Former Leader in Egyptian Islamic Jihad Nabil Naeem: Al-Qaeda Died with Bin Laden; Ayman Al-Zawahiri Is All Talk and His Brother Is Clueless

Following are excerpts from an interview with former Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader Nabil Naeem, which aired on Sada Al-Balad TV on March 29, 2013:

Nabil Naeem: All the people who claim to be connected to Al-Qaeda – it's nothing but a media show. They say they belong to Al-Qaeda in order to scare people, because Al-Qaeda is associated with 9/11. The truth is that they never belonged to Al-Qaeda or know anything about it. Al-Qaeda came to an end with the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Interviewer: Really?

Nabil Naeem: Yes, Ayman [Al-Zawahiri] cannot do a thing. He is all talk. All he does is to send out recorded messages.

Interviewer: What makes you believe there is less chance of attacks under Al-Zawahiri?

Nabil Naeem: I know Ayman personally. He does not have the charisma or the determination. He is swayed by other people's opinions. Five or six people around him tell him what to do. He's no Osama. There is a huge difference between them. So what makes people say that they belong to Al-Qaeda? The current regime wants to blow this up out of proportion, in order to be able to claim that the alternative is worse. The alternative is Al-Qaeda.

Interviewer: Just like the previous regime did with regard to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Nabil Naeem: Exactly.

Interviewer: And now the Muslim Brotherhood says that the alternative to it is Al-Qaeda.

Nabil Naeem: Right, they say: The alternative is worse, so you are better off with us.

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When Muhammad Al-Zawahiri was released from prison, a few young men gathered around him because he is Ayman's brother. But the truth is that Muhammad Al-Zawahiri is clueless. He makes contradictory statements. First he says that democracy is heresy and that the voters are infidels, and then he says that they will fight whoever attacks Morsi. When have you ever fought anyone?! Besides, Morsi is now Mr. Democracy himself. Why accuse us voters of heresy? You should be accusing him first.

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Osama said to us a long time ago – it was in Mecca, even before he left Saudi Arabia: "If we manage to draw America into the Afghan quagmire, we will be able to do things that are unprecedented." Among the people who went to Afghanistan and fought the USSR, we used to say that the Americans were crazy. They saw with their own eyes how the Soviet Union was humiliated and left. The Soviets had more perseverance than the Americans. Soviet soldiers would drink from the sewers, whereas American soldiers would cry if you took their mineral water away.

Interviewer: That's true.

Nabil Naeem: They need it even for showering. They cry if they do not get their chocolate. The Russians, in contrast, would drink from the sewage flowing in the streets.

Unfortunately, what Osama Bin Laden said turned out to be true, because God gave America a very stupid president, who sent the Americans to Afghanistan, where they will be defeated.

Obama's media advisor met me here in Egypt during a conference. I said to him: You will be defeated, not because you are fighting the Taliban, but because you are fighting geography, and nobody can beat geography.

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