JTIC briefing - Justifying jihad

The latest Al-Qaeda video provides a detailed justification for both suicide bombings and attacks on diplomatic targets. These insights into jihadist 'logic' should be noted by counter-terrorist practitioners and policymakers as they debate the best ways to counter radicalisation.

One policy currently being criticised is the UK's outlawing of anything deemed to incite terrorism. With modern communications it is impossible to silence the extremists, but the policy makes it impossible for extremists to be challenged in open debate. While the legislation may be useful for imprisoning jihadist cheerleaders, some say it is also helping to create more of them.

Released on the Internet on 5 August, the 80-minute video The Will of the Martyr Hafiz Usman is another example of the sophisticated propaganda being released by Al-Qaeda media affiliate Al-Sahab. Mainly in Urdu and Arabic with English subtitles, it features extensive interviews with Hafiz Usman as he prepares to carry out a suicide bombing, excerpts from old Al-Qaeda films, footage taken from mainstream television reports, and statements by Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and Anglophone spokesman Azzam al-Amriki (the wanted American Adam Gadahn).

The film starts with a computer-generated recreation of the 2 March 2006 bombing, which killed US diplomat David Foy and three Pakistanis outside the Marriott Hotel in Karachi. At least 30 other people were wounded. The Al-Sahab video credits Hafiz Usman with the attack. At the end of the film, a smiling Usman says goodbye to his comrades and drives the explosive-laden Toyota Corolla out of the compound where it was prepared. While this scene could have been staged, the vehicle in the video matches the description of the one used to carry out the 2 March 2006 bombing. 284 of 1,340 words