Al-Qaeda tape lambasts Obama

Al-Qaeda has released a new tape with No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri criticizing President-elect Barack Obama.

Al-Zawahiri compares Obama unfavorably to Malcolm X, the black nationalist leader who parted from the Nation of Islam to become an orthodox Sunni Muslim. He praised Malcolm X for fighting against the West's oppression of peoples throughout the world, stating that Obama instead will uphold US policies of hegemony.

"That's why it wasn't strange that Malik al-Shabazz (may Allah have mercy on him) was killed, while you have climbed the rungs of the presidency to take over the leadership of the greatest criminal force in the history of mankind and the leadership of the most violent crusade ever against the Muslims," he said.




Al-Zawahiri used the Arabic term abayd al bayt "slave of the house," to roughly conform to Malcolm X's "House Negroes" claiming that Obama would serve white interests.

In contrast to Malcolm X, who left the Nation of Islam, considered outside the pale to orthodox Muslims, Obama was said to have drifted in the opposite direction.

"You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand in the ranks of the enemies of the Muslims, and pray the prayer of the Jews, although you claim to be Christian, in order to climb the rungs of leadership in America. And so you promised to back Israel, and you threatened to strike the tribal regions in Pakistan, and to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan, in order for the crimes of the American crusade in it to continue," the message said.

The message was confirmed by U.S. counterterrorism officials on Wednesday.

Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are believed to be in hiding in the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, although most experts admit that their general locations are not known.