Shutdown looms as House Republicans brawl with the Democrat-dominated Senate over a bill to fund the government.

A nail-biter, for sure, as citizens look on, but who else is watching?

Al-Qaeda.

In a segment on CNN Saturday afternoon, Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS," said the terrorist network's leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has called for his followers to bleed the U.S. economy by increasing security costs at a time when government funding seems uncertain.

"I think they all see that we're dysfunctional," Zakaria, who has written extensively on the U.S. place in the globalized world, said. "They think we can't get our act together."

But he said not to take Zawahiri too seriously.

"I wouldn't worry too much about Zawahiri," he said, adding that his organization is weakened and "pushed back on its heels."