Taking a page from our own rich tradition of advice columnists, Ayman al-Zawahri recently decided to answer the questions that Al Qaeda supporters most desperately wished to ask. Why haven’t we seen a picture or video of Sheikh Osama in years? The lion of jihad is alive and well, says Ayman. But he seemed happier talking about the ethical nuances of infidel-killing. Someone asked:

Excuse me, Mr. Zawahri, but who is it who is killing with Your Excellency’s blessing the innocents in Baghdad, Morocco and Algeria?

A very good question. And a surprisingly forthright answer:

We haven’t killed the innocents, not in Baghdad nor in Morocco, nor in Algeria, nor anywhere else,” he said…”If there is any innocent who was killed in the Mujahideen’s operations, then it was either an unintentional error or out of necessity.

In other words: We will be as savage as we want. Please shut up about it already because it is a necessity, as defined by us. As jihadist propaganda goes, this is shabby stuff. Osama always did it better. Where did he go, anyway?