BRIEFS

AL-QAEDA IN AFGHANISTAN URGES PROFESSIONALS TO JOIN MUJAHIDEEN

In a 47-minute video statement, the commander of al-Qaeda’s forces in Afghanistan issued an appeal for professionals such as physicians and engineers to join the jihad against Coalition forces in that country (Al-Sahab Media Production Organization, March 6). Mustafa Ahmad Abu al-Yazid, an Egyptian jihadist leader and close associate of Ayman al-Zawahiri, called for much-needed professionals to join the mujahideen (see his profile in Terrorism Focus, July 3, 2007). Abu al-Yazid, already under an Egyptian in absentia death sentence for terrorist activities in that country, spent two years in Iraq before being appointed as the leader of al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan last year (Al-Jazeera, May 24, 2007).

The appeal comes on the heels of a similar call for professionals to join the ranks of the mujahideen in Iraq, suggesting al-Qaeda operations are suffering from an inability to recruit professionals to their cause (see Terrorism Focus, February 20). Abu al-Yazid is himself a skilled financial operator, believed to have arranged financing for multiple terrorist attacks.

Abu al-Yazid repeatedly condemns the introduction of nationalism and “patriotic bias” to the Muslim world, suggesting that such notions are the result of Western design and influence. The al-Qaeda commander also attacks the generation of Arab nationalist leaders that took power in the post-war Middle East: “These rulers were greater transgressors against Islam and the Muslims than their masters, the Christians and the Jews. Their names were Muslim, but their hearts were Christian.” There are extensive quotes from Ibn al-Tamiyya, the 13th century Islamic scholar and advocate of jihad—controversial and oft-imprisoned in his own time—a popular source of legitimization for today’s jihadis.

Four situations are identified in which jihad becomes obligatory for Muslims, including defense of a Muslim nation, being close to the scene of conflict, the liberation of Muslim prisoners and the case of an imam issuing a call for jihad. In what may be a reference to a similar shortage of religious scholars willing to advocate al-Qaeda’s cause, al-Yazid takes the unusual step of advising would-be jihadists: “Do not let yourselves be deceived by the fraudulent claim that no jihad is permitted without the sanction of an imam.”

The appeal addresses the difficulty experienced professionals would endure in abandoning their families and homes to take up jihad: “We direct a special call to specialized people like doctors and electronic engineers, due to their urgent need by the mujahideen… We call on the fathers and mothers not to become a barrier between their children and paradise and to present their children for the sake of God… we say to the Muslim wives do not be a barrier between your husbands and paradise; the righteous woman who loves her husband is the one that desires for him to get into paradise and to be saved from Hell, but she is the one who says to him when she knows that Islam is calling him: ‘Take my gold and money and conduct jihad for the sake of God and we will meet in paradise, God willing.’”

TURKISH TERRORISTS ATTEMPT USE OF TOY CARS TO DELIVER BOMBS

Turkish counter-terrorism teams have arrested three Istanbul men involved in a plot to attack American businesses. The three are members of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), a militant Marxist-Leninist group known for its campaign of assassinations and suicide bombings.

In a raid conducted in a suburb of Istanbul on March 5, Turkish security services seized a handful of small arms, bomb-making equipment and 77 lbs. of artificial fertilizer—for use in explosives. Most intriguing, however, was the seizure of a radio-controlled toy car that had been modified by the suspects—all construction workers—to perform as a bomb-delivery system (Hurriyet, March 12; Dogan News Agency, March 10). The innovation may have been designed to circumvent new measures taken against the use of mobile phones as detonators, such as jamming signals in sensitive areas (Vatan, March 10). Documents seized in the raid suggested that the three intended to use such devices against American firms operating in Turkey, such as Citibank, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. The DHKP/C is strongly opposed to the U.S. interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The suspects may also have planned to use the remote-controlled cars in an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at his home in Uskudar (Milliyet, March 10).