Former Brotherhood Leaders Weigh In on Egypt

If you're wondering where the reaction is from al Qaeda about the recent uprisings in Egypt, Long War Journal has it:

Ayman al Zawahiri's top deputy, Thirwat Salah Shehata, has released a statement praising the Egyptian people and calling for President Hosni Mubarak's ouster.

This story was written by terrorism expert Thomas Joscelyn, who brings a bunch of other chicken nuggets into the story in regards to this fella Shehata, the main one being that some intelligence reports say he has been hiding in Iran since 9/11 along with other important AQ operatives. Here's what History Commons has to say about these so-called house arrest detainees:

At first, these operatives appear to be capable of communicating with operatives outside of Iran. Saad bin Laden is said to play a major role planning the attack of a synagogue in Tunisia in April 2002 (see April 11, 2002). But the Saudi government will suspect that some of the operatives in Iran are involved in a 2003 attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (see May 12, 2003), and they will successfully press Iran to tighten the house arrest of the operatives in Iran.

Interesting that Saad bin Laden, from Iran, was suspected of organizing a terrorist attack in Tunisia, a country that just fell to a popular uprising. Now government figures in Iran are praising the uprising in Egypt.