Steve Quayle News Alerts

September 12, 2003

A videotape showing one of the Sept. 11 hijackers encouraging Arabs to fight against Americans was released by the satellite television channel Al-Jazeera Friday.

Saeed Alghamdi, one of the four hijackers onboard United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pa., killing 40 people, is shown reading his will and making threats against America on the videotape, which was recorded at some point before Sept.11, 2001.

“The Mujahideen will carry out more attacks against the United States,” Alghamdi, a Saudi Arabian citizen, said on the tape.

Alghamdi is shown in the desert firing a machine gun and operating a rocket launcher. “The safety of the American is by leaving the Muslim countries,” he said on the tape.

U.S. intelligence officials told Fox News the tape's release is "underwhelming" because they say these type of last will and testament videos have been aired before.

Officials said they have not seen this particular tape but question its value as a propaganda tool because Alghamdi has been dead for two years and lived in America before the attack. But officials admit the release of this tape is all part of an Al Qaeda propaganda campaign.

Hafez Mirazi, Al-Jazeera's Washington bureau chief, told Fox News airing this tape and others like it can have an educational effect.

“It’s something positive for the viewers in the Middle East to see one of the hijackers," Mirazi said, adding that two years after the terror attacks, many in the region still question whether Al Qaeda was really responsible. The video "hopefully will put to rest these kind of suspicion, because Al Qaeda themselves is seen admitting it," Mirazi said.

The tape’s release mere two days after a tape showing Usama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri, the number two person in the Al Qaeda terror network, walking in the mountains is not a coincidence, officials told Fox News.

CIA officials told Fox News they believe the voice on that tape, released Wednesday, "probably" belongs to bin Laden.

But an official said there is no specific time reference on the tape and it could have been recorded at any time. On Thursday, officials said they believed with a "high level of confidence" that a second voice on the tape was al-Zawahri.

The timing of the tape's release could be a sign of weakness on Al Qaeda’s part, according to some media experts, showing the terror group is in need of morale boosting and is trying to recruit young members.

Robert Lichter of the center for media and public affairs said that although Al Qaeda is releasing these tapes strategically, they should be broadcast.

"They've taken propaganda 101 and know you bring something out when you know people are riveted on that topic," he told Fox News. Lichter said the tape is news, and should be shown to the American public to keep the country abreast of their movements.

People have the right to know and be reminded that there are people out there that want to kill as many Americans as possible, Jim Phillips of the Heritage Foundation said, but added that the terrorist tapes should only be aired on television if they are "connected to a real threat."

"I'm not sure we should focus on (the hijacker's tape)," he told Fox News. "Al Qaeda is trying to capitalize on the anniversary (of Sept. 11) to amplify its message."

Fox News' Steve Centanni and Rita Cosby contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,97197,00.html