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Ayman Al-Zawahri Ayman Al-Zawahri al-Qaeda Iraq 20061012 Link

Africa North
Gamaa Al-Islamiya leader issues warning from exile
2013-12-02
[Al Ahram] A leader of a hardline Egyptian Islamist group that fought the state in the 1990s warned that the army had driven the nation to the "edge of a precipice" since he fled the country after president Mohamed Morsi's ouster in July.

Egypt has been torn by the worst internal strife in its modern history since the army deposed the Islamist Morsi amid mass protests against his rule.

Assem Abdel-Maged of the Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya told the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network he expected the situation in Egypt to deteriorate, saying protests "will be what breaks this coup."

He said the military made a "major mistake" by siding with "religious, political, and social minorities," an allusion to Christians and secular-minded Egyptians.

"Everything that happens in Egypt now is in the interests of the minorities. Therefore the situation cannot continue this way, and the army must review its position quickly because the country is on the edge of a precipice," Abdel-Maged said.

Abdel-Maged, who once shared a prison cell with Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahri, was jailed for 25 years until 2006 for a role in the 1981 assassination of president Anwar Sadat. He now faces charges of inciting the killing of protesters.

Egyptian security officials said Abdel-Maged fled to Qatar via the sea or the border with Libya. Qatar is one of the few Arab states that were sympathetic to Islamists during Morsi's year in power, supplying Egypt with billions of dollars in aid.

Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya renounced violence more than a decade ago and entered mainstream politics after president Hosni Mubarak's downfall in 2011. It became a close ally of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood during his one year in office.

"If the army leadership do not wake up and realise what is happening, then, unfortunately, matters will become worse in Egypt," Abdel-Maged said in the interview with Al Jazeera late on Saturday. "They will find that in the end they'll have only the tanks and soldiers on their side in a confrontation with the entire Umma (Islamic nation)."

The army deposed Morsi after mass protests against his rule. Since then hundreds of his supporters have been killed in a security crackdown while bomb attacks and shootings targeting the security forces have become commonplace, killing around 200 soldiers and policemen, most of them in the Sinai Peninsula.

The state has declared a war on Islamist militants.

In his last weeks in office, Morsi appointed a Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya member as governor of Luxor, a city on the Nile south of Cairo where members of the group killed 58 tourists in 1997.
Link


Africa North
US blacklists Egypt terror commander
2013-10-08
[Al Ahram] The United States on Monday blacklisted as a terrorist an Egyptian Islamist military commander with links to Al-Qaeda, accusing him of setting up training camps in Egypt and Libya.

The State Department also designated as global forces of Evil the group founded by Muhammad Jamal, who had learned bomb-making techniques when he trained with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in the 1980s

Jamal had returned from Afghanistan to Egypt in the 1990s and became the military head of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
, which was then led by Ayman Al-Zawahri, now the global head of Al-Qaeda following the killing of the late Osama bin Laden
... who is no longer with us, and won't be again...
Jamal was tossed in the slammer
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
 several times by Egyptian authorities, but on his release in 2011 he founded the Muhammad Jamal Network "and established several terrorist training camps in Egypt and Libya," the State Department said in a statement.

He has also developed links with the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula and used their network "to smuggle fighters into training camps."

"Suicide bombers have trained at MJN training camps, and Jamal established links with forces of Evil in Europe," the State Department said.

After he was re-arrested in Egypt in November 2012, "his confiscated computer contained letters to Zawahri in which Jamal asked for assistance and described MJN's activities, including acquiring weapons, conducting terrorist training, and establishing terrorist groups in the Sinai."
Link


India-Pakistan
US offers $10 million for Hafiz Saeed
2012-04-04
We could pass the plate. Hosting isn't costing the Burg that much...
ISLAMABAD: The United States has offered a $10 million bounty for a Pakistani militant leader who allegedly orchestrated the 2008 Mumbai attacks and has been directing an anti-American political movement in recent months.
How much for just the severed head?
The reward is for “information leading to the arrest and conviction” of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who founded the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba with alleged Pakistani support in the 1980s to pressure archenemy India over the disputed territory of Kashmir. The US also offered up to $2 million for Lashkar-e-Taiba’s deputy leader, Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, who is Saeed’s brother-in-law.

Pakistan banned the group in 2002 under US pressure, but it operates with relative freedom under the name of its social welfare wing Jamaat-ud-Dawwa — even doing charity work using government money.

