Zawahri cowers for the camera again

The AP has the story on al Qaeda's number two , who is too afraid to call a press briefing, but is willing to stand in front of a camera and act like he is leading a parade while his forces are being routed in Iraq and elsewhere.

Hundreds of suicide bombings in Iraq have "broken the back" of the U.S. military, al-Qaida's No. 2 said in a video posted Saturday - the latest in a series of messages from the terror network.

The video by Ayman al-Zawahri, posted on an Islamic militant Web forum, came within the same week as an audiotape by al-Qaida's top leader Osama bin Laden and a video by the head of al-Qaida's branch in Iraq - a volley of messages by the group's most prominent figures.

Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian militant believed to be hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan, also denounced the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq as "traitors" and called on Muslims to rise up to "confront them."

He said that U.S. and British forces in Iraq had bogged down in Iraq and "have achieved nothing but loss, disaster and misfortune."

Al-Qaida in Iraq "alone has carried out 800 martyrdom operations (suicide attacks) in three years, besides the sacrifices of the other mujahedeen, and this is what has broken the back of American in Iraq," al-Zawahri said.

The video by al-Zawahri was first obtained by IntelCenter, a U.S. contractor that provides counterterrorism intelligence services to the U.S. government.

U.S. counterterrorism officials were aware of the video and analyzing it, two officials said on condition of anonymity.

One of the officials, who would not be identified in compliance with office policy, said it was part of al-Qaida's ongoing propaganda blitz to demonstrate the terror group remained relevant.

...

I think the PR blitz this week is an admission of the defeat they have been handed by the formation of a goverment in Iraq. When you consider that stopping the formation of a democratic goverment has been a primary objective of their war effort, it has to be a bitter defeat that they are trying to cover with bravado. When you look at the objectives of both sides, it is clear that al Qaeda is losing.

One of the ways you can tell he is out of touch is that he is using old John Murtha talking points that have been long since discredited. This seems to be a continuing al Qaeda error, of embrace teh political statements of opponents of the war which further discredits the anti war left. Osama did it with Kerry in the 2004 election and he and Zawahri have repeated the error on several occassions. There is nothing like a statement from one of these guys to throw the guys who want to lose the war into silence.

Update: Gateway Pundit also notes the similarity in the talking points of Murtha and Zawahri. He also fact checks Zawahri assertions and finds some woppers. Instead of the 800 human bomb attacks claimed by the terrorist, actual figures show around 290. There are other problems with Zawahri's assertions.