CAIRO: Al-Qaeda predicted President Barack Obama s downfall at the hands of the Muslim world in a new video released Tuesday. The 106-minute video in Arabic, entitled The West and the Dark Tunnel, is part of a series of messages by the group marking the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Osama bin Laden released a short message of his own on Sept. 14. Like similar long messages on previous anniversaries, it featured testimony from several leading Al-Qaeda figures, including No. 2 Ayman Al-Zawahri, intercut with news footage from the past year. As in the past, Al-Qaeda attempted to conflate Obama with his predecessor, George W. Bush, who was widely disliked by Muslims for his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Many analysts say Al-Qaeda has been alarmed by Obama s comparative popularity in the Middle East, especially following his landmark speech to the Muslim world in Cairo in June. America has come in a new, hypocritical face. Smiling at us, but stabbing us with the same dagger that Bush used, Al-Zawahri said in the message. God willing, your end will be at the hands of the Muslim nation, so that the world and history will be free of your crimes and lies, he said addressing Obama at the end of the video. The message also featured Adam Gadahn, also known as Azzam Al-Amriki, an American who grew up in southern California, converted to Islam and joined Al-Qaeda. He was charged with treason in 2006 and there is a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction. The important question is will Obama and his Democrats learn from his predecessor s mistakes or will they go on repeating them until they too leave office in humiliation and disgrace, said the heavily bearded American, dressed in a white robe. Unfortunately for the Democrats, and judging by their first seven-and-a-half months at the helm of the sinking American ship, the prognosis doesn t look good, he said. The message included a lengthy section on US prisons and torture facilities and showed footage of what appeared to be an American torturing an Afghan for information by dunking his head into a bucket of water. The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist websites, identified the person conducting the torture as Jonathan Keith Idema, who also appeared in last year s Al-Qaeda video. The message also discussed the progress of the various jihadi movements around the world, in particular Taliban victories against US forces in Afghanistan. The video s strident anti-American tone and detailed enumeration of what it describes as the US crimes was in sharp contrast to the earlier bin Laden message, which appeared to be an appeal to the American people to sever their ties with Israel and end the war with Al-Qaeda.
