On May 24, 2007 Al-Qaeda's media company Al-Sahab posted an 11-minute video by Sheikh Abu Laith Al-Libi, Al-Qaeda's commander in Afghanistan, titled "Countering the War of Imprisonment." Abu Laith's address – which is accompanied by English subtitles and by still images of Abu Laith and of the imprisoned Islamist sheikh Abd Al-Rahman – is part of an Islamist campaign to release mujahideen held in prisons around the world.
Abu Laith states that the "infidels" are waging a "war of prisons and captivity" against the mujahideen, and are incarcerating large numbers of Muslims as part of a deliberate policy to gain, through "coercion and repression," what they have failed to gain through "debate and persuasion." Next, he describes what he calls the harsh conditions at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and Baghram prisons. He urges the Muslims to follow the Prophet's tradition of redeeming prisoners of war by paying ransom, or by exchanging them for soldiers captured on the battlefield or for people kidnapped for that purpose "on a road, in a valley, or on a mountain trail." He declares that Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is willing to exchange prisoners with any government or army that is holding mujahideen in custody. Among the imprisoned mujahideen he mentions Abu Qatada Al-Falastini, Sheikh Omar Abd Al-Rahman, Sheikh Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi, Sheikh Suleiman Al-Alwan and Sheikh Abu Mundhir Al-Sa'adi.
