Al Qaeda No. 2 Warns U.K. Of "Response"

Al-Zawahri Rails Against Salmon Rushdie Knighthood

(CBS/AP)  Al Qaeda's No. 2 issued a new audiotape on Tuesday threatening to retaliate against Britain for having honored the novelist Salman Rushdie, a U.S.-based monitoring group said.

Ayman al-Zawahri's 20 minute speech was entitled "Hateful Britain and its Indian Slaves," CBS News reports.

It was produced by as-Sahab, the multimedia wing of al Qaeda, to be distributed to extremist Web sites, said the U.S.-based SITE, which monitors al Qaeda messages.

The authenticity of the tape, also reported by Alexandria, Va.-based IntelCenter, could not be independently confirmed.

Osama bin Laden's deputy lashed out at Britain for having awarded a knighthood to Rushdie last month, saying it was defying the Islamic world by granting the honor to the author of "The Satanic Verses," deemed an insult to Islam.

Al-Zawahri said that a "firm response” is in preparation to retaliate against this offense, CBS News reports.

Addressing British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the al Qaeda deputy chief said Britain's strategy in the Middle East “has brought catastrophes and defeats in Afghanistan and Iraq and even in the center of London,” reports CBS News.

“If you haven’t learned your lesson yet,” al-Zawahri continued, “we are ready to repeat it again until we are sure you have fully understood,” CBS News reports.

Hung Jury In July 21, 2005 Plot Case

A jury that convicted four men of plotting to bomb London's public transport system on July 21, 2005, was dismissed Tuesday after failing to reach a verdict against two other defendants.

Judge Adrian Fulford told the jury of nine women and three men on Monday that he would accept 10-2 majority verdicts on Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 34, and Adel Yahya, 24 (seen at left). He dismissed the jury after less than two hours of deliberations on Tuesday.

Authorities believe the failed attacks on three subway trains and a double-decker bus were a deliberate echo of the suicide bombings that killed 52 passengers on the network two weeks earlier.

The jury on Monday unanimously found Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29; Yassin Omar, 26; Ramzi Mohammed, 25; and Hussain Osman, 28, guilty of conspiracy to murder. They face sentencing on Wednesday.

Fulford gave prosecutors until Wednesday morning to say whether they would seek a retrial of Asiedu and Yahya.

All six defendants denied the charges, saying the devices were duds and their actions a protest against the Iraq war. But police and prosecutors said scientific tests proved the bombs were all viable. They do not know why they did not work.

During the six-month trial, prosecutors say Asiedu lost his nerve and abandoned his device in a London park. Yahya left Britain for Ethiopia several weeks before the attacks.

During the trial, Asiedu turned on the others and claimed Ibrahim, the gang's self-proclaimed leader, had wanted the attacks "to be bigger and better" than the July 7 bombs.

The four attempted to detonate explosives-laden backpacks on three subway trains and a bus, as in the July 7, 2005, attacks. The devices — made from a volatile mix of hydrogen peroxide and flour — failed to explode, and no one was injured.

The explosives were packed in plastic tubs, with screws, bolts and other pieces of metal taped to the outside as shrapnel. The detonators contained triacetone triperoxide (TATP), an explosive used by the July 7 bombers.

Omar and Mohammed set off their devices aboard two subway trains; a couple of hours later Ibrahim's device failed aboard a double-decker bus.

Unlike three of the four July 7 bombers, who were British-born, those in the July 21 plot had come to Britain as young men from places like Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. Some had become British citizens, while others had refugee status.

London, Glasgow Investigation Update

A suspect in the failed terror attack on Scotland's busiest airport was unlikely to survive his severe burn injuries, a doctor who treated him said Tuesday.

Kafeel Ahmed, 27, is in a Scottish hospital with burns suffered after allegedly crashing a Jeep Cherokee into the Glasgow airport a day after police found two unexploded car bombs in central London.

"The prognosis is not good and he is not likely to survive," a member of the medical team that treated him at the Royal Alexandra Hospital near Glasgow said on condition of anonymity because details about patients' condition are not to be made public. "He has third-degree burns over most of his torso and limbs. It is beyond repair and because he has lost so much skin he is now vulnerable to infection and won't be able to fight it."

Earlier Tuesday, it emerged that Ahmed had once worked as an aeronautical engineer, as an Australian investigator traveled to India to expand the British terror inquiry.

Ahmed worked in Bangalore as an aeronautical engineer for Infotech Enterprises, a large outsourcing firm, from December 2005 to August 2006, said company spokesman K.S. Susindar.

Infotech works with some of the biggest companies in aviation, including Boeing and Airbus, among others — possibly giving Ahmed access to sensitive design information from the companies.

Susindar declined to comment on whether Ahmed had access to design secrets or what projects he worked on.

"He was a sincere employee and from what I can gather he gave no problems whatsoever," said Susindar.

The services Infotech offered its clients was not immediately clear, but most of the aviation work outsourced to Indian companies includes software support for cabin lighting, display of information in the cockpit, in-flight entertainment and communication.

In some cases, it could involve designing software for flight control systems, navigation and surveillance.

Ajay Prasad, India's former civil aviation secretary, doubted Ahmed worked on any sensitive projects.

Not much aircraft design work "was outsourced by these companies, so I don't think there is any major (danger)," said Prasad. "Unless one has an idea of what kind of work this company was doing for Boeing or Airbus, it's very difficult to say."

Sabeel Ahmed, 26, Kafeel's brother, is being held in Liverpool as a suspect in the terror plot. Sabeel, who worked as a doctor, and Kafeel are among eight people held in the case.

A third Indian, Mohammad Haneef, is being held in Australia for questioning.

