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Al-Jazeera Airs New Video Of Bin Laden, Zawahri
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bin
Laden and his deputy Zawahri are seen in this undated video tape
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DOHA,
September 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Al-Jazeera TV
aired what it said was a "new tape" of Al-Qaeda leader Osama
Bin Laden and his right-hand man Ayman Al-Zawahri on the eve of the
second anniversary of the September 11 attacks on Wednesday, September
10.
In
a voice-over, Bin Laden praised the hijackers who crashed planes into
New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon near Washington two
years ago, and vowed more strikes.
"He
who wants to learn loyalty, sincerity, magnanimity and courage in
support of religion ... should follow in the footsteps of Said
al-Ghamdi, Mohammad Atta, Khaled Al-Mihdar, Ziad al-Jarrah and their
brethren, Allah rest their souls," said the voice, as the channel
showed Bin Laden walking on a rocky path with Zawahri.
As
to "opponents of jihad", the voice said:
"I tell them that those who fear climbing up mountains
will live forever in holes".
In
the video, Zawahri is seen walking ahead of Bin Laden, both leaning on
canes. The two men, who looked tired and somewhat aged, carried
automatic weapons on their shoulders.
Al-Jazeera
said the pair appears in an "undetermined mountain area,"
while that tape had probably been recorded toward the end of April or
in early May 2003, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
According
to the Qatar-based channel, the videotape was produced by the Al-Sahab
production company, which has recorded similar tapes since Bin
Laden’s whereabouts became uncertain when the United States went to
war against Afghanistan in October 2001.
‘Devour’
Occupiers
While
the remarks attributed to Bin Laden dwelled on 9/11, the speaker
purported to be Zawahri touched on a broad range of current affairs,
including Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In
the audiotape, the speaker called on Iraqis to "devour"
their American occupiers, warning that the real battle with the United
States has yet to begin.
"Rely
on God and devour the Americans, like lions devour their prey. Bury
them in the Iraqi graveyard," Zawahri told Iraqis.
Challenging
the United States to reveal its real losses in Afghanistan and Iraq,
Zawahri urged "the mothers of crusader soldiers to ask their
governments to bring their sons home before they return in
coffins."
The
voice accused the United States and its Western allies of having for
decades "killed our women and children, plundered our resources
and backed tyrants in our nation."
The
voice added: "If you insist on carrying on the aggression, you
should expect us to retaliate with every (available) means.”
The
speaker said the Americans were in a fix in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
"If
they withdraw, they will lose everything. If they stay, they will go
on bleeding until death."
He
similarly called on the Palestinians to resist Israel, exhorting them
not to lay down their weapons because "only jihad will liberate
Palestine".
"We
will not let America enjoy security until security becomes a fact in
Palestine," the purported Zawahri said in his
"message," repeating what Bin Laden had said in a previous
tape.
He
warned that al-Qaeda's strikes so far were no more than
"skirmishes" and the "real epic" with the United
States had yet to begin.
"What
you have seen so far is nothing but the opening skirmishes. As to the
real epic, it has not started yet. Prepare yourselves to pay for your
crimes," he said.
"On
this anniversary, we tell the countries taking part in the crusade
that we are not advocates of killing and destruction, but we will,
with Allah's help, cut off any hand that carries out aggression
against us," the speaker said.
Musharraf
‘Traitor’
Zawahri
also appealed to Muslims to topple their rulers and urged Pakistanis
to rise up against President Pervez Musharraf.
"We
ask our Muslim brethren in Pakistan: until when will you put up with
the traitor Musharraf, who sold the Muslims' blood in Afghanistan and
handed over the Arab mujahedin to crusader America?" the speaker
purported to be Zawahri said.
But
Islamic leaders in Pakistan poured cold water on the calls.
Pakistan's
largest Islamic party Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), embroiled in a protracted
political battle with Musharraf over his unelected presidency and
sweeping powers, rejected the exhortations.
"Myself
and my party do not endorse Zawahri's views. We are trying to reform
Pakistan's internal matters in our own way," JI senator Khurshid
Ahmed told AFP.
Although
Ahmed admitted differences with Musharraf's policies, he said:
"We are not working to launch a coup against him. We are striving
to bring change through a political struggle."
‘Still
Plots”
In
the meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush warned that the Al-Qaeda
network "still plots" against Americans two years after
carrying out the September 11 attacks, but has suffered major defeats.
"The
attacks on this nation revealed the intentions of a determined and
ruthless enemy, that still plots against our people," he said in
a speech at the FBI's base in Quantico, Virginia.
Bush,
who was to lead the nation in a relatively low-key commemoration of
the tragedy, is now preparing for a campaign for 2004 presidential
elections.
Separately,
the White House released a "progress report" in the global
war on terrorism that proclaimed that the capture or killing of top
al-Qaeda leaders "have left gaping holes that the organization
has yet to fill."
A
U.S. official said in Washington that U.S. intelligence experts would
search for clues and hidden messages in the two tapes.
"The
technical analysis of the video and the audio will be conducted to
determine if it's the voice of Zawahri or if they can glean any clues
or information either from the video or the audio," said the
intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"We
believe he is alive, but we can't tell you when the picture was shot
or when the audio was recorded," a U.S. intelligence official
told Reuters.
U.S.
officials have repeatedly said Bin Laden was believed to be in the
border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
A
lawyer for Egyptian Islamic group members said Thursday the voice
aired over a videotape of the leaders of Al-Qaeda network is that of
Egyptian-born Zawahiri.
Muntasser
al-Zayat said
he was certain that the other voice on the audiotape broadcast by
Al-Jazeera was Bin Laden's lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri. "It is
him," he said.
Zayat
himself spent three years in jail with Zawahiri, from 1981 to 1984, in
connection with the October 1981 assassination of Egyptian president
Anwar Sadat.
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