Al Qaeda leaders frightened by events in Pakistan

CNN:

The people of Pakistan must back Islamic militants to counter the influence of the United States in their country or face punishment from God, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second in command, said in an audio message released early Wednesday.

"I believe that every honest and sincere Muslim in Pakistan should seriously contemplate ... Pakistan's present state and expected future, because the blatant American crusader interference in Pakistan's affairs ... has reached such an extent that it now poses a grave danger to Pakistan's future and very existence," al-Zawahiri said in the message, which was released on radical Islamist Web sites.

Zawahiri warned Muslims that they have a religious duty to support the jihad, or struggle.

"If we stand by passively without offering due support to the mujahedeen, we shall not only contribute to the destruction of Pakistan and Afghanistan, but we shall also deserve the painful punishment of almighty God," he said.

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This sounds to me like he is frightened for his personal safety and is invoking religious bigotry against the US as a reason for Muslims to oppose the Pakistani army's actions against the Taliban. This is a message that will not be persuasive to those in Pakistan who have been repelled by the terrorism of the Taliban against Pakistani non combatants. The attacks by Zawahiri have actually increased the support for the army.

This message follows an earlier message by bin Laden with a similar theme. I think it is because the attacks are getting close to destroying their sanctuaries.