Al-Qaida Spokesman: Group Thriving,
Planning More US Attacks

July 9, 2002

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - In an interview published Tuesday, the spokesman for al-Qaida said the terrorist organization led by Osama bin Laden was thriving and planning new attacks on Americans. He called the U.S. campaign to dismantle the group a "Hollywood script."

"Al-Qaida still maintains its military, security, economic and informational structures," Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was quoted as saying in the Algerian daily El Youm.

There was no way to verify the authenticity of the quotes. But U.S. officials said two weeks ago that a recent audio recording by Abu Ghaith appeared to be legitimate.

Government analysts had matched the sound of his voice to previous recordings. In that message, released as an audio file on Islamic Web sites, Abu Ghaith said bin Laden and his deputy were still alive.

The United States, leading the war on terrorism in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, has said it doesn't know whether bin Laden is alive or dead.

The editor in chief of El Youm, an Arabic language daily, said the interview it published was conducted Sunday via two intermediaries.

Editor H'Mida Ayachi said El Youm formulated questions that were faxed to an intermediary. A second intermediary actually asked the questions. He would not say where the interview took place.

Abu Ghaith is quoted as saying that al-Qaida "functions according to a rigorous, secret logic" and that it cannot be knocked out. "Al-Qaida will organize more attacks inside American territory and outside, at the moment we choose, at the place we choose and with the objectives that we want."

He dismissed the U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan to rout out al-Qaida.

"The American campaign (against it) is but a Hollywood script with its victims, thousands of innocent villagers, killed without having been implicated in the battle."
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