id: <osint.yahoogroups.com> Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 20:18:55 -0000 Subject: [osint] Reply-To: [email protected] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
http://www.lauramansfield.com/j/groffensive.asp lanning the Great Ramadan Offensive Laura's note: The following post was made on the Firdaws forum by person using the name "Ossama1". The posting was unattributed and was made in English. The quality of the English is quite good; in fact, it's good enough that I suspect it was either written by a native English speaker, or may very well have been copied from the media. I have attempted to find the source of the material using Google and Google News but have not been able to locate it to date. Planning the "Great Ramadan Offensive" BY LATE AUGUST 2005, the Islamist-jihadist movement was increasingly consumed by great anticipation for a dramatic breakout: a "Great Ramadan Offensive" led by both Osama bin Laden and Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, in person and from Iraq. This offensive, several Islamist-jihadist leaders and commanders were convinced, would overshadow the dramatic impact of the September 11, 2001, spectacular strikes. Islamist-jihadist leaders were convinced that the Great Ramadan Offensive would include a "fateful confrontation" with the US and Israeli forces in the Middle East, as well as a series of unprecedented spectacular strikes in Western Europe, Russia, and, perhaps, even the United States. Throughout the Muslim world, widespread anticipation for the Great Ramadan Offensive has been reinforced by a series of virtually simultaneous communiques starting around August 24, 2005. This was the first time so many significant doctrinal-theological statements had been issued at the same time, reinforcing the belief in a forthcoming well-coordinated global onslaught. First came the report of a new recorded message by Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi. Apparently made on August 21, 2005, the existence of the message was announced around August 24, 2005. The report that emerged included the key passage from Zarqawi's message about the next phase of the jihad. "What happened in Andalusia [Spain], London, the Jordanian Al-Aqabah, and other places and what is going to happen, with the consent of God Almighty, is accomplished by our devoted mujahedin," Zarqawi explained. "The mujahedin in Iraq have, praise be to God, moved the battle from the ground [in Iraq] to the land of the cross." Zarqawi stressed that "jihadist units had been founded in all of Western Europe, to defend the powerless within the nation. "For the crimes the Crusaders have committed against the Muslims, they will reap in their own homes [countries], God willing." A statement on the doctrine of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi at the helm of the al-Qaida Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers emerged a few days later. While most attention has been paid by analysts to the "war of vengeance" in Iraq, Zarqawi's priority is actually establishing the foundations for greater things. Al-Qaida's strategy aims to ensure that an Iraqi state will never function, irrespective of the extent of US help and involvement by isolating the government and its supporters -- local and foreign -- from the bulk of the Iraqi people, as well as through the elimination of militias and "traitors" among the Shi'a and "clearing the stage of all possible rivals before the withdrawal of the US military". However, the ultimate objective of Zarqawi in pursuing all of these activities is not to seize power in Iraq, but rather to turn it into a springboard for the establishment of the Caliphate throughout the Middle East and strike out into the heart of the West. The statement stresses that the real objective of the al-Qaida Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers should be viewed as "an establishment of another base that will export jihad to all parts of the world the same way the mother al-Qaida in Afghanistan was". Second came the decree dated August 23, 2005, but announced only on August 25, 2005, on the establishment of an "emergency government" by the Islamist-jihadist rebels in Chechnya. The significance of the decree lies in the explanation of the logic for this decree which followed. "President" Abdul-Halim Sadulayev announced in the decree the formation of a "new government" in which Shamil Basayev "reassumed the role of deputy prime minister" and radical ideologue Movladi Udugov was nominated press minister. The decree also announced the establishing within the government of a "Power Block" responsible for, and in charge of, "the National Security Service, Anti-terrorist Center, Ministry of Internal Affairs, etc., and that Basayev would be in charge of "the ministries and departments in the power block". The decree also announced the establishment of an "Information Block" responsible for, and in charge of, "the Ministry of Information and Press, Ministry of Media and Information", and that Udugov would be in charge of this block. Sadulayev's decree clearly amounted to the establishment of a war leadership council necessary to meet the challenges