Al-Qaeda No. 2: 'Hey Pakistanis, Spare a Dime?'

Al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader warns the Pakistani people in a new audio message that the US poses a grave danger for Pakistan's future, and asks if they could help financially. "It is the individual duty of every Muslim in Pakistan to join the mujahedeen, or at the very least, to support the jihad in Pakistan and Afghanistan with money," Ayman al-Zawahri said in English. Otherwise, "we shall deserve the painful punishment of Almighty Allah."

The tape, whose authenticity could not immediately be verified, was released by the al-Qaeda media wing As Sahab on the usual Islamic websites. "The current ruling class in Pakistan is lining up under the cross of the modern Crusade and competing for American bribes," Zawahri said. "Hence, the actual ruler of Pakistan is the American ambassador, who pays the bribes and issues the orders." (More Ayman al-Zawahri stories.)