Al-Jazeera airs video of Al-Qaeda preparing 9-11 attacks
Pastor Dale Morgan
Friday September 8, 3:57 AM
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Al-Jazeera airs video of Al-Qaeda preparing 9-11 attacks*
The Arab television channel Al-Jazeera broadcast video footage it said
showed Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda suicide candidates preparing the
September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States.
Al-Jazeera had said earlier it would broadcast "video that included
scenes showing for the first time Al-Qaeda leaders preparing the
September 11 attacks and practicing for their execution."
The video showed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and two of the 19
Islamist militants that took part in the attacks, Saudi nationals Hamza
el-Ramdi and Wael el-Shemari.
The two bearded men spoke of the situation faced by Muslims in Bosnia
and Chechnya.
Fifteen of the 19 attackers on September 11 were Saudis, and Al-Jazeera
said it had only aired a few minutes from a document which it said
lasted about an hour and a half.
Bin Laden was shown in the company of several dozen men, walking in a
deserted, rocky zone that was not identified.
Almost 3,000 people died on September 11, 2001 when suicide hijackers
took control of four US passenger planes.
They smashed two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center
in New York, causing them to collapse.
Another plane slammed into the Pentagon, the US military headquarters
building near Washington, and the fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
The attackers were trained in the martial arts and were armed for the
most part with simple box cutters.
The footage aired by Al-Jazeera Thursday showed hand-to-hand combat
practice between people who wore masks over their heads, and one of whom
appeared to be training with a knife.
The television station also broadcast a recording attributed to the head
of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, in which he said he was sure
of victory against US-led forces in the country.
The recording was posted on an Islamist Internet site as well, but its
authenticity could not be immediately established.
In the Internet statement, Muhajer urged Sunni Muslims to kill at least
one US citizen within the next two weeks.
"Oh followers of (Taliban leader) Mullah Mohammed Omar, oh sons of Osama
bin Laden, oh disciples of (slain Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader) Abu Mussab
al-Zarqawi ... I urge each of you to kill at least one American within a
period not exceeding 15 days," Muhajer said.
The two broadcasts came four days before the fifth anniversary of the
September 11 attacks.
Muhajer had already issued a public statement in June, a few days after
his predecessor Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi was reportedly killed in a US air
strike in Iraq.
In the recording released on Thursday, he said: "I do not doubt for an
instant victory" against US-led forces in Iraq, calling President George
W. Bush a "liar" and a "dog".
"Do not be proud of the number and the equipment" (of your army),
Muhajer said.
"The war has just begun."