Terror Chief Mocks Bush's Iraq Plan

Al Qaeda No. 2 Goads President To Send More Troops To Iraq

(CBS/AP)  Al Qaeda's deputy leader mocked President Bush's plan to send 21,000 more troops to Iraq, challenging him to send "the entire army" and vowing insurgents will defeat them in a new videotape, a U.S. group that tracks al Qaeda messages said Monday.

The Washington-based Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Institute said it had intercepted the video from Ayman al-Zawahri, which had not yet been posted on Islamic militant Web sites, where his messages are usually posted. SITE did not elaborate on how it received the message, and staff reached at SITE would not comment.

In the video, al-Zawahri said it was the "duty" of all Muslims to take up arms against the enemies of Islam or support those who do, and he vowed that the U.S. strategy for Iraq, outlined by Bush in a Jan. 9 speech, was doomed to fail.

"I ask him, why send 20,000 (troops) only — why not send 50 or 100 thousand? Aren't you aware that the dogs of Iraq are pining for your troops' dead bodies?" al-Zawahri said in an excerpt of the video released by SITE.

"So send your entire army to be annihilated at the hands of the mujahideen (holy warriors) to free the world from your evil," he said, "because Iraq, land of the Caliphate and Jihad, is able to bury ten armies like yours, with Allah's help and power."

The video showed al-Zawahri, wearing a white turban, in front of a black backdrop. In the excerpt — just over 1 1/2 minutes from a 14 minute tape — the Egyptian militant appeared more sedate than in past videos, not waging his finger as he often does.

The message was the first reaction from al Qaeda's leadership to the new Iraq strategy. The U.S. has said the extra troops aim to crack down on al Qaeda fighters and other Sunni Arab insurgents in Iraq, as well as Shiite militiamen blamed in the country's spiraling sectarian violence.

Al-Zawahri, the deputy of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, also contended that the al Qaeda and Taliban were regaining control in Afghanistan.

"Among his (Mr. Bush's) ravings is that he has deprived al Qaeda of a safe haven in Afghanistan," he said in the video excerpt. The entire world bears witness to his naked, barefaced lie, because al Qaeda and the Taliban under the command of the Commander of the Faithful Mulla Muhammad Omar are the ones who have deprived America of safe haven in Afghanistan."

There was no immediate independent confirmation of the video's authenticity. The SITE Institute is an independent group that conducts counterterrorism research and has posted al Qaeda videos in the past.

Al-Zawahri's mention of President Bush's plan underlined the increasingly fast speed with which the terror network comments on events in the news. In the past, new videos would often refer to events dating back months before the message's appearance.

It was the third message by al-Zawahri in just over a month. In an audiotape posted on the Web on Jan. 5, he urged Somalia's Islamic militants to carry out suicide attacks on Ethiopian troops fighting in their country.

In the latest video, he vowed that mujahideen would "break (the) backs" of the Ethiopians in Somalia, according to a full transcript of the tape released by SITE.

Al-Zawahri addressed Americans, saying they must "accept the facts of what is happening on the ground, and reject the fantasies with which Bush tries to deceive you."

Al-Zawahri at one point turns his comments to American people, reminding of past offers to reaching an "understanding" with Muslims, according to SITE. He also warns that if they continue to follow the policies of Mr. Bush and his administration, then peace is impossible.

"You must honestly try to reach a mutual understanding with the Muslims, for then, and only then, you might enjoy security," he said. "Security is a shared destiny, if we are secure, you might be secure, and if we are safe, you might be safe. And if we are struck and killed, you will definitely — with Allah's permission — be struck and killed. This is the correct equation."

Al-Zawahri repeated a call he makes often in his messages, for Muslims to turn against secular and nationalist leaders and fight for Islam. He denounced in particular Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"It is the duty of every Muslim today to bear arms, or to serve and support those who are bearing arms," he said. "Every Muslim today is directly responsible for defending Islam, Islams homeland, and the Islamic Nation."