ahead: most likely, implement the next cycle of terrorist strikes against Russia, a year after the terror attacks on the school in Beslan. The explanation for, and justification of, the new Chechen war cabinet appeared in an August 27, 2005, communique titled "The War Can Be Stopped Only By War" over the signature of Boris Stomakhin. The communique stressed that the war in Chechnya was entering a new era to be characterized by the dominance of audacious offensive strikes and the abandonment of diplomatic efforts. "Henceforth the strategy of struggling Ichkeria cardinally varies . . . . The center of gravity of the war as a rule, has finally returned from Strasbourg to Johar [Grozny] and the mountainous forests of Ichkeria . . . . Henceforth the war will be opposed with war." The communique criticized the EU's efforts in mediating a negotiated solution to the war, and held the Europeans responsible for the continued bloodshed in the Caucasus. The communique contrasted the hypocrisy of the late Asian Maskhadov and his supporters among the peace camp in Russia, and the "righteous men: Chechen mujaheds, asserting their ground and freedom with the weapon in hands" under Basayev's command. Basayev and the Islamist jihad were the true representatives of the real interests of the Chechen people, the communique asserted. Under Basayev's leadership, the Chechens were now going "to take the weapon and to go to kill! To revenge the aggressor, the invader, the chastiser not only here, on the native ground, but also at his home, in his den -- everywhere where the hand of the avenger may reach his relatives and close people! eye for eye, tooth for tooth! -- and no mercy to enemies!" The communique echoed the Shield Fatwa used by Osama bin Laden and his inner-circle to warrant spectacular terrorist strikes against civilians when it lambasted the peace camp which had criticized Chechen terrorism against Russian civilians. The peace camp had argued "that in the destruction of a quarter of Chechen people only Putin with his pack is guilty, but not the Russian people who have selected this Putin". In conclusion, the communique vowed that a jihadist war "will start over again and again -- until either Chechens do not remain on earth, or bloody and criminal Russia fall to pieces forever!" Third came the August 26, 2005, messages by Muhammad al-Dief (Abu-Khalid), commander-in-chief of the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of HAMAS, "on the occasion of the Zionist retreat from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank". Significantly, this message not only committed HAMAS to continue the jihad until the elimination of Israel, but tied together the jihad against Israel with the anti-US jihad in Iraq and other Islamist-jihadist causes worldwide. Dief defined the forthcoming jihad as the complete destruction of Israel. He explained that "the liberation of our beloved Gaza Strip" was only the first step in a jihad which would culminate in "liberating Jerusalem, the West Bank, Acre [Akko], Haifa, Jaffa, Safad [Zefat], Nazareth, Ashkelon, and all parts of Palestine". The West Bank, however, would be the theater of the next violent confrontation with Israel. "The sacrifices of our people in Jenin, Nablus, Hebron, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Tulkarm, Qalqiliyah, and in all our cities, villages, and refugee camps in the West Bank portend that the next stage will, with the help of God, be to drive out the occupation from your areas." Dief then addressed the Israeli Arabs, promising them that their liberation and the destruction of Israel were imminent. "We will not give up and we will not resign until the liberation of all our sacred soil in our beloved land which is munificent in its giving, and so are we in our giving as we continue along the road, for the march will not stop." The insurgency in Iraq was also an integral part of the regional struggle in the Middle East which HAMAS was waging, Dief told "our beloved people in patient and enduring Iraq". He stressed the relevance of the jihad in Palestine for the jihad in Iraq. "The liberation of the Gaza Strip is for us and for you and for all free people in the world, a lesson to learn. Do not give up your weapons. Resist your enemies until you rub their noses in the dust," he advised the Iraqi mujahedin. "May God help you, give you strength, unify your ranks, strengthen your determination, and make your views and aim correct." Then came the statements from the supreme leadership. On September 1, 2005, Al-Jazeera TV broadcasted a videotaped message, in English, from martyr-bomber Muhammad Siddiq -- the leader of the London martyr-bombers who struck on July 7, 2005 -- and several excerpts from a videotaped speech in Arabic by Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Significantly, this was the first videotape to be subtitled in English by al-Qaida, a clear indication that the target audience was also in the West and not just the Muslim World. Speaking in English, Muhammad Siddiq delivered a message he intended to be broadcasted after his martyrdom. He aimed at the Western audience, both Westernized Muslims like himself and the general population