Paper says it has unseen video by Atta
A previously unseen video made by Mohamed Atta, ringleader of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, has been obtained by Britain's The Sunday Times, the newspaper reported Saturday.
In editions available late Saturday, the paper said it had been handed the so-called martyrdom video, but did not reveal the source of the tape.
It reported that Atta was filmed reading a document marked in Arabic as a will as he sat beside fellow hijacker Ziad Jarrah — who seized control of United Airlines flight 93, which crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pa.
The newspaper said that a timecode stamp on the videotape indicated it had been recorded on January 18, 2000 and the recording was made at an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan.
There was no soundtrack, the newspaper said. It quoted an unnamed U.S. source as saying that attempts to lip read the tape to transcribe the content had been unsuccessful.
The recording could help resolve questions over Atta's whereabouts in January 2000, after he fled his home in Hamburg, Germany.
Osama bin Laden is also shown on the hour-long video addressing supporters at a site in Kandahar, Afghanistan, the newspaper reported. It said a timecode stamp indicated the al-Qaida leader was speaking on January 8, 2000.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061001/ap_on_re_eu/sept11_video&printer=1;_ylt=AgTJwzH0jeieYmAkVbDRdjBbbBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Preliminary analysis of Zawahiri 9/29/2006 video courtesy of Laura Mansfield:
The video released yesterday by Al Qaeda second-in-command Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri was supposed to be a ranting attack against the US administration, with vitriolic jabs at President George W. Bush, and was intended to influence the US public just a month before the 2006 interim elections.
Instead the video gave the appearance of an organization that has become distracted and is on the run.
It’s interesting to note that in the first portion of the tape, Zawahiri wears a white robe with a black turban and scarf; but in the second and third portion of the tape he wears a white turban.
It’s surprising what can be gleaned from a mere 18 minutes or so of video tape.
The first ten minutes of the tape containing the diatribe against Bush is recorded in what appears to be some sort of studio, like the last several Zawahiri tapes, with proper lighting and what is most likely a chromo-key backdrop. That portion of the tape has English subtitles.
The backdrop features a white flag containing the words “There is no God but Allah; Mohamed is the Messenger of Allah” in Arabic, as well as a small cannon to the left of Zawahri pointed to the right. There is a light on the left as well.
Approximately ten minutes into the tape, when the portion discussing Bush ends abruptly, a dramatic shift in video quality is seen.
The remaining two segements of the three-segment tape are videotaped in front of what appears to be a sheet of brown fabric. Although Zawahiri wears a microphone, the lighting is of a much poorer quality, as is the sound quality, resulting in a dramatically different appearance for Bin Laden’s lieutenant.
Based on the way the hanging fabric backdrop moves, it is possible that this portion of the tape was filmed outdoors.
The tape, which was released just two weeks after the remarks by Pope Benedict XVI regarding Islam, gives the appearance that the first portion was complete and ready to release, but that the statements of the Pope compelled Zawahiri to film a postscript of sorts to address those comments.
The fact that Zawahri did not film the portions of the tape dealing with the Pope and Darfur in his studio may indicate some sort of time pressure to get the tape out on schedule. It also seems to demonstrate the existence of some sort of logistical issues in reaching his usual studio or having a cameraman with a portable studio come to his location.
This is further evidence by an examination of the digital signatures of the different portions of the tape, which indicates that they were filmed using two different camera types.
In addition to examining the tape itself, a review of the content of the message is also somewhat different that previous Zawahiri messages.
The first ten minutes or so of the tape was devoted to the diatribe against President Bush, with Zawahiri calling him a liar repeatedly, as well as a charlatan, and claiming that he is lying to the American people about the “disasters they face in Iraq and Afghanistan”.
In each tape, Zawahiri, who has never been a Bush supporter, seems to become bolder and more overtly hostile to President Bush, this time spewing insults at the President repeatedly..
He stresses over and over that the US could not possibly have gotten any valuable information from captured Al Qaeda mujahid Khalid Sheikh Mohamed. In fact, after listening to his repetition of this claim several times during the first few minutes of the message, the phrase “me thinks he doth protest too much” comes to mind.
Instead of convincing the world that no information has been obtained from Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, Zawahiri gives the impression that valuable intelligence has in fact been obtained, and that it has hurt his organization.
Zawahiri shows that he is in touch with western media reports, echoing the sentiments of the American anti-war movement, claiming that the reasons that Bush cited for going to war with Iraq were fabricating, citing the failure to find nuclear weapons in Iraq and the lack of evidence linking Al Qaeda with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Zawahiri implies the existence of current Al Qaeda terror attacks in the US on a daily basis but offers no proof or even specific information about these alleged attacks in this statement: “But, by the grace of God, we are taking revenge on their behalf on a daily basis from your soldiers and the soldiers of your allies and agents in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula, and all Muslim countries from Indonesia to Morocco and even in your own country every day.”
The Bush portion of the tape appears incomplete; it is likely that we will see more of this tape at some point in the future.
The remaining seven minutes of the tape discuss the Pope’s comments, and make reference to the situation in Darfur, Sudan.
Zawahiri calls the Pope a charlatan, and compares him to Pope Urban II, who launched the first Crusade in 1095. Zawahiri threatens the Pope with the same fate as that of Urban II, which is somewhat confusing considering that Pope Urban II died fourteen days after Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders.
Zawahiri accuses Pope Benedict of blaspheming the Prophet Mohamed. He claims the Pope has forgotten that the book (a reference to the Bible) “does not have an authentic source and did not descend on Jesus”.
He accuses the Pope of pretending to forget that “Christianity cannot be accepted by a sound mind because it includes superstitions like the trinity, the crucifixion, redemption, the original sin, the infallibility of the pope, and the church's forgiveness of sins.”
In the segment on Darfur, Zawahiri tells the Muslims of the region that they must stand up against the “Zionist-Crusader threat”, which their own government is too weak or corrupt to withstand.
Please see the full translation for more information.
Coming up in the next post.
http://www.lauramansfield.com
Thanks Velveeta.