Obama 'did not change anything': Zawahiri

WASHINGTON (Agencies) - The second-ranking leader of the Al-Qaeda network, Ayman al-Zawahiri, said in a
new video that US President Barack Obama did not change anything in the Muslims perception of the United
States, Al-Qaeda monitors said.
The new President Obama did not change anything of the image of America towards Muslims and the
oppressed, according to excerpts of Zawahiris statement released by the SITE Intelligence Group. It is
America that is still killing Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the Al-Qaedas number two continued in
the video that was released Sunday.
It is America that steals their fortunes, occupies their land, and supports the thieving, corrupt, and traitor rulers in
their countries, Zawahiri insisted. And consequently, the problem is not over. Rather, it is likely to deteriorate
and escalate.
Earlier this month, Obama used his visit to Turkey to declare that the United States is not and never will be at
war with Islam.
From the well of the Turkish parliament, Obama warned you cannot put out fire with flames, arguing that brute
force alone could not thwart extremism as he sent a flurry of coded messages throughout the Middle East.
The president said US ties with the Muslim world could not be simply defined by opposition to terrorism,
decades into a US struggle with extremism that was sharpened by the September 11 attacks in 2001.
But according to the monitoring group, Zawahiri insisted that the Obama administration was just conducting the
same policies as the administration of former president George W Bush, but with a different face.
America came to us with a new face, attempting to fool us with it; a face that calls for change, but to change us,
so that we give up our faith and our rights, not to change their crimes, aggressions, thefts, and their scandals, he
said, according to the excerpts.
Zawahiri also asserted that Obamas new policies in Afghanistan would only lead to defeat, as was the case
with the Soviets and the British before.
In his video, Zawahiri also criticised what he portrayed as the hypocrisy of the United States for attempting to
apply Western democracy in the Middle East, but only when it suits US needs.
The Western crusade showed us the truth of their democracy, its freedom, its justice, and the rights of its man,
not of our man, the rights of the Western man to enslave all men other than he, because he who is not Western is
not considered to belong to the human race, he argued.
Zawahiri also told residents of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip that only jihad would liberate Palestine,
according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
Meanwhile, the al-Qaeda issued a new call for an attack on Israel the eyes of the world are focused on the
Durban II racism conference in Geneva.
The deputy al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, urged the groups Iraqi followers to sneak the borders and
liberate Jerusalem in a new recording posted on the As-Sahab internet website on Monday.
Osama bin Ladens deputy also slammed Egypt for brokering talks between the Hamas and its rival Fatah
faction.
The talks are aimed at bringing the two groups together in hopes of rebuilding a PA unity government - a goal,
which has proven elusive thus far.
The Egyptian-born leader insisted in Mondays harangue, however, that the negotiations were actually intended
to pressure Hamas into recognising the State of Israel, which he warned the group not to do. He also called on
PA Arabs to attack Israelis and their allies outside the country. If circumstances were difficult in one place they
are easier in other places, he proclaimed. Our enemies, crusaders and Jews are scattered everywhere.