As-Sahab Releases "Jihad Poems of Sheikh Abu Yahya al-Libi"
By Nick Grace
September 17, 2006

As-Sahab, al Qaeda's media propaganda unit, today released a new 23-minute video on radical message boards called "Jihad Poems of Sheikh Abu Yahya al-Libi" that features Mohammad Hassan (alias Abu Yahya al-Libi), an al Qaeda fighter originally from Libya who escaped from Bagram prison in July 2005. He appears wearing a suicide vest as he reads handwritten notes in front of at least 14 al Qaeda militants, some of which clutch kalashnikovs. During the introduction of the video the crowd fires the weapons into the air.

This is the fourth known video to feature al-Libi. Previous as-Sahab videos that include him include a sermon in celebration of Eid, a eulogy to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and an interview about his imprisonment and escape from Bagram. Unlike most of as-Sahab's recent video products, this new video is not subtitled in English.

An animated gif banner was posted in advance on the Ekhlaas Forum, the main portal for al Qaeda messaging, on Friday, September 15.

The video was released in two file formats (MPEG and RealMedia) and compressed in the RAR format. The RAR files are password-protected, presumably to block the video from being opened and viewed by Web surfers who discover the files through random searches. The password, "qwert55," is included in the text of as-Sahab's post on the Ekhlaas Forum.

A total of five different file sizes have been posted to exactly 300 links on free file transfer sites, including sendspace.com, badongo.com, openupload.com, megaupload.com, depositfiles.com, filehostia.com, quicksharing.com, share2net.com, filecities.com, filefactory.com, bigupload.com, desiupload.net, clonefile.com, filehosting.cc, savefile.info, fileblob.com, uploadr.com, spywork.info, axifile.com, mytempdir.com, savefile.com, easy-share.com, sharex1.com, bigupload.com, rogepost.com, share42.com, rapidshare.de, zshare.net, ez-files.net, yourfilelink.com, quickdump.com, savefile.info, oron.com, storeandserve.com, crazefiles.com, reshare.co.uk, up4world.com, filecoast.com, uploadyourfiles.de, transferbigfiles.com, razr-host.net, uploadpalace.com, and hyperupload.com.

227 Megs (MPEG): 44 links
38.1 Megs (RM): 89 links
16.9 Megs (RM): 73 links
7.96 Megs (RM): 58 links
3.52 Megs (RM): 36 links

http://www.globalcrisiswatch.com/aq/060917_assahab.rm [38.1 Megs]

The video appears to have been recorded recently during the Summer months with two cameras. Wide shots reveal background topography, especially two distant hills behind al-Libi, but it remains unclear where this product was taped. Trained analysts may, in fact, be able to identify the location. The lighting is also rather poor in comparison with other videos and there does not appear to be any visible direct sunlight. It is possible that al-Libi's speech was conducted either at sunrise or shortly before dusk.