In messages broadcast by Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera, Bin
Ladin's deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri threatens further attacks against
the US and lambasts France for banning Islamic head scarves. (The
recordings are of recent vintage, as one mocks remarks from Pres.
Bush's Jan. 2004 State of the Union speech and the other refers to
December developments in the head scarf debate). The recording broadcast
on Al-Jazeera says: "We remind Bush that he did not crush
two-thirds of Al-Qaeda. On the contrary, thanks be to God, Al-Qaeda
remains on the battleground of the holy war, raising the banner of Islam
in the face of the Zionist-Crusader campaign against the Islamic
community". (In his State of the Union speech, Bush said almost
two-thirds of the known Al-Qaeda leadership had been either captured or
killed. The recording on Al Jazeera, which one unidentified staff member
in Qatar said sounded similar in cadence and vocabulary to previous
Zawahiri messages, expressed wonder that the leader of a superpower
could deliver a speech so full of lies. The tape says: "Bush,
fortify your defences and intensify your security measures, because the
Muslim nation, which sent brigades to New York and Washington, has
decided to send you one brigade after another, carrying death and
seeking paradise". An Egyptian surgeon, Zawahiri repeats the charge
that the war on terrorism is really a war on Islam and condemns Islamic
leaders co-operating with it. The tape also says: "Bush appoints
corrupt leaders and protects them. A glance at the Islamic world from
Morocco to Indonesia will reveal those US-backed leaders"). The
second tape, broadcast on Al-Arabiya, singles out France for a pending
law that will ban religious symbols like head scarves and large crosses
in state schools. The recording says the ban "is new evidence of
the extent of the Crusaders' hatred for Muslims, even if they brag
about democracy, freedom and human rights". France, the country of
liberty defends only the liberty of nudity, debauchery and decay, while
fighting chastity and modesty". The recording also singles out
Shaikh Mohammed Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar University in Cairo,
saying his support for the French decision was a "scandal".
(Shaikh Tantawi said in late December Muslims in France must respect
French law. Although France's vocal position against the war in
Iraq wins it plaudits in the Arab world, this is not the first time it
has been singled out by Al-Qaeda. A French supertanker, the Limburg, was
attacked by a suicide bomber off the coast of Yemen in October 2002,
killing one crewman. That came on the same day as another audiotape from
Zawahiri, in which he said Al-Qaeda was sending messages to allies of
the US to cease co-operating with it. Intelligence agencies around the
world believe the recordings from Zawahiri or Bin Laden could contain
signals to their operatives to launch attacks. The 2 men are believed to
be in hiding together in the mountains along the border between
Afghanistan and Pakistan. They appeared together walking in a similarly
rugged setting in a videotape released last September).
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