Counterterrorism Research Library Iraq Message from Abu Omar al-Baghdadi to “New Rulers in White House”
Message from Abu Omar al-Baghdadi to “New Rulers in White House”
Last Updated (Monday, 29 November 1999 19:00) Written by Evan Kohlmann Monday, 10 November 2008 19:00
The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated a new audio recording from the Amir al-Mumineen (“Commander of the Faithful”) of Al-Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. According to al-Baghdadi, the purpose of the audio recording addressed to the “new rulers in the White House” was “to invite you amicably to change and improve your actions. It is not meant to intimidate or threaten you.” Al-Baghdadi mocked the inadequacies of the U.S. government, particularly demonstrated in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav, and characterized the U.S. as “a rather cartoonish civilization, for if the electricity is shut down or computers stop operating, you immediately return to a medieval state.” In concluding, al-Baghdadi offered a proposal of mutual benefit to the incoming Obama White House: “return to your former state of neutrality, withdraw your troops, and return to your homelands, and stop intervening in the affairs of our nations either directly or indirectly. If you do so, on our part, we shall guarantee you free trade, including the trade of petroleum—so long as it is conducted in a fair and equitable way, and not shoddily or without profit.”
