Post-failed UK terror attack, raucous war of words followed suit when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown counter attacked Al Qaeda’s threat.
Ayman al-Zawahiri went of record saying that Al-Qa’eda would ‘punish’ the United Kingdom for Salman Rushdie’s knighthood. Reacting to this Brown said “Nothing can justify either threats to the United Kingdom or any form of terrorist activity and it must be the right of the United Kingdom to make its own decisions on all these issues.”
These comments were based on the threat issued by Al Qaeda’s second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri’s when he made it ample clear that the “punishment” that would be given to UK for bestowing Salman Rushdie with the knighthood.
The threat, directly aimed at Brown, came in a 20-minute audio-tape posted on a jihadi website by Ayman al-Zawahiri. However, intelligence officers went on a mammoth scrutiny of the tape to gauge the authencity of it with the help of a US-based group monitoring al-Qa’eda messages.
The speech comes in wake of conviction of four terrorists for the July 21 plot.
The knighthood of the author of The Satanic Verses was considered detrimental to Islam said Al-Zawahiri, who is de facto leader of al-Qa’eda since the robust bin Laden haven’t been seen active for some years now.
“I say to Blair’s successor that the policy of your predecessor drew catastrophes in Afghanistan and Iraq and even in the centre of London,” he said. “And if you did not understand, listen, we are ready to repeat it for you, God willing, until we are sure you have fully understood.”
Image: QUARKSDAILY
Via:TELEGRAPH
