An Al Qaeda Web site is running a warning issued to Muslims to leave Washington D.C., New York City and Los Angeles because of implied imminent terrorist attacks, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.
Titled “A Warning to Muslims in America,” the directive was issued by the previously unknown “Islamic Bayan Movement” and first ran on the Global Islamic Media Web site on Monday, according to MEMRI, which translated the communiqu�.
I’ve heard reports about these so-called Al Qaeda websites before, but have never dug any up. So going the extra investigative mile, I clicked over to the MEMRI news alert to see the alleged warning.
The alert links to this Yahoo! Group. A Yahoo! Group? Is that the secret pipeline for terrorist communication? Anyway, everything is in Arabic, but according to the MEMRI translation the communiqu�, published November 3, 2003, reads:
“Our Muslim brothers in America, we ask you to immediately leave the following cities: Washington, DC, New York, and Los Angeles. We are serious in our warning. The next few days will prove to you the truth of this warning� To the oppressive rulers of America we say: expect our terms following the first strike of Allah�s believing soldiers” [Koran, Chapter 59, Verse 2-3]
I’m not an expert in these matters, but it seems to me that it would be counterproductive for supposed terrorists to provide a public warning on an imminent attack. On the other hand, it has been over two years since 9/11. And based Al Qaeda’s historical patttern, that suggests we may be due for another terrorist attack–sooner rather than later. We can’t take warnings too lightly these days.