If you’ve ever wondered why terrorists get only 72 virgins, or what life is like inside a cave, al Qaeda has opened the floor to questions.
The terror group’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has issued a statement declaring that he will be answering queries from anyone who can find his or her way to one of the group’s shadowy Web sites.
Zawahiri said he would be taking questions from “individuals, agencies and all media.”
He insisted he would try to respond to any question, even if its hostile.
Since Zawahiri apparently holes up under a rock somewhere, the questions will be passed on to him from the pro-al Qaeda message board operators.
In his tape, he enjoined the evil Web masters to forward him the questions “by the letter, with no changes or substitutions, no matter whether they agree or disagree [with the question].”
The message said al Qaeda will take questions until Jan. 16, then Zawahiri will answer them “as much as he is able and at the soonest possible occasion.”
The offer was posted with the logo of Al-Sahab, the terror group’s sinister new public-relations arm.
It had the style of graphics and calligraphy it traditionally uses, along with a photo of Zawahiri. The message appeared on several Web sites that Al-Sahab officially uses for issuing statements.
The video was first posted Monday. It featured Zawahiri, deputy of al Qaeda boss Osama bin Laden, answering questions from Al-Sahab lackeys.
This may be a rare chance to question the terror thugs. Zawahiri and bin Laden gave a few interviews to Western and Arabic reporters after first rising to prominence in the 1990s.
But neither he nor bin Laden has been interviewed since 9/11, mostly because much of al Qaeda’s brass went into hiding after the US invasion of Afghanistan.
Bin Laden and Zawahiri are believed to be holed up along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Zawahiri has been much more outspoken than his boss since 9/11. This year alone, he has released 16 rants on many topics of terrorist interest, while bin Laden has done four.
Through their propaganda wing, the group has issued more than 90 videos in 2007, more than the total number spanning the three previous years, according to IntelCenter, a US counterterrorism group that monitors militant message trafficking.