Osama bin Laden released a videotape yesterday claiming credit for AQAP and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed bomb plot on the Delta flight to Detroit on Christmas Day.
In a short recording carried by the Al-Jazeera Arabic news channel, bin Laden addressed President Barack Obama saying the attack was a message like that of Sept. 11 and more attacks against the U.S. would be forthcoming.
"The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of the Sept. 11," he said.
"America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine," he added. "God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support to the Israelis will continue."
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Even U.S. officials aren't paying much heed to the video. Abdulmutallab was trained by AQAP in Yemen, an offshoot of AQ Central.
Sounds to me like Osama is trying to play up his own relevancy...and sending a warning to Umar Farouk to keep his mouth shut, which is probably not necessary because AQAP isn't stupid enough to have told Umar Farouk any more than he needed to know to carry out his own assignment. He was a new recruit, not a tested member of their group.
Nonetheless, the young Umar Farouk, should he read about the video in the news at the jail, or see it on the teevee, is going to be flattered and fortified knowing Osama knows his name and has praised him.
If al Qaeda Central still had real power, they'd be flying planes into the U.S., not using lone, disaffected youth to try and take down a single plane. The Delta plot is quite a demotion when compared to the scale of the undertaking on 9/11.
It would be more dangerous if the video featured the leaders of AQAP together with the leaders of al Shabab in Ethiopia. Those two together could pack a punch, but it's unlikely their prime goal is the United States. They are more concerned about battles in their own neck of the woods.
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