WORLD: Al-Qaeda deputy reads poetry in latest audio tape
Recording of Ayman al-Zawahiri released on the Internet

Straits Times
Sunday, January 22, 2006

Cairo --- A day after Osama bin Laden released a tape, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri recited a poem to jihadists on a 17-minute audio tape that appeared on the Internet on Friday.

The Arabic poem, called Tears in the Eyes of Time, is posted on numerous jihadist websites and described by the radical websites as a eulogy for the martyrs in the crusaders' attacks on Afghanistan, CNN reported.

Zawahiri was the target of a Jan 13 CIA air strike on a home in Damadola, Pakistan, where Al-Qaeda members were believed to be attending a dinner.

CIA analysts said that the voice on the audio tape is that of Zawahiri. But a US counterterrorism official said "it could be an old tape" because there is no reference to recent events.

In Pakistan, intelligence officials said yesterday that Zawahiri met his deputy last year at the site of the Jan 13 missile strike.

He met his deputy, Abu Farraj al-Libbi, in Damadola early last year, a security official said on condition of anonymity, adding that Libyan-born Al-Libbi told Pakistani interrogators of the meeting after his capture in May 2005.

Meanwhile, an unexpected endorsement from Osama has resulted in a huge jump in sales for a book by a critic of US foreign policy.

William Blum's Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower jumped from 209,000 on Amazon.com's sales list to No. 30, after being mentioned by Osama in his audio tape.

Osama said Al-Qaeda was preparing more attacks in the US but also told Americans: "It is useful for you to read the book The Rogue State." 

Date Posted: 1/22/2006