Webloggin » He’s Alive!

Rumors of Al-Zawahiri’s possible death in Pakistan have been proven premature. Al-Jazeera television released an excerpt of Al Qaeda deputy Al-Zawahiri’s latest message today, titled “The Truth of the Conflict Between the Muslims and the Infidels“. Excerpts have been released, the full text to come later.

Zawahiri isn’t happy with the Palestinian situation or Abbas, calling him”America’s man in Palestine,” warning that if Palestinians accepted Abbas as their president, it would be “the end of holy war”.

…The occupied Palestinian territories will be liberated through jihad, not elections, according to a senior al-Qaeda leader..Ayman al-Zawahiri, regarded as the right-hand man to Osama bin Laden, made his comments in a video shown by Al Jazeera on Wednesday…In the video, al-Zawahiri said: “Any road other than jihad will only lead to loss…” source

The Counterterrorism Blog:

“Those who are trying to liberate the Islamic territories through elections based on secular constitutions, or on decisions to hand over Palestine to the Jews, will not liberate one grain of sand of Palestine, but will choke jihad.” …

Zawahiri also criticized Hamas (although not mentioning the group by name), accusing the group of meeting concessions that would lead to “the recognition of Israel“, accusing Hamas of concessions starting with signing “the truce” with Israel last year, and taking part in January elections “based on a secular constitution”. Zawahiri asked: “Aren’t they an Islamic movement? Aren’t they campaigning for the word of God to be supreme?” he said, adding the party should have insisted on the drafting of “an Islamic constitution for Palestine.”

Where’s the Outrage asks, “Why haven’t we silenced this knucklehead yet? Oh, now I remember we diverted resources away from chasing down this murderer and toward Iraq. That’s right.” Well, the question is a good one. It’s my understanding that we have pulled back our efforts to find Osama Bin Laden and Zawahiri. I think that is the wrong move. While they may not have any control and command any more, they are a symbol of the enemy and need to be taken out.

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Others:
Wizbang, Thoughts of a Christian Conservative