Al-Qaida: Leaders Will Be Punished
By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD
.c The Associated Press
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A spokesman for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network has repeated threats to carry out new terror attacks and said Muslims in the United States and Britain should avoid airplanes and tall buildings.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, speaking on a videotape aired on Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite channel, also said President Bush, his father, former President Clinton and the prime ministers of Israel and Britain would not ``escape punishment'' for the deaths of Muslims.
The statement was the third released by bin Laden's organization since the U.S.-led bombardment against the Taliban and al-Qaida began last Sunday, Oct. 7. Abu Ghaith said in the tape that he was speaking on the fifth day of bombing, which was Thursday.
He accused the United States of ``wiping out villages'' in its bombardment, pledged to stand beside Afghanistan and praised Mullah Mohammed Omar, the supreme leader of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers. Washington has said it is trying to avoid civilian deaths in its campaign, launched to root out bin Laden, the top suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Abu Ghaith repeated warnings made earlier this week of more attacks. ``If al-Qaida promised and warned, it will deliver, God willing.,'' he said. ``Storms are not going to calm, especially the storm of planes until America withdraws in defeat from Afghanistan.''
Muslims in the United States and Britain ``should avoid traveling by air or living in high buildings or towers.''
Abu Ghaith, a Kuwaiti who appeared with bin Laden in the first video released by the group on Sunday, said Bush, his father, Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were ``at the head of all the criminals, the Zionists and the crusaders, who have committed the worst practices and greatest atrocities against the Muslim nation.''
``Millions of Muslim men, women and children have been killed without committing any sins,'' he said, adding that the four leaders ``are not going to escape punishment.''
He said al-Qaida had ordered the Americans and British to leave the Arabian Peninsula because the ``land will burn with fire under their feet, God willing.''
Abu Ghaith denounced Islamic nations, accusing a gathering of foreign ministers from the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference this week of ``supporting the strike.''
``They don't represent the Islamic nation and they don't have legitimacy,'' he said of the OIC members. The OIC session held in Qatar - which the Taliban had asked to help stop the U.S. air campaign - did not directly condemn the bombing, instead only expressing concern over civilian casualties.
AP-NY-10-13-01 1845EDT |
