A new video being circulated on jihadist websites features terrorist leader al-Wuhayshi addressing over a hundred al Qaeda members in Yemen. In what CNN describes as the “largest and most dangerous gathering of al Qaeda in years,” al-Wuhayshi announces their mission: “We must eliminate the cross... The bearer of the cross is America!” Terrorism analysts have found the “extraordinary video” particularly unsettling because U.S. intelligence seem to have been caught off guard by the high-profile gathering.
CNN’s Barbara Starr reports that U.S. officials will not comment on why they were unable to order a drone strike to the highly visible al Qaeda gathering in Yemen, but analysts are currently studying the jihadist-circulated video frame by frame.
The central figure in the video is Nasir al-Wuhayshi, al Qaeda’s No. 2 leader globally and head of its Arabian Peninsula operation (AQAP), the most active and dangerous of the terrorist organization’s branches and a heavy target of U.S. drone strikes. Al-Wuhayshi addresses fellow al Qaeda members out in the open, apparently unafraid of a U.S. drone strike. In his speech to the group, he clearly announces their target: the United States, stating they must “eliminate” America, “the bearer of the cross.”
Analysts believe the well-produced video to be authentic. Perhaps most troubling are the blurred faces of some of the fighters, which officials fear might point to a new series of plots. CNN’s terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank called the video “extraordinary” in the exposed nature of the gathering, arguing that al-Wuhayshi was taking a “big risk” in conducting the meeting out in the open. CNN’s Peter Bergen echoed Cruickshank’s assessment:
The U.S. intelligence community should be surprised that such a large group of al Qaeda assembled together, including the leadership, and somehow they didn't notice.
On “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Mike Rogers said that U.S. intelligence has been damaged by leaks tied to Yemen al Qaeda, but would not specify if that had been the reason the U.S. had not ordered a strike on the meeting. Rogers contended that large al Qaeda meetings such as this were likely more frequent than we realize, explaining that “it's difficult to get assets in position,” but that the video was significant in showing a larger trend: an emboldened al Qaeda is on the rise.
We think that they're feeling empowered. The less pressure you put on them, the more they take that as a victory, the more that they believe that they can get away with plotting, planning, organizing as you saw there (in the video), finance, training. All of the things that they would need to do to strike a Western target, they're going through that process.