Al-Qaida: 'America is the Head Of All Evil'  
WND translations covers unreported parts of spokesman's taped diatribe

June 24, 2002
By Jon Dougherty

Though most media reported many of the details discussed by an al-Qaida spokesman in a lengthy audiotape in which he promises new attacks against U.S. and Jewish targets, an interpretation of the diatribe supplied to WorldNetDaily found key particulars were left out by news agencies.

Spokesman Suleiman Abu Ghait's tape was broadcast by the Qatar-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera over the weekend.

Abu Ghait, for example, said, "The indications are that al-Qaida is going to start attacks against those whom God has indicted as being disapproved of or condemned in a time and place which is suitable to" the terrorist organization.

Also, the spokesman emphasized that "al-Qaida's members are martyrs ready and alert to start the attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets both internally and externally," according to the translation supplied to WND.

"The U.S. knows the truth of what we say; we are doers not talkers," Abu Ghait said. "We still have the ability to threaten the U.S. and back these threats up. ... And in days or in a few short months even God will witness what we say."

"America must prepare itself and fasten its seat belt. We will arrive when they are not expecting us," the spokesman said, according to other media reports.

However, in the interpretation provided to WorldNetDaily, Abu Ghait described the U.S.-led war against terror as a "fight between [al-Qaida] and America, [which] is a fight between good and evil," noting that "America is the head of all evil."

"We are absolutely sure there will be an alliance of Muslims: in Nairobi, in Dar Salam [a Middle Eastern city] and Aden, and in New York and in Washington, and the war will last till the U.S. changes its dark policies towards the Muslims," he said.

The al-Qaida spokesman also said the Palestinians have been betrayed by the scheming and plots of other Arab nations. He also said the Mideast peace plan offered earlier this spring by Saudi Arabia "doesn't mean anything to the Muslims in the Middle East, because its part of the plot" to deceive the Palestinians.

According to other reports, Abu Ghait said al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was still alive and "in good health," as is Mullah Muhammad Omar, the former Taliban leader of Afghanistan. He also said that bin Laden would soon appear on television.

"Our security and military bodies are now monitoring, investigating and observing new American targets, other than the targets that were monitored before, which we will attack shortly in a way that will delight all Muslims," he said, according to a report in the New York Times.

He also said al-Qaida was responsible for the bombing of a Jewish synagogue in Tunisia in April. Using a propane truck as a catalyst, the blast killed 19 people – 14 of whom were German – and wounded scores of others.

Analysts say they believe the tape is new because Abu Ghait made inferences to the debate raging in the U.S. about whether American intelligence agencies should have been able to predict and interdict the Sept. 11 attacks.

The spokesman, in his commentary, said, "Neither [Vice President] Dick Cheney nor the American secretary of defense (Donald Rumsfeld) nor the American president can determine the place nor the time nor the way that we will attack."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28068