Al Qaeda to formalize defacto war against Pakistan

AP/Fox News:

Usama bin Laden will release a new message soon declaring war on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Al Qaeda announced Thursday.

The announcement of the upcoming message came as Al Qaeda released a new video in which bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, boasted that the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts. Speakers in the video promised more fighting in Afghanistan, North Africa and Sudan's Darfur region.

The messages are part of a stepped-up propaganda campaign by Al Qaeda around the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Earlier this month, bin Laden released two messages — including his first new appearance in a video in nearly three years.

A banner posted on an Islamic militant Web site on Thursday advertised that another message would be released, though it did not say whether bin Laden would appear in video or speak in an audiotape.

"Soon, God willing: 'Come to Jihad (holy war)', from sheik Usama bin Laden, God protect him" the banner read.

"Urgent, Al Qaeda declares war on the tyrant Pervez Musharraf and his apostate army, in the words of Usama bin Laden," it read.

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Al-Zawahiri began by condemning the Pakistani military's July assault on Islamic militants who took over the Red Mosque in Islamabad, and he paid tribute to one of the militants' leaders, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed in the fighting.

The siege "revealed the extent of the despicableness, lowliness and treason of Musharraf and his forces, who don't deserve the honor of defending Pakistan, because Pakistan is a Muslim land, whereas the forces of Musharraf are hunting dogs under (U.S. President George W.) Bush's crucifix," al-Zawahiri said.

"Let the Pakistani army know that the killing of Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his male and female students ... has soaked the history of the Pakistan army in shame and despicableness which can only washed away by retaliation," he said.

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Zawahiri and bin Laden have been at war with Pakistan for as long as they have been at war with the US, but they have not been willing to admit until now because they thought they would lose some of their support and make it more difficult to maintain their sanctuary. The Red Mosque fiasco Zawahiri organized was timed to coincide with the doc plot in the UK and the attack on the Spanish tourist in Yemen. The Yemen attack was the only one executed with any degree of success. The Red Mosque affair did not generate the general uprising that Zawahiri hoped for and in fact led to a crack down on some of his forces in the tribal areas. Some of al Qaeda's Uzbek supporters fled to the Tora Bora area where they were attacked by US and Afghan forces.

This declaration of war will also probably backfire on the increasingly desperate al Qaeda duo. For one thing it makes it much easier for Pakistan to invite US and other forces into the area to fight al Qaeda sanctuaries. It is easier for Pakistan to ask for help from its allies against their common enemy.

The braggadocio about defeating the US is in the face of overwhelming losses by his supporters in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq al Qaeda is so desperate, their best hope for success is with Democrats in Washington. Even with their help. al Qaeda is still losing.