Listening to what our enemies say

Across America memorial services helped us to remember the attacks that occurred twenty years ago. It is worthwhile to remember the attack, those who were lost, and the sacrifices made.

But we must avoid becoming too inwardly focused, because 9/11 was not just a tragedy, but a deliberate attack, launched by enemies who are also remembering the event.

While American politicians and leaders delivered speeches, and commentators wrote articles about the September 11 attacks, our enemies did the same. Al Qaeda issued statements from their chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as the leaders of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. In addition, the pro-Al Qaeda online group Jaysh al-Malahim al-Electroni released a 10-page magazine marking the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Al Qaeda’s As-Sahab media arm released an hour-long video featuring Osama Bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian physician and jihadist ideologue. The video release was significant in and of itself because it had been speculated that Zawahiri may have been deceased.

Zawahiri commemorated the September 11 attacks and touched on a theme we will see frequently for some time into the future now that the Taliban have taken back Afghanistan:

And let us not forget that 19 Mujahideen, the warriors of Islam, stabbed America in its heart, an injury the like of which America had never tasted before and today it is making its exit from Afghanistan, broken, defeated, after 20 years of war.

Jihadis recruit and get inspiration from their successes and their two biggest successes in well over a century were the September 11 attacks and the U.S. surrender in Afghanistan.

Zawahiri issued a call to jihad in its various forms, jihad by the sword as well as the pen, and in theaters of operation to include on our soil. He sees America as exhausted and weak-willed, an impression that would appear to have some justification given recent events:

We must therefore fight this battle against the Crusader alliance and its Zionist allies at all levels: beliefs, thought, education, politics and war. We must get used to exercising patience. We must understand that repelling this Crusader campaign entails the efforts of successive generations. It demands wearing down the enemy everywhere. Exhausting an enemy equipped with the latest weaponry does not require tremendous resources; it can be bled to death using inventive ideas, simple tools and waging a war in which the entire world is the battlefield. The current stage demands that we exhaust the enemy until it whines and moans due to economic and military bleeding. It is in this context that the importance of operations outside the theatre in which the enemy expects us to strike, operations on enemy soil and beyond enemy lines becomes evident.

Also over the weekend Jaysh al-Malahim al-Electroni (Electronic Battle Army), which has spread jihadi propaganda over the internet and especially on social media, released a 10 page electronic magazine entitled “Wolves of Manhattan.”

The magazine was a tribute to the September 11 attacks, but also contained suggested methods of attack for jihadis to use in the future. The magazine encouraged more attacks on civil aviation and aircraft. The magazine admitted that jihadis in the U.S. have had trouble obtaining explosives and accessing public and government targets. Using aircraft as weapons as the wolves of Manhattan did on the “blessed Tuesday” is considered a better method of attacking the enemy.

The magazine encourages jihadis, not just in the U.S., but also in Israel, France and the United Kingdom to carry out attacks using aircraft and attacks on aircraft.

One thing that September 11, 2021 showed is that Al Qaeda and its jihadist allies are still at war with America and we can expect to have to deal with an energized and motivated enemy going forward.

Anniversaries and commemorations are important, but let us remember also that we have enemies. We need to learn what makes our enemies tick, what motivates them, and what their future intentions may be.