- Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden’s top deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahri, said in a videotape aired Monday — but apparently taped before the U.S. presidential election — that there was no difference between the two candidates. He also vowed to keep fighting the United States until Washington changed its policies.

In a brief excerpt broadcast on Al-Jazeera television, al-Zawahri said: “As for elections in America, the two candidates are competing to win the satisfaction of Israel,” saying that fact proved “there will be no solution with America without forcing it to surrender to justice.”

President Bush won re-election over Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry in the Nov. 2 election.

In the tape, al-Zawahri said: “The results of the elections do not matter for us. Vote whoever you want, Bush, Kerry or the devil himself. This does not concern us. What concerns us is to purge our land from the aggressors.”

Could this be a sign of dissent among the Al Qaeda ranks? An Usama Bin Laden tape surfaced right before the U.S. elections where Bin Laden threatened any state that voted for President Bush as well as referenced a Democratic talking point of President Bush reading ‘My Pet Goat.’ The alleged second in command Zawahri now says that it didn’t matter who was elected President.

This is a clear contradiction to what Bin Laden argued in his tape. Could this be because the Al Qaeda leadership is spread thin? I would imagine the Al Qaeda leadership is seperated for a variety of reasons, some by Al Qaeda’s own accord and some following the assault by U.S., Afgan and Pakistani soldiers on former safe areas.

Al Qaeda must protect it’s leaders in a time of war and the leaders are targeted. Within the last three years, there have been many more Zawahri tapes released than Bin Laden tapes leading to the rumor that Bin Laden was dead. A few days before our election Bin Laden pops up and threatens the United States’ voters proving those rumors false. What is interesting is that Zawahri has been more active in the propoganda sphere than Bin Laden. Why?

I believe it is because the two are not in good communication with each other and are seperated, possibly each residing in different countries. Yes, there would be communication between each other probably in the form of couriers (based upon Zarqawi and Bin Laden communicating as such) however their messages contradicted each other.

We all should know that part of the Al Qaeda resentment towards the United States is the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Where Zawahri sounds a bit odd is that he argues “the two candidates are competing to win the satisfaction of Israel.” Many pundits here in the States remarked on how little was said regarding Israel during the election process and frankly, I don’t remember it ever being mentioned. I’m sure it was mentioned at some time, but it never was an issue that either candidate used as a reason for election. In this instance, Zawahri sounds much less credible to either be watching our elections or paying attention to the policies that the two candidates ran on.

For this reason, I believe the subject of this tape was to try to further seperate the United States with the rest of the world. The UN votes over the past year dealing with Israel went against Israel, whereas the United States was one of the only countries (if not the only one) who either voted for or vetoed sanctions against Israel. Zawahri seems to bring up an “old” Al Qaeda talking point for some reason, a reason in which I believe is trying to isolate the United States.

The Jawa Report linked with Schuer on Al Qaeda Tapes
Diggers Realm linked with Ayman al-Zawahri Releases New Tape
The Jawa Report linked with Al Qaeda Update