The US has designated both groups as foreign terrorist organizations. Intelligence officials and terrorism experts say Lashkar-e-Taiba has expanded focus beyond India in recent years and has plotted attacks in Europe and Australia. Some have called it “the next Al-Qaeda” and fear it could set its sights on the US

Saeed operates openly in Pakistan from his base in the eastern city of Lahore and travels widely, giving public speeches and appearing on TV talk shows. He has been one of the leading figures of the Difa-e-Pakistan, or Defense of Pakistan Council, which has held a series of large demonstrations in recent months against the US and India. He has rallied against any moves by the Pakistani government to reopen NATO and US supply lines into Afghanistan that were cut to protest the deadly November airstrikes.

Pakistan placed Saeed under house arrest for several months after the November 2008 attacks in India’s financial capital but eventually released him after he challenged his detention in court. The government has resisted Indian demands to do more, saying it doesn’t have the necessary evidence. Saeed denied involvement in the Mumbai attacks in an interview with Al Jazeera television and said the US was just angry about his anti-American demonstrations.

“We are not hiding in caves for bounties to be set on finding us,” said Saeed. “I think the US is frustrated because we are taking out countrywide protests against the resumption of NATO supplies and drone strikes.”

The reward for Saeed is one of the highest offered by the US and is equal to the amount for Taleban chief Mullah Omar. Only Ayman Al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama Bin Laden as Al-Qaeda chief, fetches a higher bounty at $25 million.

Pakistani defense analyst Hasan Askari-Rizvi said the move against Saeed could be payback for his recent demonstrations against US drone strikes and allowing NATO supplies meant for troops in Afghanistan to travel through Pakistan. Rizvi said it would likely have little impact on Pakistan’s stance toward Saeed, both because of his historical links to the government and the political danger of being seen as doing Washington’s bidding in a country where anti-American sentiment is rampant.

“The government is in a difficult position,” said Rizvi. “On the one hand, they will be pressured by the US, but they are not really in a position to arrest him.”

The US State Department describes Saeed as a former professor of Arabic and engineering who heads an organization “dedicated to installing Islamist rule over parts of India and Pakistan.” It also noted that six of the 166 people killed in the 2008 attacks in the Indian city were American citizens.

A Pakistani-American, David Coleman Headley, pleaded guilty in a US court to helping Lashkar-e-Taiba plan the Mumbai rampage targeting a hotel and other sites.

Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna welcomed the US announcement, saying it would signal to Lashkar-e-Taiba and its patrons that the international community remains united in fighting terrorism.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, which means Army of the Pure, belongs to the Salafi movement, an ultraconservative branch of Islam similar to the Wahabi sect — the main Islamic branch in Saudi Arabia from which Al-Qaeda partly emerged. Lashkar-e-Taiba and Al-Qaeda operate separately but have been known to help each other when their paths intersect.

Analysts and terrorism experts agree that Pakistan’s intelligence agency, known as the ISI, is still able to control Lashkar-e-Taiba, though the ISI denies it.
Link


India-Pakistan
Pakistan arrests ex-Guantanamo prisoners for ties with militant groups
2011-07-10
(KUNA) -- Pak law-enforcement agencies (LEA) have reportedly re-jugged more than 20 former Guantanamo Bay prisoners and are interrogating them for their links with bully boy and religious groups, said sources on Saturday.

The law-enforcers have jugged about twenty-one such prisoners from different areas of northern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
 province, LEA sources told KUNA. When contacted interior ministry sources also confirmed the report. They said the former Gitmo prisoners were jugged after reports that they have re-established links with Death Eaters and religiously-extremist groups.

There were also some reports that they were involved in terrorist activities in the country, said sources, adding, they will also help trace hideouts of Al-Qaeda commanders and main leaders. Sources said that the jugged Death Eaters are closely linked to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain (TTP).

The report of arrests came as US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta
...former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, now SecDef. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993....
 in Kabul said that Ayman Al-Zawahri, the new Al Qaeda chief, is living in Pakistain's bordering tribal belt.
Link


Terror Networks
Osama wanted to change Al Qaeda name
2011-06-25
[Emirates 24/7] As the late Osama bin Laden
... he's rotten though not quite forgotten...
 watched his organization get picked apart, he lamented in his final writings that Al Qaeda was suffering from a marketing problem.

