Wednesday, September 28, 2005

The Voice of the Caliphate

 
A frequent refrain here at Gates of Vienna has been, “You can’t make this stuff up.” Further proof of this assertion appeared yesterday in this AP story:
     NEW YORK — A purported Al Qaeda newscast that promises weekly updates made its online debut with a report read by a masked man that included video of Hurricane Katrina — subtitled “divine punishment” — and a message from the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
The first newscast of the Voice of the Caliphate, appeared on Sept. 21 showing a masked man wearing a black shirt reading the bulletin with an automatic rifle on his right side and a copy of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, on his left side.
The man congratulated Palestinians on Israel’s recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The video also aired parts of an audio recently made by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq group, in which he declared war on Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority.
Really, doesn’t this read like a Point Five satire?

One of the ongoing memes floated by Wretchard at Belmont Club is the enemy's savvy and sophisticated media manipulation in this war. It amounts to a separate front in the Great Islamic Jihad, the only one in which the mujahideen can claim any significant victories. To put it bluntly, they have whupped the West’s collective ass so far in this part of the war.

Their Operational Headquarters is purportedly something called the “Global Islamic Media Front”:
     The bulletin by the Voice of the Caliphate, which is run by the Global Islamic Media Front, appeared on a Web site usually used by militant groups to post statements or videos. According to ads on the site, the bulletins will be weekly.
[…]
Al-Zarqawi’s group claims to have a media section that releases videos and statements almost daily. They are signed by the group’s spokesman, Abu Maysara al-Iraqi. Videos and audiotapes of bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri also surface on Islamic Web sites.
A Google search for “Global Islamic Media Front” does not turn up a website for it, but more information about it can be found in the Lebanese Daily Star.

So the Caliphate has a voice now. Well, who has been named Caliph? And is he the Caliph of Ice Cream?

4 comments:

neo-neocon said...

Well, as you no doubt know, the only caliph is the caliph of ice cream.

goesh said...

As I said in Neo's blog, this is a brilliant tactical move on their part. When are we going to stop applying rules for civilized people and declare total war on the bastards?

Jude the Obscure said...

It would be easy to stop all this masked, armed, posturing Islamic nonsense if every Islamic media site was matched by a Western one - same tactics, same language - but it is not permitted by Western 'leaders'. Of course non-Islamists get their arses whupped - anybody would who had to sit down and take such nonsense. The West has been effectively disarmed by 'hate-speech' legislation.

Papa Ray said...

Well, the latest rumor is that he is going to start up his own Hollywood style Production Studio complete with a staff recruited from our own beloved Hollyweird.

I hear he's having trouble because he doesn't have a 5 star hotel lined up for them.

Maybe he should read this for some ideas.

Heart of Darkness By Fouad Ajami

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

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