Azzam-Al-Amriki: The Second Coming

Adam Gadahn alias Azzam al-Amriki, an American convert to Islam who headed AsSahab, the propaganda wing of Al Qaeda and was missing since a missile attack byan unmanned US aircraft early in the morning of January 29, 2008, on a house ata village called Khushali Torikhel, 12 kilometres south of Mir Ali town, inNorth Waziristan, is back. The death of Abu Laith al-Libi, a Libyan national andan important Al Qaeda leader, in this missile attack was announced by a web site(ekhlas.org) associated with Al Qaeda, on January 31, 2008. His so-calledmartyrdom was also confirmed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No.2 to bin Laden, in anaudio message disseminated on February 27, 2008.

The News of Pakistan had reported that there was speculation in thetribal areas that Gadahn was also present in the house attacked by the missileand that there were rumours that he was also killed, but this was not confirmed.However, the disappearance of Gadahn after January 29, 2008, and hisnon-appearance in any of the video and audio messages disseminated by As Sahabthereafter gave rise to speculation that he must have been either killed orincapacitated by the missile strike.

After an absence of a little over seven months, Gadahn gave sign of life againin a video message disseminated by As Sahab on October 4,2008, coinciding withthe end of the Muslim fasting period. The message, which is mainly addressed tothe Muslims of Pakistan, with some references to the Muslims of other countriesof the South Asian region, including India and Afghanistan, refers to a numberof incidents in the Pakistani tribal belt in September, the controversy over theground attack by the US Special Forces in South Waziristan and the election ofAsif Ali Zardari as the President, thus indicating that it must have beenrecorded in the second half of September. However, it does not refer to theexplosion outside the Marriott Hotel of Islamabad on September 20,2008.

The message virulently criticises both political and military leaders ofPakistan for the operations undertaken by the Pakistan Army in the Bajaur andSwat areas and for their co-operation with the US. It seeks to question thesincerity of the criticism by Pakistani leaders of the US intrusions intoPakistani territory and air space and to project them as an eye-wash. He callsGen.Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, Pakistan's Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), as a"wolf in wolves' clothing".

The message contains no direct criticism of India nor of Indian leaders. It doesnot refer to the serial blasts in various Indian cities since November, 2007.It, however, criticises the Pakistani leaders and agencies, including theInter-Services Intelligence (ISI), for diverting attention away from the jihadin Jammu and Kashmir in order to carry out military operations in the tribalareas. It also calls for unity of action by the Mujahideen of Pakistan,Afghanistan, India and other countries of the region.

The passing references of relevance to India are given below:

• "The Mujahideen and their supporters in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, India and the region must be on their guard against the plots and conspiracies being hatched against them in the corridors of ISI headquarters, Army House and other centres of Satanic scheming in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Kabul and must close ranks and must never allow the agents of America and the criminal regimes of the region's capitals come between them and their brothers."
  
  
• "It is the interference of the hypocrites from the ostensibly helpful Pakistani agencies which has delayed victory in Kashmir for all these long years. It is the liberation of the jihad there from this interference which will be the first step towards victory over the Hindu occupiers of that Muslim land."

There are two intriguing sentences in the message. It says: " Someonewanted us to imagine that the same Pakistan government, which is probablyresponsible for the death of more Muslims in Pakistan than the Americans are andthe same Pakistan Army which is mercilessly bombing the Bajaur Agency to pleaseits Crusader backers are both suddenly prepared to fight kufar (infidels)instead of Muslims. Someone wanted to imply to us that the same PakistanArmy which for seven years has left Pakistan's borders wide open in front of theCrusaders and Hindus while it fights the Mujahideen and kills defencelessinnocents to please its paymasters in Washington is now interested inprotecting those borders." (Emphasis mine)

Who is that "someone"? Is the Pakistan Army making peace overturesto the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) by suggesting that peace in the tribalareas was necessary to enable it to go back to the Line of Control in Jammu& Kashmir and resume assistance for the jihad in Kashmir? He seems tocaution the TTP that this is a trap and that it should not fall into it. Hedescribes this as a "classical Pakistani propaganda with no factualbasis."

B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. ofIndia, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai.