23rd
May 2007
Qaeda
has a new opening graphic for its propaganda tapes: the
U.S. Capitol under "attack."
"The
Islamic State of Iraq...March Toward Washington" reads
the headline in English superimposed over a digitally
created scene of the U.S. Capitol under attack in the
introductory sequence of one tape released on the
Internet this week.
Another
from al Qaeda's "as Sahab" production arm announces
"Holocaust of the Americans in the Land of Khorasan" and
shows an image of the U.S. Capitol to introduce a short
clip of al Qaeda fighters.
"This is
a disturbing new trend," says Laura Mansfield, an Arabic
expert who monitors jihadi videos on the Internet.
"Recall
that in January 2006, Osama Bin Laden said that plans
for attacks in the U.S. were in progress," Mansfield
told the Blotter on ABCNews.com. "It may be that this
new imagery is designed to motivate terrorist activity
in the U.S., but it is certainly intended as a
recruiting tool and perhaps intended to reassure al
Qaeda's jihadi followers they haven't forgotten their
goal of an al Qaeda attack on Washington, D.C.," she
said.
