Al Qaeda No. 2 Blames Obama For Gaza

An intelligence monitoring center reports that Al Qaeda’s No. 2 leader is blaming Barack Obama and Egypt’s president for the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

The SITE Monitoring Service says the audio statement by Ayman al-Zawahiri was posted on militant Web sites Tuesday.

This is al-Zawahiri’s first comment on the crisis since the war began eleven days ago.

In a transcript of the statement released by SITE, he calls the Israeli offensive a “Crusade against Islam and Muslims” and “Obama’s gift to Israel” before he takes office.

Al-Zawahiri also calls Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, a “traitor” for keeping his borders closed to Palestinians.

Al-Qaeda Message Condemns Obama – al Zawahiri

The second-in-command of Islamic militant network al-Qaeda has hit out at US President-elect Barack Obama.

In a message purportedly from Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda deputy called Mr Obama a “house negro” – a demeaning term implying he served white people. Read more

Obama To Get Top Secret CIA Briefing

President-elect Barack Obama will learn the full “burdens of office” tomorrow when he receives his first top secret briefing from the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell.

McConnell will be accompanied by the CIA’s top intelligence analyst, Michael Morel, the Director for Intelligence, and two senior CIA briefers, intelligence officials tell ABCNews.com.

Morel will take over the briefing responsibility for the President-elect through the transition after tomorrow’s initial session, officials say.

Top Obama advisers are eager to begin a strategic shift in counter-terrorism policy with a much greater focus and commitment of resources to going after al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani tribal region.

Officials say the President-elect will learn the CIA still has no specific information on the whereabouts of bin Laden but has a much better set of leads on the location of bin Laden’s deputy Ayman al-Zawahari.

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