Al-Qaida: Egypt faked Islamic `revision'

An Al-Qaida spokesman alleged Monday that Egypt's security service fabricated a document in which a former militant leader purportedly renounces violence and rejects armed struggle as a way to establish an Islamic state.

Abu Yahia Al-Libi, who rose to prominence in the terrorist network after escaping from Afghanistan's Bagram prison in 2005, claimed in a video posted on the Internet that the jailed Egyptian militant Sayed Imam was not the author of the document issued last year.

Egypt's "security apparatus, the era's master of deception," was behind the document, al-Libi said in a 39-minute video that carried the logo of al-Sahab, al-Qaida's media wing.

There was no immediate comment from Egyptian authorities.

The series of "revisions" attacked by al-Libi were attributed to Imam, who was once a top leader in Egypt's Islamic Jihad group and an associate of Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's chief ideologue and strategist. Imam, 58, is serving a life term in an Egyptian prison.

Last week, al-Zawahri published a 212-page book on militant Islamic Web sites slamming his former radical colleagues in Egypt for issuing the revisions.

But al-Libi questioned the authenticity of the views attributed to Imam. "If the document really reflects its author's belief, then why is the security apparatus keeping him behind bars?" he asked.

Imam's writings in the 1980s laid an Islamic legal basis for violent action against "infidel" regimes and were influential among al-Qaida militants. His "revisions" argue that such violence is banned under Islamic law.