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Ustadh Ahmad Farooq, from his latest videotape. Photo from the SITE Intel Group. |
A senior al Qaeda leader who is rumored to have been killed in a Predator airstrike in early June has appeared on a propaganda tape that eulogizes Osama bin Laden. On the videotape, Ustadh Ahmad Farooq, al Qaeda’s media emir and head of “Islamic Propagation” for Pakistan, condemns the Pakistani state for betraying the terror group and allied organizations.
As Sahab (the Clouds), al Qaeda’s media production arm, released a videotape on Islamist forums today that features Farooq, and includes images of bin Laden, who was killed in a US special operations raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2. The videotape is titled “With Such an Elevated Status They Met Allah!”. A translation of Farooq’s statement was provided by the SITE Intel Group.
The release of the tape raises raises further questions about the purported deaths of Farooq and Ilyas Kashmiri, the dangerous al Qaeda military chief and leader of the Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and Brigade 313. Both al Qaeda commanders have previously been reported as killed in the June 3 Predator airstrike in South Waziristan. [For more information on reports of the deaths of Kashmiri and Farooq, see LWJ report, Top al Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri killed in US Predator strike, and Threat Matrix report, Was al Qaeda’s leader of Pakistan killed in the South Waziristan Predator strike?.]
But questions have emerged about Kashmiri’s death, as the martyrdom statement is suspect and a photo of Kashmiri’s purported corpse was actually that of a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative who was killed during the terror assault on Mumbai in November 2008. Indian intelligence officials now believe that Kashmiri faked his death in an attempt to dodge the Predators and the US special operations forces who entered Pakistan to kill bin Laden. [For more information on problems with reports of Kashmiri’s death, see LWJ report, Questions emerge over HUJI’s statement on al Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri’s death, and Threat Matrix reports, Is Ilyas Kashmiri really dead? and Kashmiri faked death: Indian intelligence.]
An English-language translation of the eulogy for bin Laden, which was created by As Sahab, is dated May 21, or 12 days before Farooq was reported killed, so it is possible he died in the June 3 Predator strike. It is not likely, however, that al Qaeda would release a eulogy for bin Laden by a leader who was also dead.
Farooq lashes out at Pakistan
In today’s tape, Farooq attacked Pakistan for betraying al Qaeda and allied groups such as the Afghan Taliban.
“Pakistani armed forces and its intelligence agencies have betrayed the Ummah, the religion and the global Jihadi movement,” Farooq said.
He then went on to list several al Qaeda leaders who were captured in Pakistan and turned over to the US since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Included are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, “the great military commander and mastermind of September 11”; Sheikh Abu Zubaidah, “the great military commander and genius knight”; Ramzi bin al Shibh, “the distinguished military commander”; Abu Faraj al Libi, ” the important leader, the unique military commander”; Sheikh Abu Mus’ab “of the Sham” (Abu Musab al Suri), “the great Mujahid, preacher, and intellectual of Sham”; and Aafia Siddiqui, “the chaste daughter of their own nation.”
Farooq also noted that Pakistan has arrested Afghan Taliban leaders Mullah Abdus-Salam Zaeef, Ustadh Yasir, Mullah Abdul-Lateef Hakeemi, Mullah Baradar,
and Mullah Mansour Dadullah, “along with numerous other officials of the Islamic Emirate.”
Farooq then said that the entire Pakistani military must be overthrown to end the detentions of jihadists.
“Therefore you should know for sure that the matter cannot be solved by merely replacing some army officials or generals,” he said. “The matter is not about changing faces, but rather changing the system. As long as this army, as an organization, is based upon the principles laid down by Clausewitz and other infidel thinkers; as long as their ideology, instead of being derived from the Quranic chapters of Al Tawbahand Al Anfal and the Chapters of Jihad in the books of hadeeth, is being derived from the books of Western philosophers; as long as this army is being raised in accordance with the British curriculum, in academies set up by the British; as long as this state of affairs continues, this organization will continue to produce such officers and sepoys who give precedence to the nation-state over religion, salary over faith, promotion over jealousy, and their seniors’ orders over the orders of Allah, and they will continue to inflict harm to the Ummah in critical situations just as their forefathers did during the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate and on the occasion of the fall of the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan.”
At the end of the videotape, Farooq apologized to “our respected guests … especially Sheikh Ayman Al Zawahiri, Sheikh Atiyyatullah [Atiyah Abd al Rahman], and Sheikh Abu Yahya al Libi” for being unable to prevent the Pakistani military from arresting and killing their ranks.
“We will purify this land from the filth of these apostates [the Pakistani military and government] and establish a true Pakistan (land of the pure) where all Mujahideen and emigrants, Arab and non-Arab, will walk freely on the streets of Islamabad, fearing none other than Allah alone,” Farooq said.
Farooq is the latest al Qaeda leader to call for the overthrow of the Pakistani Army and the state. In the past, Osama bin Laden, current emir Ayman al Zawahiri, and top leader and ideolgue Abu Yahya al Libi have all released tapes urging Pakistanis to rise up against the military and government.
