Yeah right. My clearance would go RIGHT out the window if that were true.

By Kevin Whitelaw
US News & World Report
April 21, 2008

… Last December, Zawahiri invited supporters of the terrorist group to log on to several password-protected jihadist online forums and send questions to him, and his first set of answers presented another opportunity to analyze his words.

But he also unwittingly provided a glimpse into some of the issues that al Qaeda supporters and sympathizers are thinking about these days. Experts at the U.S. Defense Department managed to acquire 1,868 separate questions posed to Zawahiri on two secure jihadist websites.

One of the prime topics of concern among jihadists is whether al Qaeda has been unwilling or simply unable to attack in places like Iran, Egypt, Palestine, or even Israel, according to a new report by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point titled “The Power of Truth? Questions for Ayman al-Zawahiri.” …

“In our opinion, Zawahiri’s responses—and failures to respond—to many of these were highly selective, very evasive on most contentious issues and not overly impressive,” says Joseph Felter, the director of the Combating Terrorism Center. “In fact, he may have tipped his hand and showed his arrogance and intellectual weakness.” …

Several questions concerned al Qaeda’s record of killing Muslim civilians. One participant wrote, “Many people in the Islamic world…complain that al Qaeda organization was behind many operations that targeted innocent civilians and Muslims within the Islamic nations and many Muslims and children died as a result of such operations. Do you think not that you are shedding prohibited and innocent’s blood?”

Zawahiri did respond to this, asserting that al Qaeda does not target Muslim civilians, adding that if Muslims were killed in any attacks, it was either accidental or because non-Muslims were surrounding themselves with Muslims. …

More broadly, the CTC report concludes that Zawahiri seems to fear that discontent is rising among al Qaeda’s supporters. “Zawahiri’s initial decision to hold a virtual press conference demonstrated that he feels the need to resolve concerns among jihadis about the future of the movement,” the report says. “Zawahiri’s answers revealed deep-seated worries about the controversies created by al Qaeda’s killing of innocents.”

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