He said Muslims should try to free Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian militant cleric imprisoned in the United States after being convicted in a plot to attack New York landmarks. He also warned that "Americans must expect to pay the price for everything they have done to" detainees held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Al-Zawahri repeated his condemnation of a U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended the war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group in August, calling acceptance of the ceasefire "an historic fall which cannot be justified or excused," according to the SITE transcript.

[ghareeb2-2009]

hi Lieberman 18.
I'm an Egyptian cardiologist,you are very good in telling bad words and in insulting. ok but you didn't tell me what do you feel as you see the dogs in Iraq eating the american bodies up, you still telling nonsense,you'd better read history,don't be so ignorant and illeterate,try to feel the others ,you're in Iraq by mistake ie for nothing,so you are being punished daily,you killed thousands of innocent people,and now the criminal soldiers are killed and burnt daily,
this is the justice
this is the revenge
if you can reply my sensible comment sensibly you're welcome
but if you can only tell rubbish,so you insist to be as idiot as your president

[marketforces]

The foregoing post is a perfect example of the inbred retardation of the average American. You are clearly against freedom of speech. If you were for it, you would welcome opinions different from your own.
"America" is an abstraction. It is not "America" that intelligent, caring people hate. It is the insanely immoral governments that retarded Americans vote for.
The world has no great need of America. If you closed your borders, brought all troops home, and cut off foreign aid, the world would adjust. Just because you "served and fought" for your country does not automatically make everything it does OK.
You are absolutely pathetic.
(And with a name like "bam-a-boy", you obviously entered the military for your own private reasons.)

[bamaboy2211]

Most of you own these boards make me sick. If you were born in America, be thankful you got freedom of speech and freedom to do what you want. I don't care if you were not born in this country and you are a citizen, but don't slander my country, if you don't like it why did you bother to come here in the first place? Go back to where you came from.
If you love this country, stand up for this country. If you don't then leave, no one is forcing you to stay here.
I think we should close our borders to immigrants, deport anyone who slanders the country that is NOT U.S. born, anyone who flies the flag of another country, anyone who burns our flag. THIS IS THE USA! Fly the American flag and defend your country.
Close the borders, bring all the troops home, cut off foreign aid, and then see how other countries will be begging for our help. Let the rest of the world burn and blow theirselves and their country up.
I am tired of hearing all the 8itchin and moaning, if the U.S. is so bad, then leave, we don't want you here anyway! I for one will never leave, this is a great country. I have served and fought for this country and I am proud to be an American.

[kalatur1]

bluestardad, you say "Leave the middle east alone and let them kill each other and burn." Should we walk away from their oil too? If not, what is your plan to keep getting their oil while "walking away"?

[bluestardad]

Why would America care about Lebanon or the middle east? Get out of it, Quit Covering it in the media and let it go up in flames. If your neighbor keeps burning their barn down after sometime you will quit helping them rebuild it. Leave the middle east alone and let them kill each other and burn.

[bluestardad]

This is all staged political hype. Bush pulls out Bin Laden or this guy every time his nuts are in a door jam. Problem is that Mr. Math Karl Rove has used this one so much that the American people don't buy the Bin Laden scare tactic any more. Anyone can run the country better than Bush even people on this Blog.

[alphaa10-2009]

All Bush boosters know in their fluttering little heart-of-hearts Bush is playing for time in Iraq, waiting for an "excuse" to attack Iran.

Remembering all the excuses Bush came up lacking for an invasion of Iraq, it's safe to say Bush will invent one for Iran before his final days draw to a close.

Instead of offering the mess he created in Iraq to the next president, Bush has a master plan-- to offer two gigantic messes, instead.

[karlimhof]

Netanyahu on Iran (21 jan 2007)

"I call on the world that did not stop the Holocaust to stop investing in Iran to prevent genocide," he said, recommending garnering international support to bring Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to trial for genocide.

THE WORLD THAT DID NOT STOP THE HOLOCAUST !

This is the kind of statement which makes our Congressmen and women cower - and allows us to look the other way as innocent Palistinians suffer under abominable Israeli apartheid policies. Nethanyahoo re-writes History! It wasn't the Nazis after all, it was all of us!

