Dubai, Sep 29: Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri called US President George W Bush a ''lying failure'' for saying progress had been made in the war on terrorism, according to a video posted on the Internet today.
''Bush you are a lying failure and a charlatan. It has been three and-a-half years (since the arrests) ... What happened to us? We have gained more strength and we are more insistent on martyrdom,'' the Egyptian militant leader said.
Zawahri was referring to the arrest of al Qaeda figures such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the United States.
''Bush, O failure and liar, why don't you be courageous for once and confront your people and tell them the truth about your losses in Iraq and Afghanistan,'' he said.
He also called Pope Benedict a ''charlatan'' because of his remarks on Islam.
''This charlatan accused Islam of being incompatible with rationality while forgetting that his own Christianity is unacceptable to a sensible mind,'' Zawahri said.
In a speech to a university in his native Germany on September 12, Pope Benedict quoted criticism of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad by 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who wrote that everything Mohammad brought was evil and inhuman.
The Pope said there was no room for violence in a religion based on reason.
Zawahri also urged Muslims in the same video to launch a holy war against proposed UN peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region.
''O Muslim nation, come to defend your lands from crusaders masked as United Nations (troops). Nothing will protect you except popular jihad (holy war),'' Zawahri said.
The European Commission said today its President Jose Manuel Barroso and a top EU aid official would go to Sudan this weekend to try to convince Khartoum to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur.
The Sudanese government has repeatedly rebuffed a United Nations offer to send 22,000 UN peacekeepers to replace an ill-equipped and under-funded African Union force.
Sudan says the UN peacekeeping offer is motivated by Western colonial ambitions.
Reuters
''Bush you are a lying failure and a charlatan. It has been three and-a-half years (since the arrests) ... What happened to us? We have gained more strength and we are more insistent on martyrdom,'' the Egyptian militant leader said.
Zawahri was referring to the arrest of al Qaeda figures such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the United States.
''Bush, O failure and liar, why don't you be courageous for once and confront your people and tell them the truth about your losses in Iraq and Afghanistan,'' he said.
He also called Pope Benedict a ''charlatan'' because of his remarks on Islam.
''This charlatan accused Islam of being incompatible with rationality while forgetting that his own Christianity is unacceptable to a sensible mind,'' Zawahri said.
In a speech to a university in his native Germany on September 12, Pope Benedict quoted criticism of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad by 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who wrote that everything Mohammad brought was evil and inhuman.
The Pope said there was no room for violence in a religion based on reason.
Zawahri also urged Muslims in the same video to launch a holy war against proposed UN peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region.
''O Muslim nation, come to defend your lands from crusaders masked as United Nations (troops). Nothing will protect you except popular jihad (holy war),'' Zawahri said.
The European Commission said today its President Jose Manuel Barroso and a top EU aid official would go to Sudan this weekend to try to convince Khartoum to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur.
The Sudanese government has repeatedly rebuffed a United Nations offer to send 22,000 UN peacekeepers to replace an ill-equipped and under-funded African Union force.
Sudan says the UN peacekeeping offer is motivated by Western colonial ambitions.
Reuters
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