Sayed Imam, the founder and first emir of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and mentor to al Qaeda’s Ayman al Zawahiri, cut ties with al Qaeda and criticized the leadership. “[Zawahiri] and his followers betrayed Mullah Omar and dragged the U.S. to Afghanistan to topple the Taliban regime,” Imam said. “Al Qaeda has no ideology apart from bin Laden’s personal whims. Whoever objects gets kicked out.”