His group was killing too many Mohammedans and that was bad. The West was winning the public relations fight. All his old comrades were dead and he barely knew their replacements.

Faced with these challenges, Bin Laden, who hated the United States and decried capitalism, considered a most American of business strategies. Like Blackwater, ValuJet and Philip Morris, perhaps what Al Qaeda really needed was a fresh start under a new name.

The problem with the name Al Qaeda, bin Laden wrote in a letter recovered from his compound in Pakistain, was that it lacked a religious element, something to convince Mohammedans worldwide that they are in a holy war with America.

Maybe something like Taifat Al Tawhed Wal-Jihad, meaning Monotheism and Jihad Group, he wrote. Or Jama'at I'Adat Al Khilafat Al Rashida, meaning Restoration of the Caliphate Group.

As bin Laden saw it, the problem was that the group's full name, Al Qaeda Al Jihad, for The Base of Holy War, had become short-handed as simply Al Qaeda. Lopping off the word "jihad," bin Laden wrote, allowed the West to "claim deceptively that they are not at war with Islam." Maybe it was time for Al Qaeda to bring back its original name.

The letter, which was undated, was discovered among bin Laden's recent writings. Navy SEALs stormed his compound and killed him before any name change could be made.

The letter was described by senior administration, national security and other US officials only on condition of anonymity because the materials are sensitive.

The documents portray bin Laden as a terrorist chief executive, struggling to sell holy war for a company in crisis.

At the White House, the documents were taken as positive reinforcement for President Barack B.O. Obama's effort to eliminate religiously charged words from the government's language of terrorism. Words like "jihad," which also has a peaceful religious meaning, are out.

"The information that we recovered from bin Laden's compound shows Al Qaeda under enormous strain," Obama said on Wednesday in his speech to the nation on withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. "Bin Laden expressed concern that Al Qaeda had been unable to effectively replace senior forces of Evil that had been killed and that Al Qaeda has failed in its effort to portray America as a nation at war with Islam, thereby draining more widespread support."

Bin Laden wrote his musings about renaming Al Qaeda as a letter but, as with many of his writings, the recipient was not identified. Intelligence officials have determined that bin Laden only communicated with his most senior commanders, including his deputy, Ayman Al Zawahri, and his No. 3, Mustafa Abu Al Yazid, according to one US official. Because of the courier system bin Laden used, it's unclear to US intelligence whether the letter ever was sent.

Al Yazid was killed in a US Arclight airstrike last year. Zawahri has replaced bin Laden as head of Al Qaeda.

In one letter sent to Zawahri within the past year or so, bin Laden said Al Qaeda's image was suffering because of attacks that have killed Mohammedans, particularly in Iraq, officials said. In other journal entries and letters, they said, bin Laden wrote that he was frustrated that many of his trusted longtime comrades, whom he'd fought alongside in Afghanistan, had been killed or captured.

Using his courier system, bin Laden could still exercise some operational control over Al Qaeda. But increasingly the men he was directing were younger and inexperienced. Frequently, the generals who had vouched for these young fighters were dead or in prison. And bin Laden, unable to leave his walled compound and with no phone or Internet access, was annoyed that he did not know so many people in his own organization.

The US has essentially completed the review of documents taken from bin Laden's compound, officials said, though intelligence analysts will continue to mine the data for a long time.
Link


Terror Networks
Al Qaeda No. 2 blasts Obama, US Arab allies
2009-12-15
[Asharq al-Aswat] Al Qaeda's deputy leader on Monday accused President Barack Obama of deceiving the Arab world and failing to advance Middle East peace talks, and said the militants' struggle against the United States and its allies is "a war between Muslims and infidels."

In a new message posted on the Internet, Ayman Al-Zawahri claimed Obama has brought the region nothing but "blockade and siege" despite efforts to reach out to Arabs. "Obama's plan, though wrapped in smiles and calls for respect and understanding, aims only to support Israel," al-Zawahri said in a 26-minute audio message.

Osama bin Laden's deputy has been critical of Obama since his election, even releasing a message that referred to the U.S. president as a "house negro," a slur for a black subservient to whites.

"Obama's policy is nothing but another cycle in the Crusader and Zionist campaign to enslave and humiliate us, and to occupy our land and steal our wealth," al-Zawahri said.

The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified, but it was posted on a Web site commonly used for militant messaging.