[actornaught]

"liberals are looking up to Paris Hilton, Snoop Dawg to fill in that gap"

Whether you believe this kind of weirdness or not, you DO want to be a jerk. I also know you don't even want to deal with your terminology.

Check yourself...

[xzavierbrown]

Posted by actornaught at 12:22 PM : Jul 11, 2007
+ report abuse

*******

I am not disputing the theory that society can exist without religion AND AT THE SAME TIME have morals..MY QUESTIONS IS,, who would plug that hole, who would teach morality to the masses? Today, liberals are looking up to Paris Hilton, Snoop Dawg to fill in that gap. Humans are not born with morals.

[wise80]

Just send them back to thier home land and get on with it . Make the rest of the world safe and make them an example .
Posted by wolf563 at 10:28 AM : Jul 10, 2007

Correct. Send them all back home and bring all troops back home (because this solution is gonna be deficient without the last part) then the world is safe again.

[infidel_us]

Try morality. You can be moral without religion, and as the whole world sees, you can have religion without morality.
Posted by actornaught at 12:22 PM : Jul 11, 2007

Islam is not a religion...it is a cult.

[actornaught]

"if you take religion out of the equation..what would you use to plug in the void?"

Try morality. You can be moral without religion, and as the whole world sees, you can have religion without morality.

[zoltaric]

"The prognosis is not good and he is not likely to survive,"

I hope he is in great pain and lives a long time. A reality far removed from his dream of 72 virgins.

Suffer you ignorant backwards cultist freak. I take pleasure in his suffering.

[drummer94]

Is that a bullet hole in his forehead? Should be.

[iainw1]

Yes were quite literally shaking in our boots, in the UK. Because this chap whose threatening us is normally quite a peaceful well respected person.

By the way, how long is it since you put your sentance of death on Rushdie?.Hes only one man you know.

[redfiveuk]

Don%u2019t be fooled people, the knighthood was directed by Tony Bliar as a departing gift of an insult to Iran. No-one in the mainstream UK rates Rushdie%u2019s books there is no way he should of been considered for a knighthood - he has openly berated the UK despite the fact we have spent over #10 millions on his security and on top of that he now lives in USA. This is typical of the inept ill thought out logic of the UK government, surely only a fool would of thought that at this time of high terrorism threatening the shores of the UK it would be a good idea to hand out this award to Rushdie - try reading his books they are rubbish at worst and mediocre at best. This award was for political reason and the citizens of the UK will pay the price with there safety.

[desertdwellr]

Religion is not going away - it's been here as long as mankind - NOW WHAT ?

[xzavierbrown]

Posted by rheola at 10:58 PM : Jul 10, 2007
+ report abuse

**********

if you take religion out of the equation..what would you use to plug in the void??MTV?

[rheola-2009]

"Pure religion is this- To visit the fatherless and widows and to feed the poor and clothe the naked"
Posted by telecom_1 at 09:07 PM : Jul 10, 2007

That is done by many without necessarily the tag of religion attached

Pure religion is the belief in superstition lies and mythology.

I appreciate that there are many within religious organisations who are also humanitarians, however there are so many more such without being associated with a religious organization.

Take religion out of the equation, the world would have been, and be a much safer happier place.

[sjc_1]

Religion requires blind belief, they call it faith.
So those with faith can be led to wherever the leaders want to lead them to.

There is very little free thought nor critical thinking involved with the followers, or "the flock" and that is the way that the religion wants to keep it.

This mutt went crazy under torture in Egyptian prisons. There is no excuse for him, only insanity here on earth and the fires of the ever after for this looney tune.

[telecom_1]

Pure religion is this- To visit the fatherless and widows and to feed the poor and clothe the naked

[rheola-2009]

Religon in all it's sick forms continues to prove itself to be the greatest evil this world has ever known

[radiob-2009]

It was produced by as-Sahab, the multimedia wing of al Qaeda.



Why is it that if they know so much about Al Quedas multimedia production they are unable to locate Bin Laden and Al-Zawahri. Cannot follow any of the couriers back, infiltrate AL Queda?

[desertdwellr]

Al-Zawahri is a coward - he needs to make a public address - not a video tape. Anything they do to retaliate is an insult against freedom and should be punished severely - he sends one of our guys to the hospital we send two of his to the morgue. This problem is one of freedom and less of religion - everytime these terrorists try to stop freedom they need to be reminded that they will never succeed....ever.

[rushlimpdrug]

Lars2008 - I think my earlier jihhad trumped your weaker jihhad - see I had a royal flush and that beats 2 of a kind.
Sorry dude.
Hey, wanna play spades?

[Syndicate]

Jesus is dead and he aint coming back. So is Mohamed.

[patriotic9]

I declare jihad on all jihadis that jihad against my jihad. They are infidels in the eyes of God and must be stopped. May we quicken the coming of Jesus by attacking all Muslim lands for the glory of God All-Mighty! They will know that our God is great and they will feel his love when we rain bombs down on them from the sky.




Posted by Lars2008 at 05:09 PM : Jul 10, 2007

Lars2008
Thank you so very very much for proving my point that RADICAL ISLAM is nothing but an extreme form of a PSYCHOSIS named CHRISTIANITY and JESUS was an ISLAMIC RADICAL who gave his life for his cause just like his fellow islamic radicals do today, who opposed HOMOSEXUAL'S RIGHT OF MARRIAGE just like his fellow islamic radicals today, whose follower believe in jihad against those who don't believe in their faith (proven from your own words).

How many more million innocent people need to be killed by your hands for the 2nd coming of ISLAMIC RADICAL "JESUS"