This isn’t good news. Just when you thought that things couldn’t get any worse in Iraq, here comes this jerk.

As Americans celebrate the 4th of July today, Al Qaeda’s top deputy Ayman Zawahiri is appearing in a new internet video praising jihadi fighters in Iraq and elsewhere. Dressed in all white and sitting before a news studio background, Zawahiri warns Americans that “Today, the wind - by grace of Allah - is blowing against Washington.”

In the hour and half long video, which surfaced today on the website Strategic Translations, a translation and terror analysis firm, Zawahiri urges his followers to hurry to Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Somalia.

He also offers a message of confidence to the jihadi fighters in prison saying that victory in Iraq and Afghanistan will come soon.

“You must be patient and steadfast,” he says. “Rejoice, for victory is near, with Allah’s permission, and the herds of crusaders have begun to split up and their sole concern has become searching for a way out.”

Entitled “The Advice of One Concerned,” the video has English subtitles and includes clips from other videos and news broadcasts, including one from Al Furqan, the video production arm of the Islamic State of Iraq. There is a brief clip of Thomas Kean, chairman of the 9/11 Commission, speaking about the security challenges facing the United States. Also appearing on the tape is a clip of Abdul al-Bari Atwan, the editor of a London-based Arabic newspaper. In the clip, from an appearance on an Arabic news channel, Atwan declares that al Qaeda has become stronger since the September 11th attacks and that is truly an international organization.

Video and Story