He urged Muslims and Palestinians to wage holy war, or jihad, not only in Israel and the Palestinian territories but also beyond those areas, saying there are "ample opportunities elsewhere."

He praised Muslim militants fighting in Pakistan, saying the conflict there was a "war of Muslim dignity and pride" and warned the Palestinians against any negotiations with Israel.

"We should continue jihad to liberate Palestinian land and establish an Islamic state there. We should wage jihad against Jews and all those who support them, whether they are Americans or Westerners," he said.

The terror network's No. 2 said the group "will not forget" its members held in American prisons. He specifically mentioned Ramzi Youssef, convicted and now serving a life sentence for the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, and also Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Al Qaeda's mastermind of the September 11 bombings.

Mohammed and four others, held for years at the military base in Guantanamo Bay, are due to stand trial on charges they plotted the September 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Link


Terror Networks
Guidebook on Muslim spies reveals Qaedas fear
2009-07-11
[Al Arabiya Latest] A new book published by the Islamist group al-Qaeda reveals the group is paranoid and faltering under international pressure and in "deathly fear" of United States counter terrorism measures in Pakistan, analysts said Friday.

Al-Qaeda's 'Guide to the Laws Regarding Muslim Spies', a 150-page book written by al-Qaeda senior commander Abu Yahya al-Lini and recently posted on jihadist websites, accused "Muslim spies" within its own ranks of spying for the U.S. forces and providing them with information on al-Qaeda camps and safe houses. "It would be no exaggeration to say that the first line in the raging Crusader campaign waged by America and its allies against the Muslims and their lands is the network of spies, of various and sundry sorts and kinds," says the book, translated by MEMRI, the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute.

The Guidebook also claimed "Muslim spies" aided the U.S. in its latest Predator drone campaign against al-Qaeda's fighters in Pakistan.

In the guidebook al-Lini warned that even the old and sickly could be in essence Muslim spies working against al-Qaeda and causing "carnage, destruction, arrest and pursuit," Lini wrote. "Their effects are seen: carnage, destruction, arrest, and pursuit, but they themselves remain unseen, just like Satan and his ilk who see us while remaining unseen," the book stated.

Paranoia and fear
" It would be no exaggeration to say that the first line in the raging Crusader campaign waged by America and its allies against the Muslims and their lands is the network of spies, of various and sundry sorts and kinds "
Qaeda Guidebook on Muslim Spies
Analysts in the U.S. said the book revealed a shift in al-Qaeda's well known triumphant tone to a more worried and paranoid one that signaled a weakening among its ranks.

"In general, Al Qaeda speaks in a very triumphant tone but in the new book Al-Libi speaks of the group's dire straits and serious problems," said Daniel Lev, who works for MEMRI. "I haven't ever seen this kind of language from senior Al Qaeda commanders before," he added.

"Such an admission of distress on the part of a senior Al Qaeda commander makes this a very unique book in terms of the author," he explained. Ayman Al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda's the second man in command after Osama Bin Laden, wrote the introduction to the book.

Analysts also said that a deep seated paranoia of hidden enemies was the main preoccupation of Lini's book which claimed that spying knows no bounds and could be the occupation of even the imam of a mosque.

"The danger of these spies lies not only in the ability of these hidden 'brigades' to infiltrate and reach to the depths," Lini wrote, but "include the decrepit, hunchbacked old man who can hardly walk two steps; the strong young man who can cover the length and breadth of the land; the infirm woman sitting in the depths of her house."

"They are in deathly fear of airpower," Tom McInerny, a military analyst at FOX News said, adding that the book was a "gold mine" for its clues on the success of the Predator strikes in Pakistan which al-Qaeda's guidebook has singled out as the outcome of "Muslim spies" infiltrating its ranks.
Link


Terror Networks
New Al-Qaeda Book Betrays Panic Over Predator Strikes, Covert Operations
2009-07-10
A new book published by Al Qaeda shows that the terrorist group is under intense pressure and in "deathly fear" of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Pakistan, terror experts say.

The 150-page book, titled "Guide to the Laws Regarding Muslim Spies," was recently posted on jihadist Web sites. It was written by a senior Al Qaeda commander, Abu Yahya Al-Libi, and features an introduction by Ayman Al-Zawahri, the No. 2 man in Al Qaeda.