in the West. He highlighted the logic of spectacular strikes at the heart of the West in the terms of the "Shield Fatwa", namely, that there are no innocent civilians among the people of the West, and thus, in accordance with the tenets of jihad, everybody's blood is permitted, including women, children and the elderly. "Your democratically elected governments continuously perpetuate atrocities against my people all over the world, and your support of them makes you directly responsible, just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters. Until we feel security, you will be our targets, and until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment, and torture of my people, we will not stop this fight," Siddiq declared. Siddiq then identified the London strike as part of the fulfilling of the overall obligations of the jihad. "We are at war, and I am a soldier. Now you too will taste the reality of this situation." Siddiq tied the strike to the situation in Iraq by identifying Zarqawi as a key leader and a source of inspiration for his strike. In deciding to sacrifice his life, Siddiq said he drew inspiration from "today's heroes, like our beloved Sheikh Osama bin Laden, Dr Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, and all the other brothers and sisters who are fighting in Allah's cause." Ayman al-Zawahiri's videotaped portion of the message was clearly a combination of brief portions from a longer speech, one which was also used in Zawahiri's August 8, 2005, televised message which was also broadcasted on Al-Jazeera television. There were no new themes in Zawahiri's message: it remained focused on refinement and better articulation of the key themes the Islamist-jihadist movement has long been attempting to convey to the West. He stressed anew that the center of the jihad had moved to the heart of the West. The on-going campaign of spectacular strikes was a retaliation for all of the West's transgressions against Islam. Zawahiri addressed the British audience as representatives of the entire West. "I speak to you today about the blessed London raid, which came as a slap in the face of the arrogant Crusader British hegemony, and which made it take a sip from the cup which it has long made the Muslims drink from. Like previous great raids in New York, Washington, and Madrid, this raid has moved the battle to the land of the enemy after it kept moving the battle for many ages to our land, and after its armies and forces occupied our land in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine, and after it continued to occupy our land for many ages while it remained safe in its land," Zawahiri warned. Zawahiri reiterated the jihadists' long-term commitment to striking at the West, but then specifically addressed the British about the role of Iraq in inspiring the London strikes. "O people of the Crusader alliance, we have cautioned and warned you, but it seems that you want us to make you taste the horrors of death. So taste some of what you have made us taste," Zawahiri declared. "O people of the Crusader coalition, not only does Blair think nothing of the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya, and Afghanistan, but he also thinks nothing of your blood, because he sends you off to the crematorium in Iraq, and exposes you to death in your own home, because of his Crusader war against Islam. Bush, Blair, and all those who march behind their Crusader-Zionist banner should know that the mighty mujahedin of Islam have pledged before their God to fight them until either victory or martyrdom." Zawahiri noted that the West had also harmed civilians during the various wars against Muslim countries, and that therefore there was justification for the jihadist's avenging strikes against Western civilians. "Treatment in kind is just. Who have been killed in our countries? Are they not the women and children in the Al-Amiriyah Shelter, and in the mosques of Khost, Gaza, and Al-Fallujah?" Zawahiri returned to a repeated theme in all recent Islamist-jihadist communiques: namely, that there are no innocent civilians in the West. "We say to them that these civilians are the ones who pay taxes to Bush and Blair, so they can equip their armies and give aid to Israel, and they are the ones who serve in their armies and security services. They are the ones who elected them, and even those who did not vote for them consider them legitimate rulers who have the right to give them orders and must be obeyed, and who also have the right to order strikes against us, killing our sons and daughters, and to wage war in their name, and to kill Muslims on their behalf. Moreover, they consider disobeying their orders a crime punishable by law. We have warned time and again, and we warn once again, that anyone who participated in the aggression against Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine, we will repay him in kind. Just as they have made rivers of blood flow in our countries, we will blow up volcanoes of rage, with Allah's help, in their countries. The lands and interests of the countries that participated in the aggression against Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan are targets