Today marks the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. While Al-Qaeda is not what it once was, it remains a strong terrorist organization with followers across the world, including those who seek to enter the U.S. and those already here plotting their next attack. This past year, Al-Qaeda's presence in Afghanistan has grown – growth that began following the U.S. withdrawal – and it is once again closely tied to the Taliban. It has established new training camps and madrassas, but most troubling are reports that Al-Qaeda members are part of the Taliban government.
Since the death of leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri two years ago, the organization's new leader Saif Al-'Adl – rumored to be in Iran, and for information about whom the U.S. government is offering up to $10 million – has yet to appear in any videos. But he has released essays under his multiple noms de plume.
One major event that shaped Al-'Adl's focus this past year was October 7; he has praised both the attack and Hamas. In a February essay, he called "the Palestinian mujahideen" a "towering moral summit to which no nationalist or Islamic liberation movement has preceded them." He also praised Hamas as "giants of asymmetric warfare," noting their successes in the current war despite their weaker capabilities relative to those of Israel's military.
Al-'Adl was heard from most recently on July 16, 2024, when Al-Sahab, the media division of Al-Qaeda Central, published Part Four of his 17-page essay offering suggestions for improving the mujahideen's combat tactics and skills. Assessing the war in Gaza and Hamas's October 7 attack, he noted that a key lesson is that there should be no repeat of the tactic of taking hostages, and called for killing potential captives instead: "Taking [people] as prisoners was not and will not be a deterrent weapon. The Jews destroyed everything, knowing that the Muslims would not cause any harm to the prisoners because Islam urges them not to. However, Islam also tells us that killing takes precedence over taking prisoners."
Al-Malahem, an official media outlet of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), published another article by Al-'Adl on June 5, 2024, as part of Issue 18 of its Sada Al-Malahem ("Echo of Epics") magazine. The three-page article seeks to motivate the mujahideen by showing them the effectiveness of jihad, pointing to the 9/11 attacks' lasting damage to America's economy and stature on the world stage. Addressing his fellow jihadis as well as their Muslim detractors and enemies, Al-'Adl wrote: "Have we achieved anything, or are we going around in circles pointlessly?" To answer this question, he contrasts the current reality with the reality of nearly a quarter of a century ago, before Al-Qaeda leaders masterminded the September 11 attacks, designating the U.S. as their main target in the belief that "striking the head would cause the limbs to disintegrate." Before 9/11 – but not now – the U.S. was the undisputed world leader after the fall of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, having become the "strongest power in the history of humanity," dominating all other countries militarily, economically, and culturally..
Praising the men behind 9/11, the Al-Qaeda leader wrote: "A group of bearded men with humble features, from whose beards the water of ablution dripped... and who had tasted the glory of jihad for the sake of Allah" decided to launch a series of attacks on the U.S., in order to "weaken the image of the American beast in the eyes of the Muslims, so that the Muslims could see that they can regain their honor." Insisting that the 9/11 attacks had changed the course of history, he declared: "Let every brother and sister in all jihadi arenas know that he was a cause of this – by Allah's grace... and that each of these sacrifices... was a building block toward achieving this great victory."[1]
The MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) team daily monitors Al-Qaeda supporters online from all over the world – supporters with their own media outlets, websites, and hierarchy for posting daily content from the main body to branches around the world. Every day its supporters – in the U.S., Canada, Australia, France, U.K., Germany, and globally – produce, translate, and distribute content aimed at citing attacks, in the form of magazines, posters, videos, and more. They also continue to celebrate 9/11 and promise another, similar attack in the future, with images from and mentions of that day a theme recurring in many releases.
Throughout the 23 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks, MEMRI has been monitoring, translating, and documenting content about the attacks in media from the Middle East and South Asia, and especially from the jihadi world. The MEMRI 9/11 Documentation Project archives all MEMRI translations, analysis, and clips about the attacks and their aftermath, and has amassed one of the largest and most unique archives in the world on this subject. These archives allow for an in-depth examination of the ideological roots and other factors that ultimately led to the attacks. The archived content includes primary source material from Arab and Islamic print, broadcast, and online media and other sources; material from Al-Qaeda and affiliates, including leaders' speeches, interviews, wills, and statements; material from ISIS on 9/11; Al-Qaeda recruitment, outreach, and indoctrination materials, and more. Research that has been added to the archives over this past year is used in the following article – and some of it is seen here for the first time.
