Following are excerpts from an interview with Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri The interview was conducted on the 4th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and was posted on the Internet on December 7, 2005.

Interviewer: How are you connected to the London incident?

Ayman Al-Zawahiri: The blessed London raid is one of the raids that the Qaeda Al-Jihad organization had the honor of carrying out against the British Crusader arrogance, as well as the British Crusader aggression towards the Muslim nation for more than 100 years, against Britain's historic crime of establishing Israel, and against the ongoing crimes of the English perpetrated against Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The last wills of the heroic brothers, the knights of monotheism in the London raids – may Allah have mercy upon them, may He place them in Paradise, and may He accept their good deeds... In these wills there are important lessons for the Muslim nation in general and especially for Muslims in Pakistan and the West, about renouncing tyrants and exposing the lies of the scholars of evil, who conceal much of the Shari'a, preferring the fleeting things of this life, and about the determination of the mujahideen lions of Islam to take revenge upon the Crusaders and Jews, for the crimes and sins perpetrated by their hands, soiled with Muslim blood.

This blessed raid and its sister raids have revealed the true, hypocritical face of Western culture, which praises human rights and liberties, as long as these praises serve its interests and benefit it.

After the London raid, the British government started legislating a number of new laws that reveal Britain's despicable imperialistic face. They revealed that British freedom is, in fact, the freedom to be hostile to Islam. They began to talk about secret trials, and brought to mind the issues of secret evidence, secret witnesses, and unlimited detention, which contradict the most basic principles of fair trial. The only explanation for this contradiction is Britain's hostility to Islam.

Britain initiated measures to deport the political refuges to their countries. Britain used to claim it was protecting them from their countries' oppression. The only explanation for this contradiction is Britain's hostility to Islam.

British freedom was broad enough to include Salman Rushdie, who recently published an article in The Times, in which he calls upon Muslims to reach harmony with Western culture, he casts doubt upon the divine entity and the Koran, and he calls upon Muslims to accept Western values like homosexuality. However, its freedom was not broad enough to include Sheik Abu Qatada, whom it arrested that same day, along with nine others, after signing extradition treaties with Jordan and Pakistan, knowing full well that members of the Muslim factions extradited to these countries would be subject to torture and even death. The only explanation for this contradiction is Britain's hostility to Islam.

The British liberties, which allowed Salman Rushdie to insult Islam and the Muslims, were not broad enough to include the Islamic libraries and Internet sites which sympathize with the mujahideen, and they threaten to shut them down, nor to include the preachers who sympathize with the mujahideen, and they threaten to shut down their mosques, arrest or deport them. The only explanation for this contradiction is Britain's hostility to Islam.

Britain's sensitive conscience could not tolerate the killing of civilians in the center of London yet it tolerated the killing of a million children in the siege of Iraq, and the killing of dozens of thousands of children in Afghanistan and Iraq, in bombings by the English and their allies. The only explanation for this contradiction is Britain's hostility to Islam.

Britain's free thought could not tolerate the suspicion that the fictional WMDs existed in Iraq, and so it destroyed Iraq under the false pretext of searching for them. Yet Britain's free thought tolerates Israel's huge arsenal of all types of these weapons, which Britain itself helped to manufacture in Israel. The only explanation for this contradiction is Britain's hostility to Islam.

There is ample evidence for Britain's hypocrisy and for the Crusader nature of the West. Time is too short to grasp all of this, but it all points to the contradiction arising out of the Crusader claims of protecting freedom and human rights. The only explanation for this contradiction is the Crusader's hostility to Islam.

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Interviewer: Dr. Ayman, how do you respond to the declaration by the British and American governments – one day after the London incident – that they would withdraw most of their forces from Iraq?

Ayman Al-Zawahiri: This is the confusion that precedes defeat. Bush and Blare are concealing the truth about the catastrophe that they are facing in Iraq and in Afghanistan. They know better than anyone else that they have no hope of victory. The specter of Vietnam blocks all their exits.

They were forced to make this declaration, in order to alleviate the terror and despair that afflicted their peoples, when they watched on TV a tiny part of what goes on in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then watched the destruction in London, which was punishment and retribution for the crimes that these Crusader nations perpetrated against the Muslims.

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Interviewer: Dr. Ayman, how do you response to Bush's response to your latest message?

Ayman Al-Zawahiri: I say to him: You pathological liar, you were lying when you entered Iraq, you are lying when you are being defeated in Iraq, and you will be lying when you leave Iraq. You entered Iraq under the pretext of WMDs, you are being defeated in Iraq under the pretext of achieving freedom and security, and, Allah willing, you will soon be leaving Iraq under the pretext that your mission is accomplished. But you will leave behind dozens of thousands of dead, wounded and crippled.

Interviewer: How do you respond to Blair's insistence to what happened in London has nothing to do with his foreign policy?

Ayman Al-Zawahiri: Blair considers his people to be fools, and they, for their part, act like fools for his sake. Like a lunatic, he repeats again and again: "The London incidents have nothing to do with Iraq."

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We address them in the only language they understand, and if they don't understand the lesson the first time, we will repeat it, Allah willing, until they understand it completely.

They purport to be democratic and to have an elected government. This elected government is killing our women and children, and is violating what is sacred to us. So if they really oppose it, they should bring it down, but if they are satisfied with it, they should pay the price for this satisfaction.