'Bin Laden tape' identifies all 19 hijackers

The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera today broadcast parts of a videotape in which a male voice attributed to Osama bin Laden can be heard naming all 19 September 11 hijackers.

Today’s broadcast was of a tape that was first shown on Monday by Al-Jazeera and in which the same voice, speaking in Arabic, named the four leaders of the September 11 attacks – Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi, Ziad Jarrah and Hani Hanjour.

In Tuesday’s broadcast, the voice named every one of the 19 hijackers, citing their places of birth and lavishly praising them for their piety.

There was no way to verify whether the voice heard on the clips shown Monday or Tuesday belonged to the Saudi-born bin Laden or when the recording was made. The whereabouts of bin Laden, whose al-Qaida terror network is blamed for the September 11 attacks, are unknown.

“Those men (the hijackers) have realised that the only course to achieve justice and defeat injustice is through jihad (Muslim holy struggle) for the cause of God,” said the voice heard on Tuesday’s clip.

A different voice on Tuesday’s clips said of the hijackers: “They provided the greatest lessons and expertise to all young people to give up fun and play to stand up and destroy the remnants of pagan America.”

Al-Jazeera, which has shown several videotapes of bin Laden over the past year, said “Sahab company” provided it with the latest tape.

Sahab is a mystery outfit which until recently had a website. It is not known where it is based or who runs it. Al-Jazeera has credited Sahab in the past for providing it with videotapes of bin Laden.

Tuesday’s clips were longer than those shown Monday and included old footage of bin Laden and his top lieutenants squatting silently on the floor.

Bin Laden has not been heard from since shortly after the US-led bombing campaign began in Afghanistan last October.

The latest tape also included old footage of several young men identified as some of the hijackers during training last year in Afghanistan. They appeared to be looking at maps, including one of the Washington DC area, and manuals of cockpit gadgetry. At least one computer and several books in English could be seen sitting on desks and a hand was shown pointing at the site of the Pentagon on one map.

Another excerpt showed a man identified as hijacker Abdulaziz Alomari leaving what appeared to be a farewell message.

“God may reward all those who trained me on this path and who were behind this noble act and a special mention should be made of ... Sheik Osama bin Laden, may God protect him”. Alomari and Atta were aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the World Trade Center.

Al-Jazeera said over the weekend that one of its correspondents had interviewed two top al-Qaida fugitives wanted in the terrorist attack.

According to the interview, reportedly conducted in June with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, the US Congress was the fourth American landmark on al-Qaida’s September 11 hit list and the terror group also considered striking US nuclear facilities.

US counter-terrorism officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said many of Mohammed’s statements about the origins of the September 11 plot are plausible, but they have no information that would verify those claims.

The interview is scheduled to be aired on Thursday.