The book accuses some in Al Qaeda's ranks of being spies who provide intelligence, including information about Al Qaeda camps and safehouses, to U.S. forces. According to the book, these "Muslim spies" have allowed the U.S. to use its Predator drone campaign to paralyze Al Qaeda leadership.

"It would be no exaggeration to say that the first line in the raging Crusader campaign waged by America and its allies against the Muslims and their lands is the network of spies, of various and sundry sorts and kinds," says the book, translated by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI

"Their effects are seen: carnage, destruction, arrest, and pursuit, but they themselves remain unseen, just like Satan and his ilk who see us while remaining unseen."

Terror experts have called the book unique in its weak and worried tone.

"I haven't ever seen this kind of language from senior Al Qaeda commanders before," said Daniel Lev, who works for MEMRI. "In general, Al Qaeda speaks in a very triumphant tone," but in the new book Al-Libi speaks of the group's dire straits and serious problems, Lev added.

"Such an admission of distress on the part of a senior Al Qaeda commander makes this a very unique book in terms of the author."

FOX News military analyst Tom McInerny said the book is a "gold mine" that attests to the success of the Predator strikes that are decimating Al Qaeda's ranks in Pakistan.

"They are in deathly fear of airpower," said McInerny, a retired lieutenant general in the U.S. Air Force. "Whether it's unmanned drones or whether it's fighters or bombers using precision weapons, they are deathly afraid."

The books also displays a deep-seated paranoia of hidden enemies, according to MEMRI. It claims that anyone — from the old and infirm to the imam of a mosque — could be a U.S. spy.

"The danger of these spies lies not only in the ability of these hidden 'brigades' to infiltrate and reach to the depths," the book says.

"They include the decrepit, hunchbacked old man who can hardly walk two steps; the strong young man who can cover the length and breadth of the land; the infirm woman sitting in the depths of her house; the young woman whose veins still flow with youth; and even perhaps the prepubescent adolescent who has not reached the age of legal maturity [in Islam]."

Lev, of MEMRI, said that the group's suspicions could be used as an excuse to conduct a purge, which could further harm the Al Qaeda's stature in Pakistan.

"In the situation that they're in, they're entirely dependent on the natives, on the Pakistanis and the Afghans, and they definitely do not want to be facing a situation like Al Qaeda in Iraq, where you have the tribes turning on you," he told FOX News.

"That can be the beginning of the end."

Link


India-Pakistan
Qaeda leaving Pakistan for Somalia, Yemen
2009-06-13
Dozens of Al Qaeda fighters, and a handful of its leaders, are leaving the Tribal Areas and moving to Somalia and Yemen, US officials say. Some aides to President Barack Obama, according to New York Times, attribute the moves to intensified drone attacks. Another explanation is the growth of the jihadist campaigns in both Somalia and Yemen. Somalia now bears resemblance to Afghanistan immediately before the September 11. Yemen, too, has a weak government. There is no evidence so far, officials say, that Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahri are considering a move. Leon Panetta, the CIA director, said on Thursday the US must prevent Al Qaeda from creating a new sanctuary. The steady trickle of fighters could worsen the chaos in Somalia, where a militant group has attracted foreign jihadists in its quest to topple the weak government in Mogadishu. It could also swell the ranks of a growing menace in Yemen.
Link


Terror Networks
Osama warns against alliances with Christians and Jews
2009-06-05
Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has called for a "long war against infidels and their agents", and warned Muslims that alliances with Christians and Jews would turn them into apostates. "If a Muslim became an ally of the infidels and backed them against Muslims his faith would be annulled and he would become an apostate," said Bin Laden in remarks which came in a recording -- parts of which had been aired by Al Jazeera TV on Wednesday. "Do not take Jews and Christians as allies," he said. "We either live under the light of Islam or we die with dignity ... brace yourselves for a long war against the world's infidels and their agents," said Bin Laden in the recording posted on a website on Thursday. He said Obama had planted "seeds of hatred" among Muslims. His deputy Ayman Al-Zawahri called the US president a criminal in another recording on Tuesday and warned Muslims against falling for his polished words.
Link


India-Pakistan
American Qaeda operative claims Western economy on brink of failure
2009-04-15
Al Qaeda member Adam Gadahn called on Muslims to support jihad with "men and money", claiming militants had brought the West to the verge of collapse.

