Posted on 02/01/2011 1:15:18 PM PST by demsux
Ayman al-Zawahiri, a cerebral Egyptian surgeon who joined his first jihadist cell at age 15, is as much the force behind al-Qaeda as his more famous friend Osama bin Laden.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1187180,00.html#ixzz1CkBTyIVo
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Is Zawahiri affiliated with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood? If so, expect some REAL problems.
When Al-Zawahiri stood trial in Cairo in the early 1980’s as one of the Sadat assasination co-conspirators he clearly told us who he was and what he was about—Yet nothing was done!
“We are Muslims and we are terrorists!” —Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri to Western News Media Journalists during the Sadat Assasination trial.
I just attended a lecture about this guy given by Steven Coll.
He, Zawahiri, has no direct connections with the Muslim Brotherhood, though they both preach Qtbism. (However, he and bin Laden are hand-in-hand. When certain authorities let bin Laden slip the noose, Zawahiri was within arm’s reach, too. Could have killed them both with the same bomb.)
Now, although not as popular as they once were, both are running loose and eyeing the growing leadership vacuum in the Middle East. Not cool.
And yes, Z was connected to the MB in Egypt when he started out, but then almost every existing Middle East terror group is in some branch of the tree that grew from the roots of the MB.
For years now, whenever I read about major ‘hits’ in Iraq or Afghanistan, I lean closer hoping to hear that we ‘got’ Zawahiri. I have a lasting anger toward that man since I saw footage of him on his tour of the U.S.A shortly before 9/11. He was in a car near D.C. talking eagerly about how vulnerable to US was to terrorist attacks. The reporter was skeptical but Zawahiri eagerly detailed how it was indeed true that the US was vulnerable - he spoke of ‘soft targets’. He was lovin’ it - our naivete. Then, immediately after 9/11, the old goat had the gall to be interviewed on US TV once again eager -this time eagerly advising American school children not to worry about 9/11 and to expect the police in the U.S. to arrest people etc. (he was trying to coach the US to treat it as a police rather than military issue). I can’t wait for the day a drone gets him...
Zawahiri did not literally say: "We are terrorists". That would have been a stupid thing to say during a trial. He did say that they had tried to establish an Islamic state and Islamic society and were not sorry for things they had done to advance their cause. Here is a description:
"Video footage that was shot during the opening day of the trial, December 4, 1982, shows the three hundred defendants, illuminated by the lights of TV cameras, chanting, praying, and calling out desperately to family members. Finally, the camera settles on Zawahiri, who stands apart from the chaos with a look of solemn, focussed intensity. Thirty-one years old, he is wearing a white robe and has a gray scarf thrown over his shoulder.
At a signal, the other prisoners fall silent, and Zawahiri cries out, "Now we want to speak to the whole world! Who are we? Who are we? Why they bring us here, and what we want to say? About the first question, we are Muslims! We are Muslims who believe in their religion! We are Muslims who believe in their religion, both in ideology and practice, and hence we tried our best to establish an Islamic state and an Islamic society!"
The other defendants chant, in Arabic, "There is no god but God!"
Zawahiri continues, in a fiercely repetitive cadence, "We are not sorry, we are not sorry for what we have done for our religion, and we have sacrificed, and we stand ready to make more sacrifices!"
The others shout, "There is no god but God!"
Zawahiri continues,"We are here—the real Islamic front and the real Islamic opposition against Zionism, Communism, and imperialism!" He pauses, then: "And now, as an answer to the second question, Why did they bring us here? They bring us here for two reasons! First, they are trying to abolish the outstanding Islamic movement . . . and, secondly, to complete the conspiracy of evacuating the area in preparation for the Zionist infiltration."
The others cry out, "We will not sacrifice the blood of the Muslims for the Americans and the Jews!"
The prisoners pull off their shoes and raise their robes to expose the marks of torture. Zawahiri talks about the torture that took place in the "dirty Egyptian jails . . . where we suffered the severest inhuman treatment. There they kicked us, they beat us, they whipped us with electric cables, they shocked us with electricity! They shocked us with electricity! And they used the wild dogs! And they used the wild dogs! And they hung us over the edges of the doors"—here he bends over to demonstrate—"with our hands tied at the back! They arrested the wives, the mothers, the fathers, the sisters, and the sons!"
The defendants chant, "The army of Muhammad will return, and we will defeat the Jews!"
The camera captures one particularly wild-eyed defendant in a green caftan as he extends his arms through the bars of the cage, screams, and then faints into the arms of a fellow-prisoner. Zawahiri calls out the names of several prisoners who, he says, died as a result of torture. "So where is democracy?" he shouts. "Where is freedom? Where is human rights? Where is justice? Where is justice? We will never forget! We will never forget!"
- link
If he isn't in the MB now, he was back in the 1980's when he was jailed in Egypt.
Steve Coll is clueless.
Al-Z got where he's at by joining the Muslim Brotherhood when he was 14 years old. The MB is still in existence today and the organization is well-organized and pulling the strings in Egypt at this moment. Don't think for a moment MB isn't exploiting this crisis. They are probably using it as a recruiting tool to recruit future terrorists to topple other governments in that region and to destroy Israel.
I believe this is something everyone is ignoring...Coincidence that Z-Man is from Egypt and AQ wants to establish a caliphate.
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