AL-QAEDA JOINS IN….Juan Cole writes:
The Israeli occupation of Jerusalem has long been an al Qaeda bugbear. It sent Richard Reid to case El Al, Israeli airlines. It hit Israeli tourists in Mombasa and the Sinai. But Bin Laden always avoided investing in an area where there was already an active insurgency. He also could not join in with heretical Shiites like Hizbulah.
Today, al-Qaeda’s #2 announced a change of course:
Ayman al-Zawahiri warned that al-Qaida would not stand “idly by, humiliated”, as Israeli “shells burn our brothers”.
….He said that the weapons being used by the Israelis were from the “crusader coalition” and added that “every participant will pay the price”.
Zawahiri, wearing a grey robe and white turban, and speaking in front of a picture of the World Trade Centre on fire, said al-Qaida now saw “all the world as a battlefield open in front of us”.
….A new audio or video message from Bin Laden about Lebanon and Gaza is expected to emerge in the coming days, according to IntelCenter, a US-based independent group that provides counterterrorism information to the US government and media.
Worse and worse.