At the meeting this week in Jerusalem (taken again from Haaretz newspaper) :

Prominent lobbyist Perle: U.S. will attack Iran if it obtains nukes

By Yossi Melman and Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondents

President George Bush will order an attack on Iran if it becomes clear to him that Iran "is set to acquire" nuclear weapons capabilities while he is still in office, Richard Perle told the Herzliya Conference on Sunday. Perle is close to the Bush administration, particularly to Vice President Richard Cheney.

Richard Perle may have lost influence -and his cimmerian friends Wolfowitz and Feith have run for cover, but he has friends in Israel willing to listen to him and be influended by him. Where does he get off telling Israelis what the President of the United States is going to do? That's chutzpah, but surely of the negative type.

Or does he know something we don't?

[karlimhof]

If the Bush administrations true objective (let's forget WMD)was to topple Saddam - it's done. We can assist the new Iraki government but don't have to do their fighting for them.

But the real objective is occupation and control. That's why millions of square feet of conrete are being poured at this moment, building 14 new permanent military bases throughout Irak;

"Chicago Tribune March 23, 2004

14 `enduring bases' set in Iraq
Long-term military presence planned"

Beyond Irak, the greater Bush goal is, as Sec. Rice stated before Congressional Intel hearings a week ago :
"long-term changing of the nature of the Middle East that produced Al-Qaeda".

Adding to that we have two newly arrived aircraft carrier battle groups positioning off Iran and yesterday our beloved Richard Perle in Jerusalem told the Haaretz daily newspaper: "Bush will attack Iran "if" proof of weapon nuke capability found"

All we can hope for now is that the American Congress stops this madness and redirects our national foreign policy.

[alphaa10-2009]

badaxmofo said, "Bush won 51% pop vote - where's your 66% coming in from ???
---
The 51 Percent Solution--
That Bush 51 percent in 2004 is almost exactly the same percentage by which Bush lost his 2000 campaign to Gore. Back then, Bush boosters simply ignored this defeat by popular vote and wanted to count only electors. The GOP-packed US Supreme Court agreed, insisting that actually counting the popular votes cast in Florida did not matter as much as Americans thought.

But if Bush stole into office by a botched election (with the votes finally tallied, as reasonably as possible, in Gore's favor-- with representatives of all parties present) and ran for reelection in 2004, how does that relate to 2006?

In 2006, the Democrats won both houses of congress. If 51 percent is a popular mandate in 2004, it is surely a mandate in 2006 for the Democrats.

(see next, "The 66 Percent Solution")

[alphaa10-2009]

The 66 Percent Solution-- 2
But about the 66 percent-- how could you miss the frequent headlines about Bush and his perilous standing with the American people? Guess what percentage of Americans reject the Bush policy in Iraq? It is entirely safe to say they voted their convictions.

Poll figures published on February 27, 2006--
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/opinion/polls/main1350874.shtml

Poll figures published on January 22, 2007--
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/22/opinion/polls/main2384943.shtml

[feelfree1]

CBS:

If you can locate someone who DOESN'T "Mock Bush's Iraq Plan", then I think you will have found something newsworthy.

[shingles1]

shorter Lieberman18: IT'S ALL CLINTON'S FAULT!

You know, I'd take you a little more seriously if you weren't so blatantly and blindly partisan. Could Clinton have done more? Sure. Could Bush? Hell yeah - yet, you seem to ignore any and all culpability from Bush. From wikipedia's entry on the Cole bombing:

Then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice told the Commission that when the administration took office on January 20, 2001, "We knew that there was speculation that the 2000 Cole attack was al Qaeda... We received, I think, on January 25th the same assessment [of al-Qaeda responsibility]. It was preliminary. It was not clear."
...
According to Dr. Rice, the decision not to respond militarily to the Cole bombing was President Bush's. She said he "made clear to us that he did not want to respond to al Qaeda one attack at a time. He told me he was 'tired of swatting flies.'" The administration instead began work on a new strategy to eliminate al-Qaeda.

