Zawahiri lauds Arab Spring, warns America

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri praised the Arab Spring as a "devastating blow" to the United States in a message marking the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.

In an hourlong video posted Monday on Web sites supportive of the global terror network, Zawahiri said the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, dubbed the Arab Spring, "liberated thousands of the members of the Islamic movement's prisoners, who were imprisoned by direct orders from America" and "liberated the Arab people from handcuffs of fear and terror," CNN reported. The video also included a message from Osama bin Laden before he was killed in Pakistan by U.S. Navy SEALs in May.

The footage of bin Laden appears to be the same video released by the U.S. government after the raid on his Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound, CNN said, but this one includes audio.

Bin Laden reportedly recommends Bob Woodward's book "Obama's Wars" and cautions Americans not to become "slaves" of major corporations and "Jewish money capital."

The U.S. government said it believes the bin Laden footage was shot in October or November 2010.