Al Qaeda blames US wars for financial crisis

Al Qaeda’s second-in-command said in an Internet video the US financial crisis was caused by Washington’s military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and taxpayers were paying the price.

Al Qaeda’s second-in-command said in an Internet video the US financial crisis was caused by Washington’s military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and taxpayers were paying the price.

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“This crisis is one of... the series of American economic haemorrhages after the strikes of September 11.... And these... will continue as long as the foolish American policy of wading in Muslim blood continues,” Ayman al-Zawahri said on the video, posted on Islamist websites on Friday.

“The ones shouldering the burden are taxpayers, whose money was spent to rescue senior capitalists and to protect the fraudulent interest-based system from collapse.”

Zawahri said US military action against militant tribal forces in Pakistan, who are allied with Qaeda, would fail despite more troops being sent by President George W. Bush to neighbouring Afghanistan.