Al-Zarqawi Releases New Cavecast

Expose the Left has video of a man who appears to be Abu Musab al Zarwaqi, unmasked and discussing the insurgency in Iraq.

The video comes one day after coordinated terror bombings rocked the Sinai, killing dozens, and two days after the release of a new Osama bin Laden audiotape.  The timing of the sequence suggests to DEBKAfile the possibility of a "fresh al Qaeda cycle of terrorist attacks".

My guess:  Zarqawi's peeved about the Washington Post report asserting that his significance is overstated and that the U.S. military is "conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq".  That report was published just over two weeks ago.  Seems like about the right turnaround time for a roundtrip media gibe between civilization and the fourth world terrorist badlands.

As for the substance of the tape, while a full transcript has yet to surface, Allah Pundit describes it as "standard jihadi wanker boilerplate".

Your mujahideen sons were able to confront the most ferocious of crusader campaigns on a Muslim state. They have stood in the face of this onslaught for three years.
...
When the crusader enemy entered Iraq, he intended to control the Islamic nation and supported the Zionist state.
...
By God, America will be defeated in Iraq.

Elsewhere:
Expose the Left, Counterterrorism Blog, Stop the ACLU, Wizbang, Hot Air, Bareknuckle Politics, The Jawa Report, Terrorism Unveiled, Church and State

Update:
Analysis of the video at Counterterrorism Blog