for us, and whoever wants to be safe stay away from them. The one who warns bears no guilt." Zawahiri concluded. THE SIGNIFICANCE of these messages is best understood in the context of the concurrent activities and deliberations throughout the Islamist-jihadist movement since the beginning of the northern Summer of 2005. There is a clear indication that the Islamist-jihadist camp has indeed committed to the implementation of the trend's long-term strategy to achieve victory over the West and establish a Caliphate by the year 2020. Based on tenets articulated by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the grand-strategic objective of the Strategy Toward 2020 is for an Islamist-jihadist Caliphate to replace the United States as the world's sole pre-eminent hyper-power. In military terms, the ultimate defeat of the US-led West, in which Russia is a key power, would be achieved as the aggregate impact of two types of war: (1) the attrition of the US and its allies by ensnaring them in a myriad of endless debilitating quagmires, particularly in Iraq, the Caucasus, and Israel; and (2) the demonstration to all of the inherent weakness of the US and the West to be achieved by a series of spectacular strikes at the heart of the US and the West. Concrete preparations for the consolidation of jihadist strategic spring-boards against the heart and lair of the Great Satan are being completed: for Western Europe in the Balkans, for Russia and Eastern Europe in Chechnya, and for the United States in the Tri-border area in Latin America. As well, the global jihadist movement requires the continued movement of people and materiel between the various jihadist centers. Here, Chechnya has emerged as the strategic meeting point between the strategic arch eastwards to Afghanistan-Pakistan -- code-named LIVO -- and the strategic arch westwards' to the Balkans and Western Europe, code-named Kvadrat. Chechnya has thus become a key center for the spread of jihadist doctrine and practices on a global scale. Iraq, on the other hand, has become the new center for global mobilization and training of the new generation of commanders and expert terrorists who will spearhead the jihad at the heart of the West. The validity of the Iraq component of the Strategy Toward 2020 was reiterated in the May 30, 2005, letter from Sheikh Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi to Sheikh Osama bin Laden titled "A Message From A Soldier To His Commander". In his letter, Zarqawi alluded to the forthcoming grand offensive comprised of escalation in the Middle East and a series of spectacular terrorist strikes. He recognized bin Laden as the supreme authority expected to approve and authorize this escalation. "I think that the plan for the next stage that was drawn up has reached you or is on its way to you" Zarqawi wrote. "O God, make the expedition of Osama [bin Laden] proceed toward its goal . . . . We await your orders as to the next stage of the plan." [For details see Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy 6-2005.] Ayman al-Zawahiri, the driving force behind the Islamist-jihadist Strategy Toward 2020, in effect replied to Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi in his August 8, 2005, televised message. Zawahiri heralded the escalation of the worldwide jihad and taking of the war into the heart of West, especially Europe, in the context of a global, all-encompassing war which would also be directed at the Arab Muslim governments cooperating with, or allied with, the West. The jihadists' objective is to cleanse the entire Islamdom of all vestiges of Western presence, and spectacular terrorism at the heart of the West is a pre-eminent instrument toward achieving this goal, Zawahiri stated. "O nations of the crusade alliance, we proposed that you at least stop your aggression against the Muslims. The Lion of Islam, mujahid Sheikh Osama bin Laden, may God preserve him, offered you a truce until you leave the Land of Islam. Has Sheikh Osama bin Laden not informed you that you will not dream of security until we live it in reality in Palestine and before all infidel armies leave the land of Muhammad, may peace be upon him [= Saudi Arabia]? You, however, shed rivers of blood in our land so we exploded volcanoes of anger in your land. Our message to you is crystal clear: Your salvation will only come in your withdrawal from our land, in stopping the robbing of our oil and resources, and in stopping your support for the corrupt and corrupting leaders. Those who collaborated with America in Iraq and Afghanistan will, God willing, bear the consequences of this collaboration soon." Zawahiri put special emphasis on the growing threats to the United States. "What you have seen, O Americans, in New York and Washington and the losses you are having in Afghanistan and Iraq, in spite of all the media blackout, are only the losses of the initial clashes. If you continue the same policy of aggression against Muslims, God willing, you will see the horror what will make you forget what you had seen in Vietnam," he warned. With the Western powers banished from Islamdom, it would be possible for the Islamist-jihadist forces to destroy the