DOHA, 11 September 2003 — Al-Jazeera TV yesterday aired what it said was the latest videotape of Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden and his right-hand man Ayman Al-Zawahiri on the eve of the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Qatar-based Al-Jazeera said the videotape, showing the pair in an “undetermined mountain area”, had probably been recorded toward the end of April or in early May.
In the videotape, Bin Laden praised the suicide hijackers who crashed planes into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon near Washington two years ago.
“He who wants to learn loyalty, sincerity, magnanimity and courage in support of religion ... should follow in the footsteps of Said Al-Ghamdi, Mohammad Atta, Khaled Al-Midhar, Ziad Al-Jarrah and their brethren, God rest their souls,” he said.
The Sept. 11 attackers “understood the meaning of ‘there is no God but God’ (that is of being Muslim)”, Bin Laden said.
The voice accompanying the videotape repeatedly hailed the young men who went for “radical solutions” and spurned “futile solutions”.
As to opponents of jihad, or holy war, “I tell them that those who fear climbing up mountains will live forever in holes.”
According to Al-Jazeera, the videotape was produced by the Al-Sahab production company, which has produced similar tapes since Bin Laden’s whereabouts became uncertain when the United States went to war against Afghanistan in October 2001.
The satellite channel also aired an audiotape of Zawahiri warning that Al-Qaeda’s strikes so far were no more than “skirmishes” and the battle with the United States had yet to begin in earnest.
“Rely on God and devor the Americans, like lions devor their prey. Bury them in the Iraqi graveyard,” Zawahiri told Iraqis.
Zawahiri also called on the Palestinians to resist Israel, warning them not to lay down their weapons because “only jihad (holy war) will liberate Palestine”.
“We will not let America enjoy security until security becomes a fact in Palestine,” Zawahiri said in his “message”, repeating what Bin Laden had said in a previous tape.
Meanwhile, dozens of insurers said they planned yesterday to file a lawsuit against Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden as well as several Middle Eastern countries, seeking $300 billion of damages related to claims paid out for the Sept. 11 attacks.
The group of insurers, which includes units of Chubb Corp. and Munich Re’s American Re, said they would file suit in federal court in New York and Washington, D.C. against groups such as Al-Qaeda as well as several countries in the Gulf and Middle East.
The suit, which was to be filed just one day before the two-year anniversary of the airplane attacks that killed about 3,000 people, argues these parties were responsible for the attacks that resulted in the worst insurance disaster in history. It comes on the heels of Tuesday’s decision by a New York judge to let lawsuits against airlines and the World Trade Center’s owners proceed.
The suits were filed by families who said negligence played a key role in the casualties caused by the Sept. 11 attacks.
