Purported Bin Laden Aide, in Audiotape, Urges New Attacks

May 21, 2003

A man purporting to be Usama bin Laden's right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahri, urged ongoing attacks on America and its allies in an audiotape broadcast Wednesday.

The voice encouraged Muslims to attack embassies and other interests of the United States, Britain, Australia, Norway and other U.S. allies.

The tape, aired on the Arabic satellite TV network Al-Jazeera, has not been authenticated by any source, and there is no information as to where it came from.

U.S. officials told Fox News that at first glance, the voice seems to be that of al-Zawahri. They were going to analyze the tape and compare it to other tapes of his voice.

Officials said they are concerned about the timing of this tape and worried that it could possibly trigger an event.

Recordings of tapes made by bin Laden have often been followed by terrorist activities.

The new recording appears to have been made in the early days of the U.S.-led war on Iraq, Reuters reported. On the tape, "Al-Zawahri" exhorts Muslims to strike at the missions and commercial interests of America and its allies and "turn the ground beneath their feet into an inferno."

Britain was the United States' main partner in the war on Iraq, and Australia contributed troops. Norway did not take part in the fighting, but America considers Norway a good friend and ally -- and the Norwegian prime minister said recently he will work on asking France to be more flexible with U.S. demands on postwar Iraq.

Al-Zawahri, the No. 2 official in the Al Qaeda terror network, is an Egyptian eye doctor. He would likely be the one to succeed bin Laden as head of Al Qaeda if bin Laden were captured or killed. He founded a militant group that tried to topple the Egyptian government in the 1990s.

Directing some comments to Iraqis, Al-Zawahri told them they are not alone in fighting what he called the U.S. occupation, according to a Reuters translation. He urged Muslims to intensify their jihad, or holy war, against Americans and Jews.

Referring to the Sept. 11 attacks that brought down the World Trade Center, he said:

"The crusaders and the Jews only understand the language of the murder, bloodshed and of the burning towers.... Carry arms against your enemies, the Americans the Jews.

"Consider your 19 brothers who attacked America in Washington and New York with their planes as an example," the man said in a strong voice.

The voice was similar to al-Zawahri's, based on previous audio- and videotapes attributed to the Egyptian militant. Al-Jazeera has in the past aired tapes of bin Laden, al-Zawahri and other Al Qaeda figures.

Al-Jazeera said it would air the entire 3-minute tape later Wednesday.

Al-Jazeera chief editor Ibrahim Hilal told The Associated Press that the station received the tape Tuesday night, but would not say how.

"The quality is not very good. It's an 11-minute tape and we've aired the most significant and the newsworthy parts," Hilal said.

The broadcasting of the tape comes soon after three Moroccans were arrested in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, as they were trying to hijack a civilian airliner, a Saudi security source said Wednesday.

Saudi officials said they believe the Moroccans, who had tickets to board a flight to Khartoum, Sudan, planned to hijack the plane and crash it into a high-rise building in Jiddah, replicating the Sept. 11 attacks.

"They were planning a suicide hijack to attack Saudi landmarks," a source told Reuters, adding the men were arrested at Jiddah airport Monday. Saudi Arabia went on a heightened state of alert Tuesday as U.S. and Saudi authorities warned that attacks appeared imminent.

The tape also comes on the heels of two FBI bulletins warning Americans that the recent attacks overseas may be a prelude to an attack on U.S. soil or against U.S. and other Western interests abroad.

A bulletin issued Friday said Al Qaeda "likely" may be planning attacks against American and Western targets and "attacks in the U.S. cannot be ruled out."

The Department of Homeland Security subsequently on Tuesday raised the nation's terror alert to orange, or "high."

Al Qaeda has been blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks, as well as the three homicide bombings in Riyadh last week that killed 25 people, mainly foreigners, and the nine homicide bombers.

In the tape aired Wednesday, the speaker lashed out at Arab leaders for offering "airports and the facilities" to allied troops, an apparent reference to the U.S.-led war on Iraq.

"Here is Saudi Arabia, where planes are launched from their airports, from its lands. Here is Kuwait, where the heavy armies march from its lands," the speaker said.

"Here is Qatar, where the command of the campaign is based there. Here is Bahrain, the command of the (U.S. Navy) Fifth Fleet remains inside it. Here is Egypt, the marine ships pass through its canal. Here is Yemen, the crusader ships are provided with fuel. Here is Jordan, where the crusader troops are present, and the batteries of the Patriot missiles are erected there to protect Israel."

The last public statement attributed to al-Zawahri was in February, in an online militant newsletter. That statement called on Muslims to respond to oppression with violence.

Al-Jazeera in February broadcast a purported bin Laden audiotape in which a speaker called on Iraqis to carry out homicide attacks against Americans and defend themselves against a U.S. attack. The speaker called on Muslims to rise up against Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, "regimes who are slaves of America." U.S. counterterrorism officials in Washington said then that the audio message was probably a real recording of bin Laden.

Last October, Al-Jazeera broadcast the alleged voice of al-Zawahri speaking on the anniversary of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. A U.S. official said then that the tape, in which al-Zawahri threatens new attacks on the United States, appeared to have been recorded within weeks of its appearance and appeared to have been genuine.

The whereabouts of al-Zawahri and bin Laden have been unclear since the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan dislodged Al Qaeda from that country.

U.S. intelligence officials have cited a tape that appeared in November as an indication bin Laden survived heavy U.S. bombing of his Afghan hideout after the Sept. 11 attacks and probably is with al-Zawahri in the mountains along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said Wednesday in a television interview that Al Qaeda is "on the run" and that authorities believe that bin Laden "is still out there. I think there's some concern about what kind of control he has over the people."

Fox News' Bret Baier and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,87445,00.html