Since the death of leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri two years ago, the organization's new leader Saif Al-'Adl – rumored to be in Iran, and for information about whom the U.S. government is offering up to $10 million – has yet to appear in any videos. But he has released essays under his multiple noms de plume.
One major event that shaped Al-'Adl's focus this past year was October 7; he has praised both the attack and Hamas. In a February essay, he called "the Palestinian mujahideen" a "towering moral summit to which no nationalist or Islamic liberation movement has preceded them." He also praised Hamas as "giants of asymmetric warfare," noting their successes in the current war despite their weaker capabilities relative to those of Israel's military.
Al-'Adl was heard from most recently on July 16, 2024, when Al-Sahab, the media division of Al-Qaeda Central, published Part Four of his 17-page essay offering suggestions for improving the mujahideen's combat tactics and skills. Assessing the war in Gaza and Hamas's October 7 attack, he noted that a key lesson is that there should be no repeat of the tactic of taking hostages, and called for killing potential captives instead: "Taking [people] as prisoners was not and will not be a deterrent weapon. The Jews destroyed everything, knowing that the Muslims would not cause any harm to the prisoners because Islam urges them not to. However, Islam also tells us that killing takes precedence over taking prisoners."
Al-Malahem, an official media outlet of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), published another article by Al-'Adl on June 5, 2024, as part of Issue 18 of its Sada Al-Malahem ("Echo of Epics") magazine. The three-page article seeks to motivate the mujahideen by showing them the effectiveness of jihad, pointing to the 9/11 attacks' lasting damage to America's economy and stature on the world stage. Addressing his fellow jihadis as well as their Muslim detractors and enemies, Al-'Adl wrote: "Have we achieved anything, or are we going around in circles pointlessly?" To answer this question, he contrasts the current reality with the reality of nearly a quarter of a century ago, before Al-Qaeda leaders masterminded the September 11 attacks, designating the U.S. as their main target in the belief that "striking the head would cause the limbs to disintegrate." Before 9/11 – but not now – the U.S. was the undisputed world leader after the fall of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, having become the "strongest power in the history of humanity," dominating all other countries militarily, economically, and culturally..
Praising the men behind 9/11, the Al-Qaeda leader wrote: "A group of bearded men with humble features, from whose beards the water of ablution dripped... and who had tasted the glory of jihad for the sake of Allah" decided to launch a series of attacks on the U.S., in order to "weaken the image of the American beast in the eyes of the Muslims, so that the Muslims could see that they can regain their honor." Insisting that the 9/11 attacks had changed the course of history, he declared: "Let every brother and sister in all jihadi arenas know that he was a cause of this – by Allah's grace... and that each of these sacrifices... was a building block toward achieving this great victory."[1]
The MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) team daily monitors Al-Qaeda supporters online from all over the world – supporters with their own media outlets, websites, and hierarchy for posting daily content from the main body to branches around the world. Every day its supporters – in the U.S., Canada, Australia, France, U.K., Germany, and globally – produce, translate, and distribute content aimed at citing attacks, in the form of magazines, posters, videos, and more. They also continue to celebrate 9/11 and promise another, similar attack in the future, with images from and mentions of that day a theme recurring in many releases.
Throughout the 23 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks, MEMRI has been monitoring, translating, and documenting content about the attacks in media from the Middle East and South Asia, and especially from the jihadi world. The MEMRI 9/11 Documentation Project archives all MEMRI translations, analysis, and clips about the attacks and their aftermath, and has amassed one of the largest and most unique archives in the world on this subject. These archives allow for an in-depth examination of the ideological roots and other factors that ultimately led to the attacks. The archived content includes primary source material from Arab and Islamic print, broadcast, and online media and other sources; material from Al-Qaeda and affiliates, including leaders' speeches, interviews, wills, and statements; material from ISIS on 9/11; Al-Qaeda recruitment, outreach, and indoctrination materials, and more. Research that has been added to the archives over this past year is used in the following article – and some of it is seen here for the first time.
