Timeline of al-Qaida statements

--Oct. 1, 2004  [Contemporaneous]
In an audio message, Ayman al-Zawahiri urges Muslims to mount worldwide resistance to the American "crusaders" and its allies. His lists of allies include Britain, Poland, Australia, Japan and South Korea.

--Oct. 17, 2004  [Contemporaneous]

“Announcement of the good tidings” Abu Mousab al Zarqawi announces that he has sworn ‘Bayat” to Bin Laden.  In an audio statement, Zarqawi says that in spite of  “a catastrophic dispute” that had slowed a merger of his and Bin Laden’s group, that problem has been solved and his group will henceforth be named “Al Qaeda in Iraq”.

--Oct. 29, 2004  [Contemporaneous]
In a message seemingly timed to the runup to the U.S. presidential election, a healthy looking bin Laden warns Americans that “your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands."

--Nov. 29, 2004  [shot late October]
In a videotape that seemed to have been recorded before the U.S. election, Ayman al-Zawahiri  warns that America must change its policies toward the Muslim world, no matter who is elected president.

--Dec. 16, 2004  [Contemporaneous]
In an audio tape released via an Islamic website, Osama bin Laden praises an attack earlier this month on a U.S. Consulate in Saudi Arabia and criticizes the Saudi regime as weak and controlled by the United States.

--Feb. 21, 2005  [Contemporaneous]

In a new videotape broadcast on al Jazeera, al-Zawahiri predicts that the U.S.'s "new crusade is doomed to fail," and that it will lead to "tens of thousands of fallen victims and the destruction of your economy."  Al-Zawahiri also argues, "Real security is based on mutual cooperation with the Islamic nation on the basis of mutual respect and the stopping of aggression."

--June 18, 2005  [Contemporaneous]

Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader disparages the American concept of reform in the Middle East in a videotape broadcast on al Jazeera and says armed jihad is the only way to bring change in the Arab world.  He also states Muslim states being “run out of US embassies”.  The tape is the best lit of all his tapes and the reflections of four studio lights can be seen in his eyeglasses, indicating an increasing sophistication.

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