Story Published:
Sep 7, 2006 at 8:58 AM PST
Story Updated:
Aug 31, 2006 at 7:37 AM PST
CAIRO, EGYPT - Al-Jazeera broadcast Thursday a previously
unshown video of the preparations for the Sept. 11 attacks, in
which al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is seen meeting with some of
the planners in an Afghan mountain camp.
The station said that bin Laden also is shown greeting some of
the hijackers, although their faces were not clear and it was not
immediately known which are purportedly shown.
The video included the last wills and testaments of hijackers
Wail al-Shehri and Hamza al-Ghamdi.
Al-Jazeera did not say how it obtained the video, which was
produced by As-Sahab, al-Qaida's media branch. Islamic militant Web
forums said the entire video would be posted soon on the Internet.
Such advertisements in the past have come a day or two before the
video appears on the Web.
Thursday's was the fourth in a series of long videos that
al-Qaida has put out to memorialize the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on
the Pentagon and World Trade Center, said Ben Venzke, head of
IntelCenter, a private U.S. company that monitors militant message
traffic and provides counterterrorism intelligence services for the
American government.
The previous ones were issued in April and September 2002 and
September 2003, each showing video from the planning of the suicide
hijackings and farewell statements from some of the hijackers,
Venzke said.
In the latest video, bin Laden is shown sitting outside with his
former lieutenant Mohammed Atef and Ramzi Binalshibh, another
suspected planner of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Venzke said the scenes had not been previously broadcast.
Atef, also known as Abu Hafs al-Masri, was killed by a U.S.
airstrike in Afghanistan in 2001. Binalshibh was captured four
years ago in Pakistan and is in U.S. custody. President Bush
announced plans to put him on military trial.
The video shows bin Laden in a dark robe and white headgear,
strolling through the camp and greeting dozens of followers, some
masked, and many carrying automatic weapons. A voice-over narration
praises the fighters and refers to the camp being "on the soil of
Kandahar" - a city in southern Afghanistan.
The footage shows scenes of training at the camp. Masked
militants perform martial-arts kicks or learn how to break the hold
of someone who grabs them from behind. Several militants are shown
practicing with fold-out knives.
Venzke said the footage was part of a video he expected would be
more than an hour long, based on previous releases.
He said the full version of the video was believed to include a
message from Azzam al-Amriki, the nom de guerre of Adam Yehiye
Gadahn, an American who the FBI says has associated with al-Qaida.
Gadahn appeared in an al-Qaida video released last week, in which
he called on Americans to convert to Islam.
The full video also likely includes messages from bin Laden or
his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, though they may not be new, Venzke
said, without elaborating on why he believed that.
"They produce long videos like these not just for 9/11, but for
any significant events they feel warrant their attention," Venzke
said.
One aim is to boost recruitment, but such videos have other
purposes - "to speak to their supporters, to raise morale within
their own group, to facilitate fundraising, and to serve as a
psychological attack," he said.
The footage also shows glimpses of daily life in the camp, with
men chopping wood and cutting up vegetables for dinner.
Al-Shehri and al-Ghamdi are each shown speaking to the camera,
their images superimposed over pictures of the crumbling World
Trade Center towers and the burning Pentagon, as well as a model of
a passenger jet.
They both say Muslims must stand up and fight the West.
"If jihad now is not an obligation (on Muslims), when will it
be?" said al-Shehri, pointing to attacks on Muslims in Bosnia,
Afghanistan and Chechnya.
"If we are content with being humiliated and inclined to
comfort, the tooth of the enemy will stretch from Jerusalem to
Mecca, and then everyone will regret on a day when regret is of no
use," al-Ghamdi said.