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Summary:
Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network have conducted a sophisticated public relations and media campaign over the last ten years. Terrorism analysts believe that these messages have been designed to elicit psychological reactions and communicate complex political messages to a global audience as well as to specific populations in the Islamic world, the United States, Europe, and Asia. Some officials and analysts believe that Al Qaeda's messages contain signals that inform and instruct operatives to prepare for and carry out new attacks. Bin Laden has referred to his public statements as important primary sources for parties seeking to understand Al Qaeda's ideology and political demands. Global counterterrorism operations in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks appear to have limited Bin Laden's ability to provide command and control leadership to Al Qaeda operatives and affiliated groups. However he and other Al Qaeda leaders continue to release statements that sanction, encourage, and provide guidance for future terrorist operations. Iraq, in particular, has become a focal point for Al Qaeda's rhetoric, as recent statements have underscored Al Qaeda's interest in Iraq and support for the ongoing insurgency. The release of new statements by Osama Bin Laden and his Deputy Ayman Al Zawahiri in late 2004 rekindled public debate surrounding Al Qaeda's ideology, motives, and future plans to attack the United States. The ideological content and highly political tone of the recent statements have led some terrorism analysts to speculate that the messages may signal a new attempt by Bin Laden and his associates to create a lasting leadership role for themselves and the Al Qaeda organization as the vanguard of an emerging, more loosely organized international jihadist movement. Others have argued that the presently limited operational capabilities of Al Qaeda's central leaders have inspired a revival of ideological outreach efforts and that the group's primary goal remains carrying out terrorist attacks against the United States and its allies around the world, with particular emphasis on targeting economic infrastructure and fomenting unrest in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan. This report reviews Al Qaeda's use of public statements from the mid-1990s to the present and analyzes the evolving ideological and political content of those statements. The report focuses primarily on statements made by Osama Bin Laden, but also considers statements made by his chief deputy Ayman Al Zawahiri, who some experts consider to be Al Qaeda's chief ideologue, and recent remarks by Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, who has been recognized by Osama Bin Laden as an Al Qaeda ally and the leader of "mujahideen" operations in Iraq. The report will be updated periodically. For background on the Al Qaeda terrorist network, see CRS Report RS21529, Al Qaeda after the Iraq Conflict.