Anyhow, there's lots more there - but neither Clinton NOR Bush come out smelling like roses. But don't let the facts get in the way of you repeating the party line like a good communist.

[feelfree1]

Re: "The Washington-based Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Institute said it had intercepted the video from Ayman al-Zawahri"

You don't say? Why do we bother spending billions upon billions of tax dollars on our less than useless "intelligence" network, when we can simply ask these 2 people (the Institute) what is what?

Re: "SITE did not elaborate on how it received the message"

Really? Neither one of these two people (the Institute) would eleborate, eh? I wonder why that might be?

Oh well, I guess it's a good thing that these 2 people "intercepted" this video, before it was posted to an "Islamic website". We really dodged the bullet on that one, eh CBS?

[BlueInWI]

You mean there's Islamic Fundamentalist in Iraq that would like to attack inside the US??

No.... I can't believe it? We've only killed a couple hundred thousand innocent Iraqi's over fake WMD reports, installed an Ayatollah friendly ***** regime, and created a sectarian Civil War and someone over there is pissed???

Before we invaded the CIA estimated Al Qaeda to have 4,000-5000 members, now its in the 10,000-100,000's . Great job Chickenhawks!!

Of course, the Chimpster will use this to whip up his State of the Union Address and the corporate military industrial media complex will play right along!!

[feelfree1]

Dear CBS,

This article is a fine example of the kind of flimsy, unsubstantiated garbage which has led to the shameful culpability of the Western media, in the horrific death and misery in Iraq and elsewhere.

Did you bother to check out this SITE Institute? I did. A brief look at their website reveals that this "Institute" is comprised of 2 people, both are co-founders.

This two-person "Institute" has been in existence for all or part of 5 YEARS. According to their website, Rita Katz, Director and co-founder of the SITE Institute was "born in Iraq" and is a "graduate of the Middle Eastern Studies program at Tel Aviv University"

Tel Aviv University? No kidding? Who would have guessed?

www.siteinstitute.org/mission.html

This story is a bald-faced propaganda piece, and for CBS to lend credibility to this deadly foolishness, without challenge, is irresponsible to say the least.

[bildooreilly]

See it all uncensored on Disc 2 of the new hit DVD "The CIA'S PHONIEST HOME VIDEOS" call 1-800-911-3333 to get your limited edition copy today.

Your call will be traced.

[feelfree1]

According to CBS, last January "Zawahiri" said:

"Butcher of Washington, you are not only defeated and a liar, but also a failure. You are a curse on your own nation and you have brought and will bring them only catastrophes and tragedies," al-Zawahiri said, referring to Bush."

Who could possibly argue with that statement?

[lieberman18]

But remember, Perv Bill DID KNOW HOW to send B-52s on regular bomb runs over Belgrade, Yugoslavia - incinerating those vicious Serb terrorists - those armed to the teeth men, women and children.

One measley missile strike on camps practically deserted.

And everytime I've confronted a Clinton-apologist or Bush-hater about this, they can't answer - because they know d&mn well it is the truth!

[lieberman18]

singinrick,

right on.

Even Richard Clarke, no friend of President Bush, points out that Tenet told the White House we were at war after the Cole Bombing. And John O'Neill, murdered on 9/11 and Clarke both argued for a hit on Osama - the Northern Alliance had him staked out.

So what happened?

Billy Cohen, Republican in name only, Sandy Burglar, and Madame Miss Piggy NotBright told O'Neill and Clarke "NO GO"...Why?

Before any bozo cares to blame the Republicans, Miss Piggy told them that Perv Bill was involved in sensitive negotiations with Arafat and Israel's most decorated coward Barak at Camp David, and that American bombs hitting Arabs would get ol' Yasser bent out of shape.

Yasser wasn't going to sign any peace agreement anyway, but that didn't matter. For his friend Arafat, Pervert Bill and his advisers compromised the security of thousands of Americans - including the 3000 murdered on 9/11.

Don't believe me, Neo-Fats? Read Clarke - remember y'all loved him.