Al Qaeda sets conditions for talks with US
US-born Adam Yahiye Gadahn called on Obama to stop interfering in the region’s educational curricula and end broadcasts targeting the Muslim world, “especially those designed to alter or destroy the faith, minds, morals and values of our Muslim people.”
Gadahn said that the network’s conditions for peace with Washington include the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, ending support for Israel, and releasing Muslim prisoners.
“Legitimate Demands 2, Barack’s Dilemma,” produced by al Qaeda’s media arm, al Sahab production, shows Gadahn, wearing a white turban, as he speaks in English with Arabic subtitles.
Gadahn said the Democrats’ loss in January of a Senate seat in the US state of Massachusetts underlined Obama’s falling popularity.
“You are no longer the popular man you once were, a year ago or so. Don’t let the standing ovations you get wherever you go fool you. After all, didn’t they keep applauding George W Bush until the day he left office in disgrace?”
Gadahn, also known as Azzam al Amriki, has appeared in a number of videos by al Qaeda and has been wanted by the FBI since 2004.
In the 24-minute video entitled “legitimate demands” Gadahn asked the US president to “withdraw all his soldiers, spies, security advisors, trainers, attaches, business, robots, drones and other US personnel, ships and aircraft of all Muslim countries, from Afghanistan to Zanzibar.
He also asked Obama to end his support “both moral and material” to Israel, to boycott Israel and to stop supporting “detestable” regimes in the Muslim world to “stop interfering” in the affairs of Muslims and to release Muslim prisoners detained by the United States.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 21st, 2010.
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