Author: NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Publication: The New York Times
Date: February 25, 2004
A senior leader of Al Qaeda threatened
further attacks against the United States and denounced France for banning
Islamic head scarves in statements on two audiotapes broadcast by separate
Arab satellite channels on Tuesday.
Analysts at the Central Intelligence
Agency said the recordings appeared to have been made by Dr. Ayman al-
Zawahiri, the top lieutenant to Osama bin Laden. "After conducting a technical
analysis, the C.I.A. assesses that the voice on the recordings is probably
that of Zawahiri," a C.I.A. official said.
The tapes are of relatively recent
vintage, since on one Dr. Zawahiri mocked remarks from President Bush's
State of the Union speech in January and on the other he referred to December
developments in the scarf debate.
"We remind Bush that he did not
crush two-thirds of Al Qaeda," he said in a recording broadcast on Al Jazeera.
"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 address,
Mr. Bush said almost two-thirds of the known leadership of Al Qaeda had
been captured or killed.
In the recording on Al Jazeera,
Dr. Zawahiri expressed wonder that the leader of a superpower could deliver
a speech so full of lies.
"Bush, fortify your defenses and
intensify your security measures," he said, "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."
In Washington, the director of central
intelligence, George J. Tenet, said in testimony before the Senate Intelligence
Community on Tuesday that Al Qaeda retained the ability to carry out attacks.
"Even catastrophic attacks on the scale of 9/11 remain within Al Qaeda's
reach," Mr. Tenet said, according to a transcript from the Federal New
Service. "Make no mistake, these plots are hatched abroad, but they target
U.S. soil or that of our allies."
Dr. Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon,
repeated the charge that the campaign against terrorism was really a war
on Islam, and he condemned Islamic leaders cooperating with it. "Bush appoints
corrupt leaders and protects them," he said on the Jazeera tape. "A glance
at the Islamic world from Morocco to Indonesia will reveal those U.S.-backed
leaders."
The second tape, broadcast on the
Dubai-based network Al Arabiya, singled out France for its pending ban
on the wearing of Islamic scarves by girls in state schools.
"France, the country of liberty,"
the tape said, "defends only the liberty of nudity, debauchery and decay,
while fighting chastity and modesty."
The recording also criticized Sheik
Muhammad Sayed Tantawi, the grand imam of Al Azhar in Cairo, the most venerable
seat of Sunni Muslim learning, saying his support for the French decision
was a scandal. Sheik Tantawi said in late December that Muslims in France
must respect French law.
20 Are Held in Pakistani Raid
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 24 - Pakistani
troops carried out a raid near the country's border with Afghanistan on
Tuesday morning and captured 20 people they suspected of being Islamic
militants, government officials said.
Information was sketchy, and there
were conflicting reports as to whether the suspects were all Pakistanis
or included foreigners.
Officials said ammunition, weapons,
audiotapes and passports had been found in the raid on a compound seven
miles outside the town of Wana, the administrative center for the South
Waziristan Tribal Agency. Officials declined to say what was on the audiotapes.
