Call to American Hiroshima?

Cited from Newsweek article "Menacing Message":

But privately some analysts are worried about the blunt new message from Zawahiri, the deputy to Osama bin Laden. "It's a little spooky," said one senior official. Seeking to exploit a worldwide Muslim backlash over recent Israeli bombing strikes in Gaza, Zawahiri exhorted followers to "attack the interest of the Jews and the Americans." He then added, "Select your targets, collect the appropriate funds, assembly your equipments, plan [your attacks] accurately, and then charge toward your targets … There is no place today for those who claim that the battlefield with the Jews is limited to Palestine."

Counterterrorism officials and analysts have been debating for the last few days whether Zawahiri's directive to "select your targets" was a direct command to operatives in the field or a more general incitement to sympathizers.

Evan Kohlmann, a government counterterrorism consultant who studies Al Qaeda messages, says the new tape seemed "palpably different" from Zawahiri's usually fiery anti-American tirades. "It's quite rare that he would be this direct and blunt about it," Kohlmann says. "My personal opinion is when he said this"—referring to the "select your targets" line—he "wasn't talking in the abstract, he was saying, 'We're doing it.' It was very much a call to arms." (par. 3-5, n. pag.)