Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: To Combat Obama, Al-Qaeda Hurls Insults

To Combat Obama, Al-Qaeda Hurls Insults
Effort Hints at Group's Consternation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/24/AR2009012401703.html
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 25, 2009; A01
Soon after the November election, al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader took stock
of America's new president-elect and dismissed him with an insulting
epithet. "A house Negro," Ayman al-Zawahiri said.
That was just a warm-up. In the weeks since, the terrorist group has
unleashed a stream of verbal tirades against Barack Obama, each more
venomous than the last. Obama has been called a "hypocrite," a
"killer" of innocents, an "enemy of Muslims." He was even blamed for
the Israeli military assault on Gaza, which began and ended before he
took office.
"He kills your brothers and sisters in Gaza mercilessly and without
affection," an al-Qaeda spokesman declared in a grainy Internet video
this month.
The torrent of hateful words is part of what terrorism experts now
believe is a deliberate, even desperate, propaganda campaign against a
president who appears to have gotten under al-Qaeda's skin. The
departure of George W. Bush deprived al-Qaeda of a polarizing American
leader who reliably drove recruits and donations to the terrorist
group.
With Obama, al-Qaeda faces an entirely new challenge, experts say: a
U.S. president who campaigned to end the Iraq war and to close the
military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and who polls show is well
liked throughout the Muslim world.
Whether the pro-Obama sentiment will last remains to be seen. On
Friday, the new administration signaled that it intends to continue at
least one of Bush's controversial counterterrorism policies: allowing
CIA missile strikes on alleged terrorist hideouts in Pakistan's
autonomous tribal region.
But for now, the change in Washington appears to have rattled al-
Qaeda's leaders, some of whom are scrambling to convince the faithful
that Obama and Bush are essentially the same.
"They're highly uncertain about what they're getting in this new
adversary," said Paul Pillar, a former CIA counterterrorism official
who lectures on national security at Georgetown University. "For al-
Qaeda, as a matter of image and tone, George W. Bush had been a near-
perfect foil."
Al-Qaeda's rhetorical swipes at Obama date to the weeks before the
election, when commentators on Web sites associated with the group
debated which of the two major presidential candidates would be better
for the jihadist movement. While opinions differed, a consensus view
supported Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) as the man most likely
to continue Bush administration policies and, it was hoped, drive the
United States more deeply into a prolonged guerrilla war.
Soon after the vote, the attacks turned personal -- and insulting. In
his Nov. 16 video message, Zawahiri denounced Obama as "the direct
opposite of honorable black Americans" such as Malcolm X. He then used
the term "house Negro," implying that Obama is merely a servant
carrying out the orders of powerful whites.
Since then, as Obama has begun moving to reverse controversial Bush
administration policies, the verbal attacks have become sharper, more
frequent and more clearly aimed at Muslim audiences.
On Jan. 6, Zawahiri issued a message calling for a global jihad by
Muslims to counter Israel's military campaign in Gaza. He then sought
to frame the Israeli assault as a "link in the chain of the crusade
against Islam and Muslims," with then-President-elect Obama at the
head of the chain.
"These raids are Obama's gift to you before he takes office," the
Egyptian-born Zawahiri said in the message, addressed to "Muslim
brothers and mujaheddin."
"This is Obama, whom the American machine of lies tried to portray as
the rescuer who will change the policy of America," Zawahiri said,
according to a translation provided by Site Intelligence Group, a
private company that monitors jihadist communications.
Days before Obama's inauguration, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden
chimed in with a mocking prediction that the new president would
founder under the weight of the military and financial burdens he
would inherit. No matter what he tried to do, Obama would ultimately
lose, bin Laden said on Jan. 14.
"If he withdraws from the war, it is military defeat," he said in an
audiotaped message. "And if he continues it, he drowns in economic
crisis. How can it be that [Bush] passed over to him two wars, not one
war, and he is unable to continue them? We are on our path to open
other fronts, with permission from Allah."
Friday, a new al-Qaeda salvo attempted to embarrass Obama, a day after
the new president announced his plans for closing the prison at
Guantanamo Bay. Appearing on the videotaped message were two men who
enlisted in al-Qaeda after being freed from that detention center.
"By Allah, imprisonment only increased our persistence in our
principles for which we went out, did jihad for and were imprisoned
for," said Abu Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri, who described himself as a
deputy commander for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The
translation was also provided by the Site group.
Site founder Rita Katz said the messages show "just how much al-Qaeda
is intimidated by Obama."
"The leadership of al-Qaeda is very concerned about the wide support
that Obama has been receiving from Arab and Muslim countries," Katz
said. "To combat this threat, al-Qaeda has embarked on a propaganda
campaign against Obama, not only by linking him to the policies of the
Bush administration, including the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan,
but also by accusing him of actions in which he had no part."
Other jihadist groups appear less threatened, or perhaps more
accepting of an American commander who appears more open to peaceful
accommodation, Katz said. A publication known as Al-Samoud, linked to
the Taliban in Afghanistan, viewed Obama's election as a welcome sign
that Americans are "very much tired from the bitter war" and do not
wish to prolong a conflict "ignited by Bush's insanity and his satanic
policy."
Regardless of how Obama is viewed now by the Muslim world -- savior,
menace or something in between -- the opinions will almost certainly
change in the coming months. For Muslim countries, as for the United
States, perceptions based on rhetoric and image will soon collide with
reality as the policies of the new administration take form, said
Pillar, the former CIA official.
"Inevitably Obama will make certain decisions that will be unpopular
and which the propagandists will quickly castigate," Pillar said. "I
expect that the honeymoon will be just as fragile and short as with
the American electorate."
---
"In queste condizioni, in qualunque stato occidentale si sarebbe
ragionato"   (Luca Logi / rodewalder / Golda Meir, febbraio 2008)
http://raionim.blogspot.com/2009/01/certo-che-i-qassam-sono-pericolosi_05.html

Pillar, the former CIA official.
Al Qaida non vuole che le relazioni fra il mondo musulmano e l'America
migliorino. La creazione del califfato a livello mondiale deve passare
sul cadavere dell'America.

 ha scritto nel messaggio 
news:imc1o4leu6gd02d82...@4ax.com...

concordo . Un miglioramento delle relazioni significherebbe una diminuzione 
di consensi per Al Qaeda. D'altra parte è bene che su certe questioni di 
principio la nuova amministrazione americana non transiga, come con l'Iran. 
Anche perchè i regimi canaglia aspettano solo che l'altro abbassi la guardia 
per dare colpi bassi. 

 principio la nuova amministrazione americana non transiga, come con l'Iran.
ti va male, bushista fuori tempo massimo. L'asse del male è morto e
sepolto e Obama vuole aprire un dialogo diretto con l'Iran

 ha scritto nel messaggio 
news:e5603761-08fb-461a...@p2g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

non sono bushista perchè, tanto per fare un esempio, non avrei mai fatto la 
guerra in Irak e avrei gestito in tutt'altra maniera la questione afgana. 
Però non si può fare come che ciò che è accaduto prima non esista più. Ci 
vuole molta più gradualità. Anche perchè, volenti o nolenti, il mondo è 
cambiato. Non basta un tocco di cancellina. Quello che ho notato con un 
certo disappunto è stata la propaganda che soprattutto russi ed iraniani 
hanno messo in piedi. La mano va tesa con chi se la merita. Confido comunque 
che Obama sappia rispondere con i dovuti distinguo e non ceda sui 
"fondamentali".