They just got a different tool to use than we do: They kill innocent lives to achieve objectives. That's what they do. And they're good. They get on the TV screens and they get people to ask questions about, well, you know, this, that or the other. I mean, they're able to kind of say to people: Don't come and bother us, because we will kill you. Bush - Joint News Conference with Blair - 28 July '06

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Where exactly did Al-Zawahri claim responsibility for London bombings?

db: There are a lot of headlines around reporting that al-Qaida have admitted responsibility for the London bombs, via a new video showing on al-Jazeera - from what can be seen of the text this assertion is not substantiated:

"I talk to you today about the blessed London battle which came as a slap to the face of the tyrannical, Crusader British arrogance," al Zawahri said. "It's a sip from the glass that the Muslims have been drinking from.

"This blessed battle has transferred - like its glorious predecessors in New York, Washington, and Madrid - the battle to the enemies' land, after many centuries of the battle being on our (Muslim) land and after (Western) troops have occupied our land in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine.
"

If that is admitting responsibility, then Ken Clarke might also be implicated, and even me.

The Guardian can't quite bring themselves to back up their headline "Video: Al-Qaida Behind London Blasts" and render it defunct with this - "He did not say outright that his terror group carried out the bombings on the London transport system that killed 56 people, but he said they were a direct response to Britain's foreign policies and its rejection of a truce that al-Qaida offered Europe in April 2004."