Ashcroft: Al Qaeda Still A Danger

(CBS/AP)  A new audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden's top deputy warns the United States that it will pay dearly if it harms detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The tape, broadcast Sunday, urges Muslims everywhere to avenge the prisoners.

The Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya said the tape was from Ayman Al-Zawahri, a top official in bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network. According to the tape, the threat was a response to Washington's announcement that it will start putting the detainees on military trials that could result in death sentences.

"I swear by the almighty God ... that crusader America will pay dearly for any harm done to any of the Muslim prisoners it is holding," the recording said.

It was not immediately possible to authenticate the tape. The reference to the Guantanamo trials indicates it was made within the past month.

An editor for the Dubai-based TV station, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Al-Arabiya received the tape late Saturday, but he did not say how or where the channel got it. He also did not elaborate on why the station believed the tape was authentic.

But Montasser el-Zayat, a prominent Egyptian lawyer who represents Islamic fundamentalists, said he believed the voice on the tape was al-Zawahri's because it had the same tone and "expressions."

"He is my friend and I know his voice well," el-Zayat told The Associated Press.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said on CBS News' Face The Nation and other Sunday morning talk shows that the audiotape is evidence of a continued threat from al Qaeda.

"I believe that the potential for us to be hit again is a very real potential," Ashcroft said.

He pointed to last week's alert from the Homeland Security Department to airlines and law enforcement agencies that al Qaeda may attempt suicide hijackings in the coming months.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, speaking Sunday in a broadcast interview, said officials were reviewing the tape to determine whether the voice was al-Zawahri's.

If the voice on the tape is that of al Zawahiri, it is particularly troubling because it fits a pattern, reports CBS News Correspondent Joie Chen.

Earlier al Qaeda warnings coincided with three terrorist attacks, including the suicide car bombing of a Saudi complex housing Americans.

All week Washington has been ratcheting up security warnings, even though it 'didn't raise the nation's terror alert status.

The tape said all those who handed the prisoners to America or to any of its "agents" will also pay. "Let it be clear to those who conspire with America, that America cannot defend itself, let alone defend others."

The Arabic recording said every prisoner held by the "infidels" should know that his release is a "debt hanging from the neck of every" Muslim fighter and that "his brothers have not forgotten that they will avenge him from the new crusaders.

"But we tell America one thing: what you have seen so far is nothing but the first skirmishes. The real battle hasn't started yet."

Al-Zawahri's whereabouts are not known. U.S. officials believe bin Laden, who was not mentioned in the audio tape, and al-Zawahri are hiding in the wilderness at the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

On July 3, the Pentagon announced President Bush had designated six prisoners to become the first terrorism suspects who could be tried before military tribunals. Trial dates have not been set. The six were not identified, but some were believed held at Guantanamo, where U.S. officials are preparing a makeshift courtroom, a permanent detention facility and an execution chamber.

The tape's reference to the Guantanamo trials indicates it was made within the last month.

The tape warned the American people that if they were "keen on their future and the future of their generations ... to follow reason and logic before it is too late."

"America and its agents are torturing your prisoners, show them how you will avenge them," the speaker said.

Some 660 terror suspects from 42 countries have been held for nearly two years at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. The detainees were arrested during the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan, launched after the Sept. 11 attacks, blamed on al Qaeda.

Guantanamo Bay's location puts the detainees out of the jurisdiction of American courts, an arrangement criticized by lawyers and human rights groups.

The Bush administration has protested to Arab TV stations in the past over the broadcast of tapes purportedly released by al Qaeda leaders, ranging from al-Zawahri to bin Laden, fearing the tapes may contain coded messages and heighten tensions in the Middle East.

The previous tape attributed to al-Zawahri was broadcast May 21 on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite station. The voice believed to be that of the Egyptian-born doctor urged Muslims to stage terrorist strikes against Jews, Americans and U.S. allies. U.S. officials said at the time that it was plausible that the speaker was al-Zawahri.