Zawarhi to Hold Online Chat

You have to figure he saw the lame CNN debate with the planted questions and wanted in on the action.

He's reaching out to his people, looking for some dialogue.

Time for the nutroots to man up and get their questions ready.

Al-Qaeda's No.2 wants to hear from you

AL-QAEDA sympathisers have been asked to send in their questions for the terror network's second in command, which he will then answer in an online interview next month.

The bizarre stunt was announced in a new video posted on the internet in which al-Qaeda's number two, Ayman al-Zawahri, mocked today's British handover of security in southern Iraq to local forces as a sign that insurgents are gaining the upper hand.

The video, carried by Islamic websites, was issued as Britain handed over security to Iraqi forces in the last of four provinces it once patrolled, effectively marking the end of nearly five years of British control of southern Iraq.

The websites invited readers to send in questions during the next month for Zawahri to answer in an "open interview".

"Reports from Iraq point to the increasing power of the mujahideen and the deteriorating condition of the Americans," Zawahri told an off-camera interviewer from As-Sahab, al-Qaeda's media arm.

"And the decision of the British to flee is sufficient (proof of this)," he said, sitting beside shelves full of books.

"Iraq is the most important of the fields (in which Islamic militants are fighting)," Zawahri said on the video, which carried English subtitles.

The video carried footage of insurgent videos and from television news stations, including a segment showing critical remarks about the US strategy in Iraq by Ricardo Sanchez, former top US commander in Iraq.

Zawahri dismissed optimistic remarks made by current US officials: "Either the American administration is lying outrageously ... or the Americans have not learned anything from four years of war ... as they did not learn from their defeat in Vietnam."

Defeatists like Dingy Harry Reid should swell with pride.

Finally, someone is listening to them.