US-Yemeni cleric: Arab unrest chance for al-Qaida

(AP) – 11 hours ago

CAIRO (AP) — A U.S.-born radical Yemeni cleric claims in a new article that violent Islamist groups will be able to take advantage of the Arab world's wave of popular unrest, even if it leads to secular governments in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and other countries.
Anwar al-Awlaki writes in a new edition of al-Qaida's online magazine that any new governments will be weaker than the regimes they are replacing, and that will create opportunities for al-Qaida and its allies to operate with more freedom.

"Even if the upcoming governments wanted to continue with a policy of appeasing the West and Israel, they would not have the strength and depth of power that the previous governments had developed over the past three decades," al-Awlaki writes in the English-language article.
Western experts and government officials have described the overthrow of the Western-allied presidents of Tunisia and Egypt by peaceful and ideologically moderate uprisings as blows to the violent ideology of al-Qaida and other militant groups. Continued