Tales Of The Al Qaeda Tapes

The pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya broadcast a tape Saturday with a voice claiming to be that of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden but later withdrew it, giving no reason.

A rival channel claimed it aired the tape two months ago.

On the tape, a voice claiming to be that of bin Laden praised attacks on American forces in Iraq, saying the Americans were waging a "new crusade against the Islamic world."

Rival Al-Jazeera, based in Qatar, said it had broadcast the same material on Oct. 18.

"This is 100 percent the same tape we broadcast in October," Saeed Shouly, the deputy chief editor of Al-Jazeera, told The Associated Press minutes after the Al-Arabiya broadcast.

A journalist reached at Al-Arabiya, speaking on condition of anonymity, later said the tape had been withdrawn and would not be aired a second time. The journalist would not say why and refused to comment on claims that the tape had already been aired on Al-Jazeera.

Al-Arabiya editors could not immediately explain where the network obtained the tape or when it was made.

The voice purporting to be bin Laden said: "America today is screaming with its loudest voice and is shaken before the entire world."

Referring to Iraqi resistance groups, he said: "No bragging about what you have done to America and the blows you have inflicted on it. You are the sons of those great knights who have carried Islam to the East until they reached China."

He said the fighting in Iraq was "a new crusade against the Islamic world."

CIA analysts who examined the audio tape that Al-Jazeera broadcast on Oct. 18 came to the conclusion that it was probably authentic.

In the October broadcast, bin Laden made several references that suggested he recorded the tape in recent months. The tape was the strongest evidence for many months that bin Laden was still alive and directing al Qaeda.

The "new" tape, supposedly of bin Laden, surfaced a day after a voice purported to be al Qaeda's second-in-command warned in an audiotape that the terror group will target Americans "in their homeland" and will drive the U.S. military from bases in the Middle East.

Excerpts of the 10-minute tape were broadcast Friday by Al-Jazeera. It said the recording was made by Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's deputy, and that it received the tape earlier Friday through the mail.

In Washington, the CIA said Saturday it believes the tape is authentic. An Egyptian lawyer who knows al-Zawahri, Montasser el-Zayat, said the broadcast was undoubtedly his voice.

The speaker mentioned a visit to Iraq by U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz that took place in late October. However, there was no reference to last weekend's capture of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, indicating the tape may have been made before that.

The speaker denied the resistance U.S. troops face in Iraq comes mainly from Saddam loyalists and said insurgents there are "holy warriors."

"It is a real and authentic holy war of the Iraqi people," he said.

The speaker also mentioned the battle of Tora Bora, a major clash between U.S.-led forces and al Qaeda fighters in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

"Two years after Tora Bora, the American bloodshed started to increase in Iraq, and the Americans have become unable to defend themselves or even defend their big criminals such as Wolfowitz," he said.

That comment referred to an Oct. 26 rocket attack that barraged the Baghdad hotel where Wolfowitz was staying. A U.S. colonel was killed, but Wolfowitz escaped unharmed.

"We are still chasing the Americans and their allies everywhere, even in their homeland," he said.

The weeks before and after the rocket attack on Wolfowitz saw a surge in attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, making November the bloodiest month for U.S. forces since the fall of Saddam. Attacks lessened as the U.S. military launched an offensive in late November. Violence has continued after Saddam's capture on Dec. 13.

Al-Jazeera's newscaster quoted the tape as saying: "Those renegades who offered the Americans military bases and support to kill Muslims should prepare for the day of settling scores because the Americans are ready to flee."