Al Qaeda Scoffs at U.S. Calls for Reforms

CAIRO — In a videotape broadcast Sunday, Al Qaeda’s deputy leader denounced U.S. calls for political reform in the Middle East and urged the West to respect the Islamic world.

Ayman Zawahiri, wearing a white turban and seated with a machine gun next to him, said the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, “explains the truth about reforms and democracy that America alleges it wants to impose in our countries.”

“Reform is based on American detention camps like Bagram, Kandahar, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib; it will be based on cluster bombs and imposition of people like Karzai and Allawi,” he said, referring to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

“Real security is based on mutual cooperation with the Islamic nation on the basis of mutual respect and the stopping of aggression.”

Al Jazeera satellite TV reported that the excerpt was part of a longer videotape, but it did not indicate the length of the entire tape. It was not clear from the broadcast when the tape was made.