Gadahn, who is a US national, stated this during a one-and-a-half hour video produced by Al Qaeda's media wing, As Sahab, and released on the Internet on Monday. "The enemy under the leadership of the unbelieving West has begun to stagger and falter, and the results of its unabated bleeding has began to show on its economy, which is on the brink of failure," said Gadahn, in a report by CBS News.

Contradictions: Dismissing efforts by US President Barack Obama to improve relations with the Muslim world, he said former US president had all made similar claims but all have maintained the same policies and the same approach towards Muslims. "Obama's own statements contradict his claims," he said, referring to the US president's assurances to Israel that Jerusalem will remain its undivided capital, and his pledge to increase US forces in Afghanistan.

Gadahn also claimed that big US corporations and financial institutions dictated America's domestic and foreign policies, specifically mentioning the case of Bernard Madoff and books written by American author John Perkins. The video also included a documentary-style historical introduction at the beginning, which Gadahn described as examples of crimes perpetrated by US forces in the wars it fought during the 20th century. He referred to the killing of Germans during World War II, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam. "Agent orange contains Dioxin, one of the most poisonous substances on earth," he noted, adding "just three ounces of it in the water supplies of New York, is enough to poison its entire population". The video also contained excerpts from statements released previously by other Al Qaeda leaders, such as Osama Bin Laden, Ayman Al Zawahri, Mustafa Abu Al Yazid and Abu Yahya Al Libi. The statements all stressed on jihad as the only way to rid Muslim countries from corrupt rulers and Western occupation.

It also included footage of operations carried out by Arab and Afghan fighters against NATO and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, including a succession of rocket attacks, IED attacks and suicide bombings. Gadahn pointed to a US army handbook, 'Route Clearance', that he said was seized during an attack on US forces. A copy of the handbook has been distributed along with the video.

The book explains the various tools and techniques used by the US army to minimise the damage caused by IED attacks. Gadahn said the procedures explained in the handbook were not being followed, suggesting the US preferred to save money on minesweepers rather than the lives of its own soldiers.

New technique: The video also revealed a new technique used by Al Qaeda for suicide operations, consisting of placing rocket launchers on top of vehicles, and firing those rockets before the suicide bomber detonates the car bomb.
Link


Terror Networks
Al-Qaida's stance on women sparks extremist debate
2008-06-01
Muslim extremist women are challenging al-Qaida's refusal to include — or at least acknowledge — women in its ranks, in an emotional debate that gives rare insight into the gender conflicts lurking beneath one of the strictest strains of Islam.

In response to a female questioner, al-Qaida No. 2 leader Ayman Al-Zawahri said in April that the terrorist group does not have women. A woman's role, he said on the Internet audio recording, is limited to caring for the homes and children of al-Qaida fighters.
Careful there, Zawahri, or you'll wake up one morning with a rolling pin embedded in your skull.
His remarks have since prompted an outcry from fundamentalist women, who are fighting or pleading for the right to be terrorists. The statements have also created some confusion, because in fact suicide bombings by women seem to be on the rise, at least within the Iraq branch of al-Qaida.

A'eeda Dahsheh is a Palestinian mother of four in Lebanon who said she supports al-Zawahri and has chosen to raise children at home as her form of jihad. However, she said, she also supports any woman who chooses instead to take part in terror attacks.

Another woman signed a more than 2,000-word essay of protest online as Rabeebat al-Silah, Arabic for "Companion of Weapons."

"How many times have I wished I were a man ... When Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahri said there are no women in al-Qaida, he saddened and hurt me," wrote "Companion of Weapons," who said she listened to the speech 10 times. "I felt that my heart was about to explode in my chest...I am powerless."

Such postings have appeared anonymously on discussion forums of Web sites that host videos from top al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. While the most popular site requires names and passwords, many people use only nicknames, making their identities and locations impossible to verify.

However, groups that monitor such sites say the postings appear credible because of the knowledge and passion they betray. Many appear to represent computer-literate women arguing in the most modern of venues — the Internet — for rights within a feudal version of Islam.

"Women were very disappointed because what al-Zawahri said is not what's happening today in the Middle East, especially in Iraq or in Palestinian groups," said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors militant Web sites. "Suicide operations are being carried out by women, who play an important role in jihad."

It's not clear how far women play a role in al-Qaida because of the group's amorphous nature.
Like a burkha is amorphous?
Terrorism experts believe there are no women in the core leadership ranks around bin Laden and al-Zawahri. But beyond that core, al-Qaida is really a movement with loosely linked offshoots in various countries and sympathizers who may not play a direct role. Women are clearly among these sympathizers, and some are part of the offshoot groups.

