A nearly 14-minute-long video of the October 28 demonstration discussed in my Corner post last week, “Benghazi: A Sea of Al-Qaeda Flags,” is available on YouTube here. The first half of the video shows demonstrators marching along the Benghazi waterfront. Many demonstrators carry the distinctive black flags that became the trademark of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaeda in Iraq, a.k.a. the “Islamic State of Iraq.” Others carry black-on-white flags that are inverted images of the “original” Iraqi al-Qaeda flag. The procession is not densely populated.
Starting around the 7:00 mark, the demonstrators can be seen gathered more closely around a stage. Given the poor quality of the video, it is difficult to estimate their total number, but there appear to be at least several hundred. Both black and white al-Qaeda flags are spread throughout the crowd. The related “Islamic Caliphate” flag (see here) can also be seen.
Higher-resolution footage of the demonstration must exist, since a better-quality still photo appears in the original Muslm.net post that I linked in my earlier post. Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate a higher-resolution clip.
— John Rosenthal writes on European politics and transatlantic security issues. You can follow his work at www.trans-int.com or on Facebook.