Al Qaeda Vows Revenge Attacks

The Daily Beast reports:

The global syndicate of terror that Osama bin Laden inspired for two decades has mourned his death for the past month.

The jihadists’ eulogies reveal much about their thinking, connections, and plans. Al Qaeda's Shura council, its top management and decision-making leadership, announced his death less than 100 hours after the SEAL raid in Abbottabad. Eulogies began to pour in.

Hafez Saed, the man behind the Mumbai massacre and Lashkar-e-Taiba's leader, dedicated his Friday prayers that week to his "hero" bin Laden, and praised his leadership of the jihad. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula "celebrated his martyrdom" and looked forward to his apocalyptic return at the end of time to join in the final battle with evil, a very unusual Qaeda reference to messianic Islam.

Now we have commentary from Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s likely heir and longtime deputy. He too "celebrates" the martyrdom of the "pioneer of jihad against first the communists and then the crusaders."

Zawahiri promises that al Qaeda will deliver more "unpleasant days" like 9/11. He claims bin Laden and al Qaeda have delivered four "devastating disasters" to America: the "martyr hawks" attacks on 9/11, the quagmire in Iraq, the quagmire in Afghanistan, and now the Arab Spring, which has toppled American allies like Hosni Mubarak and Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Unlike his previous six messages on the Egyptian revolution, Zawahiri stays away from history lessons or stale old ideological debates in this tape. Now he is in cheerleader form.

He calls for more regime change in Yemen, Syria, Libya, and especially Pakistan. Overthrow Saleh, Assad, Gaddafi, and Zardari. He urges Pakistan's Army to kill the "traitors" who led it to "humiliation" and to stage a coup. Zawahiri also reaffirms his loyalty to Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, the so-called Amir of Believers whom bin Laden also consistently reaffirmed his loyalty to, up to his death. Zawahiri mentions with pride the Afghan Taliban's attack on NATO in Kandahar after bin Laden's death, linking the two events.