Al-Zawahiri Blasts Bush, Calls For Muslim Unity in New Tape (updated with video link)

By Andrew Cochran

In a new 40-minute tape released by Al Qaeda's As-Sahab media arm titled, “Tremendous Lessons and Events in the Year 1427 AH,” Al Qaeda #2 Ayman al-Zawahiri unloads on President Bush. He claims that Bush is an alcoholic and addicted to drinking, lying, and gambling. But he's not enamored with Bush's opponents either, finding no difference between Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Here is a quote about the Americans from Laura Mansfield's translation:

Bush suffers from an addictive personality, and was an alcoholic. I don't know his present condition (Americans know best about that, as they are experts in alcohol and addiction to it), but the one who examines his personality finds that he is addicted to two other faults: lying and gambling. As regards lying, his record is well known, and he has gone down in history as one of its most notorious liars... As for the Democrats in America, I tell them: The people chose you due to your opposition to Bush's policy in Iraq, but it appears that you are marching with him to the same abyss, and it appears that you will take part with him in the defeat and certain failure, with God's permission. And the American people shall discover that you are all one side of the same coin of tyranny, criminality and failure; that failure which – by the grace of God – has neutralized the endeavors of the traitors who entered Kabul and Baghdad...

Zawahiri calls on Muslims to unite under Taliban leader Mullah Omar, stop trying to form secular governments and instead follow strict Islamic Sharia law. Zawahiri urges followers in Lebanon to not give up any land, and he does so without differentiating between Sunni or Shiite there. But, according to a press release by the SITE Institute, he "charges that the leaders of Fatah are apostates, and encourages its members to 'return to Islam' and fight, but not necessarily join Hamas, Palestine Islamic Jihad, or al-Qaeda." By talking out of both sides of his mouth, Zawahiri is trying to have his cake and eat it too - he's trying to provide leadership but avoid entanglement in the Sunni-Shiite split which is now a key issue facing the Muslim world, and which he helped to build through his years in Sunni-based Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Al Qaeda.

The tape consists of a still picture of Zawahiri (below) with audio and the English subtitles. This is the first tape of Zawahiri released since January 22, when he issued a warning and offered a "deal." In the first tape released this year, on January 5, he boasted of the weakness of the U.S.

TrackBack