August 22, 2008
New Zawahiri Video Released
As promised two days ago, al Qaeda's as-Sahab production arm has released a video of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The video shows Zawahiri eulogizing Abu Khabab al-Masri (aka, Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar) and Abu Abdullah al-Shami.
The video puts to rest rumors that Zawahiri was killed in a CIA Predator earlier this month.
The video is in Arabic only, which as we've been noting for some time means that the American traitor Adam Gadahn was probably not involved in its production.
The only other thing noteworthy about the video is that Zawahiri appears in the video in front of a blue screen. Images of al-Masri and al-Shami are digitally imposed in the background.
Do any techies know the ins and outs of blue screen technology? Will any old blue or green background do (for instance, a blue curtain) or is there something special about the screens used?
I'm just thinking about how difficult this would be to film in a small compound in Waziristan. The editing, of course, is out of the box software technology that could have been done anywhere.
Laura Mansfield's Strategic Translations subscribers can see the video here.
Update By Howie: Video added below the fold.
The video is short. He appears tired or possibly ill. Much less animated than in previous videos of him. Note no finger pointing or much movement of his hands, which is unusual. His mouth is somewhat drawn into a frown. He also appears to be somewhat uncomfortable sitting. This could indicate that strikes earlier that were thought to target him may have come close.
Either that or that he is just depressed over all his buddies dying. Anyway my first reaction was what that he didn't seem like his normal self in this production.
direct link to Google video copy
