Security

Qaeda Mouthpiece: We're Blacker than Barack

Al Qaeda used to be the kings of propaganda, outmaneuvering the American media machine at every turn. Now, it’s clear the terror group’s information operators have stumbled, big time. The latest misstep: calling President-elect Barack Obama a “house Negro.” That’s right. The guys who used to kill people, just to get their death on tape, […]

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Al Qaeda used to be the kings of propaganda, outmaneuvering the American media machine at every turn. Now, it's clear the terror group's information operators have stumbled, big time. The latest misstep: calling President-elect Barack Obama a "house Negro." That's right. The guys who used to kill people, just to get their death on tape, have been reduced to name-calling.

"You represent the direct opposite of honorable black Americans like Malik al-Shabazz, or Malcolm X," Al Qaeda #2 Ayman al-Zawahiri tells Obama in a newly-released video. "You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand in the ranks of the enemies of the Muslims, and pray the prayer of the Jews, although you claim to be Christian."

"Malik al-Shabazz (may Allah have mercy on him) was killed, while you have climbed the rungs of the presidency to take over the leadership of the greatest criminal force in the history of mankind," Zawahiri adds. "And in you and in Colin Powell, Rice and your likes, the words of Malcolm X
(may Allah have mercy on him) concerning 'House Negroes' are confirmed."

Why go after Obama? Well, "say you’re an al Qaeda supporter and have given your time, money, sons, or sympathies to the group because you believe al Qaeda is an effective counterweight to the Great Satan," Jim Arkedis notes. "You might begin to doubt America’s Great Satan-ness if the country is so bold as to elect Barack Hussein Obama as its next president." Nearly a year before he was elected president, in fact, Obama was already starting to change America's image in the world.

OK. So what's with the Malcom X and Obama-as-closet-Jew talk, then? For quite a while, al-Qaeda has been trying to tweak its messaging to gain a recruiting foothold in the United
States. Sometimes they deploy Adam Gadahn, the Southern California methalhead-turned-jihadist, to speak in an American idiom. Other times they bring up the slain civil rights leader.

Former CIA Bin Laden unit director
Micheal Scheuer wrote about a similar tape from Zawahiri in 2007. As he noted then, such incendiary language indicates that al-Qaeda has a more targeted recruitment strategy.

Al-Zawahiri clearly sought to begin a process of sewing political and racial discontent among American Muslims, focusing primarily on African American Muslims, who form the single most numerous group in the U.S. Muslim community.

Al-Qaeda’s strategy in the United
States and around the world is to reframe the national grievances of
Muslims as part of a narrative of global religious war. In America, the storyline has largely fallen on deaf ears.

So now Osama's minions are trying a new tactic: Presenting themselves as blacker than Barack. Like Arkedis says: "If that’s all they have, AQ is verging on irrelevancy."

[Image and translation: IntelCenter]

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