Al Qaeda's 9/11 Anniversary Video Gives Few Clues About Its Leaders' Fate

Al Qaeda's new video, which was released today to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks, provides the first proof that - contrary to some reports - the terror organization's chief of operations in Afghanistan Moustafa Abul Yazid was not killed in a strike last July.

The tape is not dated, but there are indications that it was made recently. Abul Yazid, who appears on the tape, mentions the August 18 resignation of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. "And all praise is to God who humiliated the apostate agent Pervez Musharraf who is now swallowing the fruit of his betrayal of the Islamic nation." Another senior leader who appears on the tape, Abu Yahya al Libi, also mentions the recent conflict in Georgia.

The tape also includes a statement by the terror organization's second in command Ayman al Zawahri, but it contained no time references and focused on attacking Iran and Hizbullah. CBS News previoulsy reported that al Zawahri had been critically wounded in a U.S. strike on August 1.

Also absent this year, is al Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden, who had contributed statements to videos released on previous anniversaries of the Sept. 11 attakcs.

There's also been a report published in the London Telegraph Sunday saying that senior al Qaeda American operative Adam Ghadan may have died in a U.S. predator attack on Waziristan. Gadahn last appeared in a video released by Al Sahab in January 2008. Gadahn was not featured in today's anniversary video.

In the tape, al Zawahri launches a scathing attack on Iran and its supreme leader Ayatollah Khamanei. "The Guardian of the Muslims affairs in Tehran cooperates with the Americans in the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and recognizes the puppet governments in them. Even as he warns of death and destruction and horrible things should anyone touches a speck of Iranian soil."

Al Zawahri also criticizes Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Shiite militant Lebanese group Hezbollah and accuses him of collaborating with the West by allowing the deployment of UNIFIL troops in southern Lebanon , thus preventing the Mujahideen in Lebanon from launching attacks across the border on Israel "But the bizarre and astounding thing is that Hassan Nasrallah celebrates victory every year. What victory? Retreating thirty miles to the rear? Or being disarmed in that area? Or his agreeing to 15,000 crusaders to come between any Mujahid in Lebanon and Israel?"

The three al Qaeda figures were filmed in separate rooms with different backgrounds. The 90-minute tape was produced by al Qaeda's mouthpiece al Sahab and is entitled "The Harvest of Seven Years of Crusades."