Obama a 'house negro', says Al-Qaeda

Sydney Morning Herald
WASHINGTON: Al-Qaeda's first message to Barack Obama after his election win shows a "panicked response" to his popularity, counter-terrorism experts said.

In a propaganda salvo on Wednesday, Osama bin Laden's senior deputy condemned Mr Obama as a "house Negro" doing the bidding of white masters.

Ayman al-Zawahiri called him "the direct opposite of honourable black Americans" such as Malcolm X. "It is true about you and people like you what Malcolm X said about the house Negros," he said in a video released on Wednesday, naming Colin Powell, the former US secretary of state, and, Condoleezza Rice, the incumbent, as others who fitted the description.

He said the "new face" of America only masked a "heart full of hate" and warned Mr Obama that the US could face the same failures as the Soviet Union in Afghanistan if he makes true on his pledges to deploy thousands more troops there.