Al-Qaida message on Egypt, belatedly

Intelcenter / Al-sahab Via Ap / AP file

Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's deputy leader

By Kari Huus, msnbc.com senior reporter
A top al-Qaida figure--who is also a native son of Egypt--appeared in a videotaped statement released Friday warning that his home country had "deviated from Islam" and warned that democracy "means that sovereignty is to the desires of the majority, without committing to any quality, value or creed.”
In the 34-minute tape, Ayman al-Zawahri appeared to be warning Egypt's liberal, secular activists who agitated for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak that they were likely to repeat the sins of the long-time leader if they failed to pursue an Islamic state.
But top U.S. counterterrorism officials told NBC that Zawahri’s comments, issued after a puzzling silence from the Islamist terror organization, are probably “too little, too late and too weak” to influence the emerging new order in Egypt.
The statement was the first by either Zawahri or al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden since the wave or demonstrations starting sweeping the Muslim world last month. The lack of a statement made many in the intelligence community speculate on the organization's future relevance.
In the video posted on militant websites, Zawahri blames Western colonialists for imposing secular law.
“Egypt's present is one of deviation from Islam including all of what that entails of corruption and immorality, and injustice, suppression and dependency,” he says in the message. “There is ideological corruption, political corruption, economic and financial corruption, and societal and moral corruption.”
Zawahri, an Egyptian doctor, was part of a militant uprising against Mubarak in the 1990s that was crushed.
The U.S. counterterror official said of the militant: "It must be driving him crazy not to be in the game," referring to the revolution in his home country.
Zawahri makes no mention of the protests or Mubarak's fall, only a vague reference to “what happened and happens in Egypt,” and it is unclear when it was produced.
It is dated to the Islamic lunar month of Safar, which corresponds with the dates Jan. 5-Feb. 3. Mubarak finally resigned on Feb. 11. A military council is acting as interim government.
A second U.S. official added that al-Zawahiri may be "nervous" that his whole life's work may be at risk. "He's worked a lifetime on this and gotten nothing. It's the demonstrators who are effecting regime change," he said.