"Terror chief shows off his deadly work"
Bad guys use propaganda, too.
Excerpts:
The deadly efficiency of the foreign-led militants behind a series of terror attacks and assassinations across Iraq became clear yesterday with the release of a chillingly professional promotional video.
The group of militants is led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.... The video's starkest message to the fledgling government of Iraq is that Zarqawi's men - many of them foreign fighters - are now well organised, embedded inside Iraq, and can strike at a time and method of their choosing.
The tape, complete with graphics and professional-quality editing and camerawork, is the latest raising of the stakes by militants since the return of partial sovereignty to Iraq by the US last week. ... [T]he video, like a corporate recruitment product, was designed to lure new fighters - and funding - to Zarqawi's network. ...
It also appears to confirm the central role played by Zarqawi within the insurgents' community. ...
The footage contains scenes of what appear to be the final days and hours of militants as they ready themselves for suicide missions. Superimposed on scenes of them praying and relaxing are individual shots of the men explaining why they are carrying out the attacks. "How can I live peacefully at a time when the holy and sacred places have been violated, and the country is usurped and the infidels are encroaching on our country and humiliating our religion, which is ... our pride?" asks one bomber as armed, masked men stand behind him. "How can I live, and others live, while our sisters are prisoners of the Americans in Iraq?"
Excerpts:
The deadly efficiency of the foreign-led militants behind a series of terror attacks and assassinations across Iraq became clear yesterday with the release of a chillingly professional promotional video.
The group of militants is led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.... The video's starkest message to the fledgling government of Iraq is that Zarqawi's men - many of them foreign fighters - are now well organised, embedded inside Iraq, and can strike at a time and method of their choosing.
The tape, complete with graphics and professional-quality editing and camerawork, is the latest raising of the stakes by militants since the return of partial sovereignty to Iraq by the US last week. ... [T]he video, like a corporate recruitment product, was designed to lure new fighters - and funding - to Zarqawi's network. ...
It also appears to confirm the central role played by Zarqawi within the insurgents' community. ...
The footage contains scenes of what appear to be the final days and hours of militants as they ready themselves for suicide missions. Superimposed on scenes of them praying and relaxing are individual shots of the men explaining why they are carrying out the attacks. "How can I live peacefully at a time when the holy and sacred places have been violated, and the country is usurped and the infidels are encroaching on our country and humiliating our religion, which is ... our pride?" asks one bomber as armed, masked men stand behind him. "How can I live, and others live, while our sisters are prisoners of the Americans in Iraq?"
// 7/07/2004 
