Al-Qaida warns US over terror camp prisoners
A new audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden’s top deputy warns the US that it will pay dearly if it harms detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and urges Muslims everywhere to avenge the prisoners from their ”infidel” captors.
A tape which the Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya said was from Ayman Al-Zawahri, a top official in bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network, said the threat was a response to Washington’s announcement that it will start putting the detainees on military trials that could result in death sentences.
“I swear by the almighty God that crusader America will pay dearly for any harm done to any of the Muslim prisoners it is holding,” said the recording broadcast today.
It was not immediately possible to authenticate the tape. Calls made to the TV station today went unanswered.
The tape said all those who handed the prisoners to America or to any of its “agents” will also pay.
“Let it be clear to those who conspire with America, that America cannot defend itself, let alone defend others.”
It said every prisoner held by the “infidels” should know that his release is a “debt hanging from the neck of every” Muslim fighter and that “his brothers have not forgotten that they will avenge him from the new crusaders.”
The Arabic recording said: “But we tell America one thing: what you have seen so far is nothing but the first skirmishes. The real battle hasn’t started yet.”
Al-Zawahri’s whereabouts are not known. US officials believe bin Laden, who was not mentioned in the latest audio tape, and al-Zawahri are hiding in the wilderness between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The tape also warned Americans if they were “keen on their future and the future of their generations ... to follow reason and logic before it is too late.”
It also called on Muslims everywhere avenge the detainees. ”America and its agents are torturing your prisoners, show them how you will avenge them,” he said.
Some 660 terror suspects from 42 countries have been held for nearly two years at the US Navy base in Cuba. The detainees were arrested during the US-led war on Afghanistan, launched after the September 11 terror attacks, blamed on al-Qaida.
The voice purported to be Al-Zawahri’s said by putting the men on trial, America is putting “its people on trial,” and by convicting them, it is convicting its own people.
The location of Guantanamo Bay puts the detainees out of the jurisdiction of US courts, an arrangement that has been criticised by lawyers and human rights groups.
The Bush administration has protested to Arab TV stations in the past over the broadcast of tapes purportedly released by al-Qaida leaders, ranging from al-Zawahri to bin Laden, fearing the tapes may contain coded messages and heighten tensions in the Middle East.
The previous tape attributed to al-Zawahri was broadcast May 21 on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite station, in which the Egyptian-born doctor urged Muslims to stage terrorist strikes against Jews, Americans and US allies.
