Al-Qaida videos now on cell phones

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Al-Qaida videos now on cell phones

By PAUL SCHEMM, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 55 minutes ago

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida video messages of Osama bin Laden and Ayman

al-Zawahri can now be downloaded to cell phones, the terror network

announced as part of its attempts to extend its influence.

The announcement was posted late Friday by al-Qaida's media wing, al-

Sahab, on Web sites commonly used by Islamic militants. As of

Saturday, eight previously recorded videos were made available

including a recent tribute to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former al-

Qaida in Iraq leader killed by U.S. forces in Iraq in June 2006.

Ben Venzke, the head of IntelCenter, a U.S. group that monitors and

analyzes militant messages, said it was not the first time al-Sahab

has released videos designed for cell phones.

He said the group has been releasing them for years, but that between

September and December, a few video messages did not come with

versions for cell phones.

" They might just be filling in some of the gaps, or just trying to

release some that had come out before, " Venzke said in an e-mail to

The Associated Press.

In a written message introducing the new cell phone videos, al-

Zawahri, al-Qaida's No. 2 figure, asked followers to spread the

terror group's messages.

" I asked God for the men of jihadi media to spread the message of

Islam and monotheism to the world and spread real awareness to the

people of the nations, " al-Zawahri said.

Videos playable on cell phones are increasingly popular in the Middle

East. The files are transferred from phone to phone using Bluetooth

or infrared wireless technology.

Clips showing former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's execution in

December 2006 showed up on cell phones soon after his death. In

Egypt, images showing police brutality have been passed around via

cell phones including one video that showed an arrested bus driver

being sodomized with a stick by police in the fall 2006.

Video and audio tapes from various Islamist groups including al-Qaida

are available on militant Web sites but require a computer and a fast

Internet connection — often rare in the region — to download.

But the eight videos currently available to download to cell phones

by al-Sahab range in size from 17 megabytes to 120 megabytes,

requiring phones to have large amounts of free data capacity. Al-

Sahab has promised to release more of its previous video messages in

cell-phone quality formats.

The terror network has been growing more sophisticated in targeting

international audiences. Videos are always subtitled in English, and

messages this year from bin Laden and al-Zawahri focusing on Pakistan

and Afghanistan have been dubbed in the local languages, Urdu and

Pashtu.

In December, al-Qaida invited journalists to send questions to al-

Zawahri. The invitation was the first time the media-savvy al-Qaida

offered outsiders to " interview " one of its leaders since the Sept.

11, 2001, attacks.