Banner Advertising AQAP Video Release

The image is a banner link to a video produced by al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula’s media production company, al-Malahim. The video, which is entitled “amrika wal-fakhkh al-akhir” (“the U.S. and the latest/last snare”), is described as “excellent.”

The image includes pictures of U.S. President Obama and General Petraeus and former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Salih. Typically, global political/military leaders are characterized in jihadi propaganda as oppressors of Islam and enemies of the jihadi movement. In particular, they are depicted as the main obstacles to achieving the declared goals of the jihadi enterprise, namely creating a state governed by divine (Islamic) law, as opposed to by man-made laws.

The dominant red color in the image resonates fire, blood, passion, impulse and danger.  The flowers in the background have been arranged to resemble an American flag clearly meant to evoke a sense of linkage between President Obama, General Petraeus, the former Yemeni president and the United Nations.