Al-Qaida No. 2 insults Obama, using racial epithet

CAIRO,Egypt (AP) - Al-Qaida has released a new video that insults President-elect Barack Obama along racial as well as political lines.
   
The terror group’s second-ranking leader (Ayman al-Zawahri) says Obama’s election has not changed U.S. policies aimed at oppressing Muslims and others. He adds that Obama is “the direct opposite of honorable black Americans” like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader.
   
He also uses the term “house negroes” to refer to Obama, along with former and current secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses a phrase that literally translates as “house slaves.“ But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles that offer the translation as “house negroes.“
   
The message also says Obama’s plan to shift troops to Afghanistan will fail, because Afghans will resist.
   
The 11-minute video is Al-Qaida’s first response to Obama’s victory. Posted on militant Web sites, the al-Qaida message appears aimed at convincing Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies.