Bin Laden’s deputy seen in new videotape

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader released a new video, broadcast on Al-Jazeera television Friday, in which he disparaged the U.S. concept of reform in the Middle East and said armed jihad is the only way to bring change in the Arab world.

The message by Ayman al-Zawahri — his first video since February — appeared to be an attempt by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network to co-opt the rising wave of reform movements in the Middle East.

“The removal of the Crusader and Jewish invaders won’t occur by peaceful demonstrations,” he said in a brief clip shown on the pan-Arab network. “Reform and expelling the invaders from the countries of Islam won’t happen except through fighting for God’s sake.”

The Egyptian was shown in the video sitting before a plain backdrop with an automatic weapon leaned next to him. He wore a white turban and black and white robes. At one point, he glanced to the left at something off-camera.

He outlined what he called a true program for reform — based on the rule of Islamic law, the end of U.S. and Western domination, and the freedom of the Muslim nation to run its own affairs.

Tape: No reform under Crusaders
“We cannot imagine any reform while our countries are occupied by the Crusader forces,” he said. “We cannot imagine any reform while our governments are being ruled from the American embassies in our countries.”

The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera aired three short segments of the video, without saying how long the full message was. Al-Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout said the station received the tape Friday, but would not provide details. Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, the Pakistan bureau chief of Al-Jazeera said they didn’t receive al-Zawahri’s tape in Islamabad.

In one of the aired clips, al-Zawahri called on Palestinian militant groups to end a cease-fire with Israel and stay out of upcoming legislative elections in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Al-Zawahri urged them “not to forsake their jihad, not to lay down their arms ... and not to be dragged into the game of secular elections under a secular constitution.”

The militant group Hamas is planning to enter the elections, a major change from its longtime boycott of Palestinian Authority politics.

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