Intelligence

Qaeda plan: pre-emptive strategy?

~~article_author~~ AP, Reuters
Saturday, October 02, 2004

Tape urges Muslim youths to take initiative and strike West

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates An audio tape that surfaced Friday, purportedly by Al Qaeda's second in command, urges Muslim youths to take the initiative and strike the United States and its allies rather than attack in response to perceived past injustices.

Analysts say pre-emptive strikes - a longstanding American policy the Bush administration defends for its war on terrorism - would be a new strategy for Al Qaeda.

The tape aired by Al Jazeera television identified the speaker as Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri, an Egyptian-born surgeon and confidante of the Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

It was the second message said to be from Zawahri to surface in less than a month. The voice on the tape, which refers to "crusader America," says: "We should not wait until U.S., British, French, Jewish, South Korean, Hungarian or Polish forces enter Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen and Algeria before we resist. The interests of the Americans, British, Australians, French, Polish, Norwegians, South Korean and Japanese are spread everywhere.

"We can't wait or we will be eaten up country by country.

"People of knowledge and experience should organize their efforts and form a leadership for the resistance to combat the crusaders."

The voice says resistance should carry on if Al Qaeda leaders are killed or arrested.

"Let us start resisting now. The interests of America, Britain, Australia, France, Poland, Norway, South Korea and Japan are spread everywhere. They all took part in the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq or Chechnya or enabled Israel to survive."

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the recording, which surfaced hours after Al Qaeda was a major subject in the first U.S. presidential debate ahead of November elections.

How recently it had been taped could not be determined from the segments aired.

In Washington, a U.S. official said the CIA was aware of the tape and was looking at it.

Norway's justice minister, Odd Einar Doerum, said the tape would be evaluated by the Norwegian Police Intelligence Service.

"We take every threat seriously and will investigate," he said on the state radio network NRK.

Dia'a Rashwan, an expert on Islamic militants, said the person on the tape appeared to be calling for a new strategy.

"He's calling for launching pre-emptive attacks, similar to the U.S. policy," Rashwan said in a telephone interview. "He's saying Muslims should attack before their countries are occupied. He is calling for action, instead of reaction."

The voice sounded like past recordings of Zawahri, but the speaker's words came more quickly and energetically, generally sounding more upbeat than previous tapes believed to be from Zawahri. The tape also made an unusual reference to the possibility that Al Qaeda's top leaders are not invincible.

"You, youth of Islam, this is our message," he said. "If we die or are detained, continue the path after us, and don't betray God and his prophet, and don't knowingly betray the trust."

Rashwan played down the significance of such remarks.

"According to his belief, being killed is normal and expected, especially in his case," he said. "This is not the first time he has said this. It doesn't mean they are close to being captured or killed."

The speaker also called for "learned and experience people" to organize what he called "a leadership for the resistance to stand up to the crusader campaign like the holy warriors organized their affairs in Afghanistan, Chechnya or Palestine."

In references apparently to the Russian government, Israel, Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority and the U.S.-$ backed Afghan government, the speaker continued to say that the holy warriors had organized "despite the will of the occupier and that of the traitor national governments."

An Al Jazeera producer said the tape was "supposedly received today," by usual means, which he refused to discuss.

The station aired almost four minutes in two clips of a longer recording, and, as usual, was not planning to air the full tape. Station officials would not comment on the contents of the unaired segments.(AP, Reuters)

IHT Copyright © 2004 The International Herald Tribune

October 3, 2004 at 11:30 AM in Al Qaeda | Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Top of page | Blog Home