In the Iraq branch, for example, women have carried out or attempted at least 20 suicide bombings since 2003. Al-Qaida members suspected of training women to use suicide belts were captured in Iraq at least three times last year, the U.S. military has said.

Hamas, another militant group, is open about using women fighters and disagrees with al-Qaida's stated stance. At least 11 Palestinian women have launched suicide attacks in recent years.
Yeah, they explode and die about the same and take out about the same number of Jooos. And what is great about them is that you don't have to risk a brave Jihadi Lion!
"A lot of the girls I speak to ... want to carry weapons. They live with this great frustration and oppression," said Huda Naim, a prominent women's leader, Hamas member and Palestinian lawmaker in Gaza. "We don't have a special militant wing for women ... but that doesn't mean that we strip women of the right to go to jihad."
Besides, the men still wear the dishdash in the family.
Al-Zawahri's remarks show the fine line al-Qaida walks in terms of public relations. In a modern Arab world where women work even in some conservative countries, al-Qaida's attitude could hurt its efforts to win over the public at large. On the other hand, noted SITE director Katz, al-Zawahri has to consider that many al-Qaida supporters, such as the Taliban, do not believe women should play a military role in jihad.

Al-Zawahri's comments came in a two-hour audio recording posted on an Islamic militant Web site, where he answered hundreds of questions sent in by al-Qaida sympathizers. He praised the wives of mujahedeen, or holy warriors. He also said a Muslim woman should "be ready for any service the mujahedeen need from her," but advised against traveling to a war front like Afghanistan without a male guardian.

Al-Zawahri's stance might stem from personal history, as well as religious beliefs. His first wife and at least two of their six children were killed in a U.S. airstrike in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar in 2001. He later accused the U.S. of intentionally targeting women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I say to you ... (I have) tasted the bitterness of American brutality: my favorite wife's chest was crushed by a concrete ceiling," he wrote in a 2005 letter.
Well, at least you still have your goat.
Al-Zawahri's question-and-answer campaign is one sign of al-Qaida's sophistication in using the Web to keep in touch with its popular base, even while its leaders remain in hiding. However, the Internet has also given those disenfranchised by al-Qaida — in this case, women — a voice they never had before.

The Internet is the only "breathing space" for women who are often shrouded in black veils and confined to their homes, "Ossama2001" wrote. She said al-Zawahri's words "opened old wounds" and pleaded with God to liberate women so they can participate in holy war.

Another woman, Umm Farouq, or mother of Farouq, wrote: "I use my pen and words, my honest emotions ... Jihad is not exclusive to men."

Such women are al-Qaida sympathizers who would not feel comfortable expressing themselves with men or others outside their circles, said Dia'a Rashwan, an expert on terrorism and Islamic movements at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.

"The Internet gives them the ideal place to write their ideas, while they're hidden far from the world," he said.

Men have also responded to al-Zawahri's remarks. One male Internet poster named Hassan al-Saif asked: "Does our sheik mean that there is no need to use women in our current jihad? Why can we not use them?"
I've got a wife I'm just dying to send off on jihad!
He was in the minority. Dozens of postings were signed by men who agreed with al-Zawahri that women should stick to supporting men and raising children according to militant Islam.

Women bent on becoming militants have at least one place to turn to. A niche magazine called "al-Khansaa" — named for a female poet in pre-Islamic Arabia who wrote lamentations for two brothers killed in battle — has popped up online. The magazine is published by a group that calls itself the "women's information office in the Arab peninsula," and its contents include articles on women's terrorist training camps, according to SITE.

Its first issue, with a hot pink cover and gold embossed lettering, appeared in August 2004 with the lead article "Biography of the Female Mujahedeen."

The article read:

"We will stand, covered by our veils and wrapped in our robes, weapons in hand, our children in our laps, with the Quran and the Sunna (sayings) of the Prophet of Allah directing and guiding us."
Well, I'm impressed. I don't think even the Terminator could have pulled that one off, and he can shoot a shotgun and ride a motorcycle through an obstacle course at the same time.
_______

Associated Press writer Pakinam Amer contributed to this report from Cairo; AP writer Diaa Hadid contributed from the Gaza Strip; and AP writer Zeina Karam contributed from Beirut, Lebanon.
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