http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/76FC0380-FAEA-403E-A29A-A1104F276CA6.htmhttp://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/76FC0380-FAEA-403E-A29A-A1104F276CA6.htm
Al-Qaeda deputy taunts Bush
Ayman al-Zawahri congratulated Bush on the
"success of his security plan" [AFP]
Al-Qaeda's number two has taunted George Bush, the US
president, in a new video posted on the internet.
According to the US-based Site Institute, which said on
Saturday it had seen the video, Ayman al-Zawahri sarcastically referred to a
congressional bill that ties funding for the US effort in Iraq to a timetable
for troops to withdraw.
"This bill will deprive us of the opportunity to destroy the
American forces which we have caught in a historic trap," al-Zawahri said,
adding the bill was evidence of American "failure and frustration".
He did not mention the vetoing of the bill last Thursday by
Bush.
Al-Zawahri also congratulated Bush "on the success of his
security plan" in Iraq and invited him to celebrate with "a glass of juice, but
in the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament in the middle of the Green Zone",
referring to the site of a recent suicide bombing.
The Site Institute said al-Zawahri also claimed al-Qaeda
fighters in Iraq were getting "closer to victory over their enemy" despite
continuing sectarian violence.
Al-Zawahri also spoke on a number of other topics in the
video, including fighting in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Algeria, and Somalia.
He also referred to Saudi Arabia, the recent constitutional
reforms in Egypt and the US Pentagon's release of the confessions of Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in Pakistan in March 2003 and is said to be
al-Qaeda's number three and who was allegedly behind the September 11 attack on
the US World Trade Centre.
In it al-Zawahri called on minorities around the world to
join the struggle against "oppression", saying: "We aren't waging jihad to lift
oppression from the Muslims only, we are waging jihad to lift oppression from
all of mankind, because Allah has ordered us never to accept oppression,
whatever it may be."
The internet video is one hour seven minutes long, dated May
and subtitled in English.
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