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CAIRO – Al-Qaida's deputy leader on Tuesday criticized President Barack
Obama's upcoming speech to the Islamic world in Cairo, saying it will not change
the "bloody messages" the U.S. military is sending Muslims in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Al-Qaida has repeatedly lashed out at Obama since he was elected, a
move some analysts believe indicates the terrorist organization is worried he
will be effective in improving the U.S. image in the Muslim world.
Obama has pitched his speech at Cairo University on Thursday as a key part of
that process.
"His bloody messages were received and are still being received by Muslims, and
they will not be concealed by public relations campaigns or by farcical visits
or elegant words," said Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's No. 2, in a new audio
message posted on militant Web sites.
Al-Zawahri said the Egyptian officials who will welcome Obama are U.S. "slaves"
and have turned the country into an "international station of torture in
America's war on Islam." He was likely referring to suspected Islamic militants
who have been captured by the U.S. and sent to Egypt for interrogation, a
process known as rendition.
Al-Zawahri urged Egyptians to reject Obama when he makes his speech, calling him
"that criminal who came seeking, with deception, to obtain what he failed to
achieve in the field after the mujahideen ruined the project of the crusader
America in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia."
He said Obama's decision to come to Cairo showed the U.S. had not given up its
alliances with dictatorial and corrupt Mideast governments.
"It is a clear message that America does not stand with reform and change and
other lying American propaganda, but it stands with the continuation of the
existing tyrannical, rotten regimes," said al-Zawahri.
The authenticity of the almost 12-minute audio message titled "The Torturers of
Egypt and the Agents of America Welcome Obama" could not be confirmed. But it
was posted on militant Web sites that have been used by al-Qaida in the past and
carried the logo of As-Sahab, the terrorist organization's media wing.
Al-Zawahri criticized Obama's trip to Israel before he was elected president and
his visit to the Western Wall — Judaism's holiest site, also known as the
Wailing Wall — where he wore a yarmulke.
"The White House said that Obama will send a message from Egypt to the Islamic
world, but they forgot that his messages have already been received by the
Islamic world when he visited the Wailing Wall, put on his head the Jew's cap
and prayed their prayers, though he claims to be Christian," said al-Zawahri.
The audio message was accompanied by a picture of al-Zawahri wearing a white
robe and white turban. It also included videos of Obama visiting the Western
Wall in Jerusalem and speaking at AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobbying organization in
the United States.
Shortly after Obama was elected last November, al-Zawahri issued a Web message
in which he slurred Obama with a demeaning racial term for a black American who
does the bidding of whites, calling him and former secretaries of state Colin
Powell and Condoleezza Rice "house Negroes." |
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