Clues Seen in Al Qaeda Tape
Aug. 5, 2005 — -- Intelligence officials are studying the most recent tape by al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, for hidden clues.
Sitting in front of a gently rippling cloth screen in bright sunlight, an AK-47 in the background, Zawahiri promised more attacks so bloody they "will make you forget the horrors of Vietnam." He added that Americans and Britons "will not be safe until you withdraw from our land, stop stealing our oil and stop supporting the corrupt rulers there."
Richard Clarke, a former White House counterterror chief who is now an ABC News consultant, said the setup of Zawahiri's latest video contains possible hidden messages.
For one thing, Zawahiri wore a black turban, rather than the white one worn in his prior videos since 9/11. To Sunni Muslims, Clarke said, a black turban means "somebody is making jihad," or holy war.
"This is a very carefully staged propaganda video, in which things like this are supposed to have meaning," Clarke told Diane Sawyer on ABC News' "Good Morning America." "He's trying to align himself, wherever he was, with the people fighting in Iraq."
The setting in the outdoors, with the sun shining and a breeze blowing, also may have been meant to send a message.
"What he's saying is 'I'm not stuck in a cave,' " Clarke said. "These people listen to what we say about them. When we say that they are powerless, they are stuck in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan, they want to have a way to come back and say no they're not. So here he is, outside in the light of day, dressed for war … when, in fact, he probably is stuck in a cave."
On the tape, Zawahiri blamed the recent London subway bombings on England's involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and promised more dead until Western troops withdraw.
"[British Prime Minister Tony] Blair has brought you destruction in central London," Zawahiri said. "You spilled rivers of blood in our countries, so we exploded the volcanoes of anger in yours."
The British government would not comment, but in Crawford, Texas, President Bush was defiant.
"We will stay the course," Bush said. "We will complete the job in Iraq."
Bush argued the tape proves the war in Iraq is part of the war on terror.
"The Iraqis want to live in a free society," he said. "Zawahiri doesn't want them to live in a free society. And that's the clash of ideologies -- freedom versus tyranny. … People like Zawahiri have an ideology that is dark, dim, backwards."
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