existing governments and establish the Islamist Caliphate in their stead. Toward this end, Zawahiri urged the mobilization of the entire Arab Muslim world to rid itself of governments cooperating with the West against what he termed the true interests of the Muslim world. "I call upon the Nation's opinion leaders -- the scientists, writers, intellectuals, craftsmen, merchants, and officers -- to come together and discuss means of disposing of these corrupt and corruptive regimes that weigh down on our Nation's chest. I call on them to start preparing for change no matter how much time and effort is needed. I call on them to spread calls for change among all sects of the Nation, and to know that victory always comes at a price. A dark fate awaits us if we do not resist them [the regimes]" Zawahiri warned. The overall tone and context of Zawahiri's message of August 8, 2005, left no doubt that his was a call for action. And as has been the case with all previous messages by major Islamist-jihadist leaders, these messages were only uttered when the relevant Islamist-jihadist forces were organized and ready to strike out. The significance of the exchange of public messages between Zarqawi and Zawahiri (who was clearly speaking in bin Laden's name) and the announcement of a forthcoming escalation in the Islamist jihad was immediately comprehended throughout the jihadist movement all over the world. Indeed, there followed a marked increase in the volume of communication, both open and encrypted, by messengers and through the internet. By mid-August 2005, the intensity and volume of the Islamist-jihadist electronic communication exceeded that of the months prior to September 2001. As well, there began an unprecedented movement of cadres and messengers all over the world, suggesting last minute delivery of instructions and the adjusting of deployment of experts. Most important have been the surges in traffic of mujahedin from Chechnya to Iraq, and from Iraq to Western Europe via Bosnia-Herzegovina. Concurrently, there is a growing awareness among West European intelligence services of the consolidation, jitter, and activation of Islamist-jihadist networks led by veterans of Iraq and Chechnya. The few and far between arrests all over the world provide indication of the magnitude of the threat. For example, in early August 2005, the Pakistanis arrested in Faisalabad a senior operative called Osama bin Yussaf. He was running a call center which coordinated electronic and telephone communication with Islamist-jihadist cells in Western Europe. The Pakistanis discovered that he had saved in his computer memory, among other things, detailed maps of Italian, German, and British cities. In mid-August 2005, Italian intelligence warned of impending terrorist strikes. Although Rome learned that 55-year-old Abu-Abdul-Rahman al-Jazaeri, a senior associate of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, was most likely in Italy, he could not be located. Jazaeri had lived for about 15 years in Italy before joining the Iraqi jihad, where, despite his age, he distinguished himself in urban combat against US forces. However, Jazaeri was most renowned, Italian intelligence warned, "for his special expertise in preparing car bombs and explosive belts". Jazaeri was believed to have recently met in Fallujah with an Al-Zarqawi messenger and to have received "the definitive mandate to plan and carry out a major terrorist operation in Italy". As part of this plan, Rome learned, several sleeper cells were activated via the Islamist-jihadist HQ in Saudi Arabia. Other would-be terrorists and martyr-bombers were en route to, or perhaps had already arrived in, Western Europe via Bosnia-Herzegovina. Among the objectives identified by the Italians are the airports at Schiphol (Amsterndam) and Fiumicino (Rome), as well as the Vatican. German intelligence also raised the alarm about the mounting threat. "Terrorism is coming home," acknowledged a German senior official. "And it's coming home to those countries whose governments may have believed they were immune from terror because for years they have provided safe haven to notorious Islamic extremists." Berlin identified the greatest challenge to be from the young second and third generation immigrants living in Europe who have recently been captivated by the idea of global jihad, and who have recently acquired combat experience in Iraq. As well, any of these young European jihadists "have excellent contacts to Islamic extremists in Chechnya". These terrorists, German intelligence describes, "are highly mobile, networked across the entire continent, supported by sympathizers and powerful financiers, but also able to operate independently. This new generation of holy warriors has already established sufficiently deep roots in Europe to be able to move about freely and without attracting attention. Many have German, Spanish, British or French passports. They often speak several languages, are employed and develop their attack plans in their free time." Indicative of the resilience and magnitude of the preparations for the terrorism offensive at the heart of Europe was the intensification and expansion of the support operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina in August 2005. These activities now include the counterfeiting of a wide variety of Western identity documents for use by arriving terrorist experts from the Middle East and the Caucasus. The key networks in Bosnia-Herzegovina should have logically gone underground and stopped operations after the July 3, 2005, arrest in Croatia of a local criminal who had become an Islamist after returning from jail in Germany. In his home, Croatian police found 11 rocket launchers, a kilo of C4 high-explosives, and a number of detonators. They were on their way to Italy via Slovenia. These supplies came from an Islamist-jihadist cell in the village of Gornja Maoca. This cell is but one of many comparable cells and networks known to be operating in Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, they seem to be protected by the Bosnian security authorities who not only have done nothing in the aftermath of the arrest in Croatia, but have since shielded other cells when they were discovered by West European intelligence services. For example, terrorist training camps which had been located near the Jablanica and Boracko Lakes were recently forewarned, and their people and equipment safely moved to other locations, soon after Sarajevo was queried about them. In early August 2005, the Active Islamic Youth organized a big camp in Grmusa, between Bihac and Bosanska Krupa, for young West European jihadists. Several big tents were erected to house large groups of young people. Parking lots were filled with cars with plates from various European countries. West European intelligence services have since learned that on their return, many of these European cars carried weapons, instructions, funds and would-be terrorists back home. MOST SIGNIFICANT, however, was the sudden spate of contradictory reports and rumors regarding the presence and plans of Osama bin Laden himself. In early August 2005, West European Islamist-jihadist commanders back from Iraq were whispering to their colleagues rumors that Osama bin Laden was on his way to Iraq, most likely via Iran, in order to personally assume the supreme leadership of the "Great Ramadan Offensive". They claimed that Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi invited bin Laden to personally assume the leadership of an "offensive whose scale and importance [would] rival the September 2001 raid". The forthcoming jihadist strikes in Western Europe which they had been instructed to undertake in Iraq, would also be part of this "new jihad to honor the Sheikh", the commanders intimated to their colleagues. Concurrently, senior Palestinian jihadist commanders both in the Gaza Strip and in the Ayn-Hilwe refugee camp in southern Lebanon also knew of and discussed bin Laden's forthcoming arrival in Iraq in order to personally lead a cataclysmic eruption of an unprecedented jihad that would change the fate of the entire Middle East. When West European intelligence services began paying attention to these whispers, there immediately begun a new wave of reports that Osama bin Laden had recently injured his left leg on the battlefield in Afghanistan. Most prevalent was an August 23, 2005, report attributed to Mullah Ahmadi, the military commander of the Badr Corps of the al-Qaida Organization in Afghanistan, according to which bin Laden was wounded during the Ghazwat al-Khulud [Eternity Battle] operation against the "Spanish Base" near Al-Khalud in Afghanistan. Mullah Ahmadi also promised a four-hour video of the battle. All these rumors concluded with assurances that Sheikh Osama was safely evacuated to a secret location where he was convalescing. In reality, these battlefield reports aimed to provide "justification" for Osama bin Laden's disappearance even from the innermost circles of the Islamist-jihadist movement with whom he has been in constant contact via emissaries. It did not take long for prominent Islamists to ridicule these rumors. In London, Egyptian Islamist Dr Hani al-Sibai, the Director of the Al-Maqrizi Studies Center, stated that "his [bin Laden's] al-Qaida followers will not allow him to undertake such an adventure". Other Islamist-jihadists in Europe noted that in the past, such "excuses" -- alluding to incapacitation due to illness -- were used during major travels and relocations of bin Laden (for example for strategic consultations in Iran). Consequently, by late August 2005, as the statements and communique's of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, Shamil Basayev and Muhammad al-Dief began circulating through the Islamist-jihadist leadership in Western Europe, the mere existence of the Afghan battlefield reports were seized upon by his disciples as further confirmation that Osama bin Laden was indeed on his way to Iraq to assume leadership of the widely anticipated "Great" or "Fateful Ramadan Offensive", a spate of terrorism in which the West European jihadists, are clearly eager to personally participate. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back! http://us.click.yahoo.com/VpgUKB/pzNLAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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