Every Islamic terrorism is dismissed as a "lone wolf" attacker. The Boston Marathon massacre was carried out by a cell of at least two "lone wolves". Now the Al Qaeda leader is threatening Obama over the surviving "lone wolf".
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri has warned the United States of the "gravest consequences" if Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or any other Muslim prisoner is executed.
Tsarnaev, named in a new online video message from Zawahri, was sentenced last year to death by lethal injection for the 2013 bomb attack, which killed three people and injured more than 260.
“If the U.S. administration kills our brother the hero Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or any Muslim, it ... will bring America’s nationals the gravest consequences,” Zawahri said.
Zawahri, who became al Qaeda's leader after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, urged Muslims to take captive as many Westerners as possible, especially those whose countries had joined the "Crusaders' Campaign led by the United States".
The veteran Egyptian-born Islamist, shown wearing white robes and sitting in front of green velvet drapes, said the Western captives could then be exchanged for Muslim prisoners.
Zawahiri's Al Qaeda has been mostly useless for a while, which was why Obama's claim that the Afghanistan shift was necessitated by an Al Qaeda threat was a lie, But even his defective Al Qaeda is capable of figuring out how to take a few Westerners hostage and this would bring Al Qaeda back into the spotlight by threatening to execute hostages unless Tsarnaev's sentence is commuted.
And considering how little enthusiasm there was for the death penalty among local officialdom, no one ought to take bets on them standing firm on executing him. Then again considering how long it takes to make an execution happen, that won't be a concern for a very long time. Zawahiri probably doesn't grasp that his favorite terrorist will be middle aged, at best, before he might be executed.
But clearly Zawahiri does not view Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as a lone wolf, but as part of the fraternity of the Jihad. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev may have lost his brother, but he has plenty of brothers in Islam.