AQ No. 2 has promised to release a
new tape commenting on a trio of topics:
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri will soon release a new message about the pope, President Bush and Sudan's troubled Darfur region, an Islamic Web site said Wednesday.
A banner warning of the upcoming message was posted on an Islamic Web site that frequently airs al Qaeda videos. Wednesday's notice did not specify whether the new message was a video, audiotape or text, but al-Zawahiri usually releases videos.
One translation of the banner announcing the new message refers to Bush, the Pope, and Darfur in the context of a 'Crusader's war':
The red stylized banner posted Wednesday flashes a small headshot of al-Zawahiri, next to a short text: "As-Sahab production institute presents: Sheik Ayman al-Zawahiri, God protect him. Bush...Vatican pope...Darfur...Crusader wars."
The graphic is stamped with the emblem of As-Sahab, al Qaeda's media production arm.
It did not specify a timeframe for the tape's release, saying only that it would come out "soon, God willing."
In a recent related message to ABC news, a top Taliban commander insists that Osama bin Laden is alive and well:
In a surprise phone call to the home of an ABC News producer in Pakistan, the top Taliban military commander, Mulla Dadullah Akhund, said Osama bin Laden is alive and that there is no truth to the rumors of his death from typhoid.
"Sheikh Osama is all right. He is safe," Dadullah told ABC News' Rahimullah Yusufzai. Dadullah would not disclose the location from where he was calling.
Of course, doubts about the veracity of such claims remain:
When pressed for evidence to show that bin Laden is alive, Dadullah hinted that there is a possibility of a tape being sent to media organizations to prove that the al Qaeda head isn't dead. Dadullah, however, declined to say as to when this tape would be made available.
...It isn't clear whether Taliban commanders, such as Dadullah, have access to bin Laden or to his deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, and other important al Qaeda figures. There have been reports that al Qaeda and Taliban members have forged closer ties with each other since the collapse of the Taliban government in Afghanistan in December 2001. However, there is no evidence that bin Laden, Zawahiri and Mulla Omar could be hiding together in one place.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, in contradiction of his earlier statement on Jon Stewart's Daily Show that he had no idea of OBL's whereabouts, issued the opposite claim today:
PRESIDENT MUSHARRAF, dismissing a French intelligence report that Osama bin Laden had died of typhoid, said yesterday that he believed the al-Qaeda leader to be hiding in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar, possibly with the help of an Afghan warlord.
"It's not a hunch," the Pakistani President told The Times. "Kunar province borders on Bajaur Agency. We know there are some pockets of al-Qaeda in Bajaur Agency. We have set a good intelligence organisation. We have moved some army elements. We did strike them twice there. We located and killed a number of them."
This claim in turn has been dismissed by reputed bin Laden expert Hamid Mir:
Mir dismissed Pervez Musharraf's claim. Drawing attention to the fact that the Pakistani President's comments to the Times, a London daily, come after what the American press have called a `contentious meeting' with the Afghan President Karzai at the White house on Wednesday, Mir suggested that President Musharraf was merely trying to get back at Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.
"Like George Bush and Hamid Karzai, Musharraf does not have any exact information about the location of Osama Bin Laden," said Mir, adding that the reason the general had made such a comment could perhaps be because "he is trying to taunt Mr Hamid Karzai - President Karzai has claimed many times that Bin Laden in hiding in Pakistan".
And so the process of seperating the smoke from the mirrors continues...