Al Qaeda leader criticizes Bush, pope

CAIRO -- Al Qaeda's number two leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, condemned President Bush in a video statement released yesterday, calling him a failure and a liar in the war on terror.

``Can't you be honest at least once in your life and admit that you are a deceitful liar who intentionally deceived your nation when you drove them to war in Iraq," Zawahri said in a portion of the video released by the Washington-based SITE Institute.

Zawahri also criticized Bush for continuing to imprison Al Qaeda leaders, including the group's number three leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 coordinator, who was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.

``Bush, you deceitful charlatan, 3 1/2 years have passed since your capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, so how have you found us during this time? Losing and surrendering?" he said, according to the SITE Institute.

``What you have perpetrated against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other Muslim captives in your prisons and the prisons of your slaves in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, and elsewhere is not hidden from anyone, and we are a people who do not sleep under oppression and who do not abandon our revenge until our chests have been healed of those who have aggressed against us," the IntelCenter, a Virginia-based firm, quoted the message as saying.

``And we, by the grace of Allah, are seeking to exact revenge on behalf of Islam and Muslims from you and your soldiers and allies."

Zawahri also called Pope Benedict XVI a ``charlatan" because of recent remarks he made about Islam.

In Sept. 12 remarks that sparked outrage across the Muslim world, Benedict cited a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed as ``evil and inhuman," particularly ``his command to spread by the sword the faith."

Zawahri said Benedict is reminiscent of Pope Urban II, who in 1095 ordered the First Crusade to establish Christian control in the Holy Land.

Zawahri's nearly 18-minute statement, titled ``Bush, the Pope, Darfur, and the Crusades," was produced by Al Qaeda's media arm, as-Sahab.

An initial segment shows Zawahri in an office-type setting, while in the second part, he is in front of a brown backdrop, according to the IntelCenter. The first segment also has English subtitles.

Al Qaeda released a string of videos earlier this month timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, showing increasingly sophisticated production techniques in a likely effort to demonstrate that it remains a powerful, confident force despite the US-led war on terror.ism.