WASHINGTON: A top Taliban commander said Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden was alive and well.
"All praise be to Allah, he is extremely healthy and active," commander Mansour Dadullah said in a video interview, according to a transcript of the video's English subtitled translation, released on Tuesday by the analyst IntelCentre.
Dadullah, whose brother Mullah Dadullah was also a top commander in the Afghanistan-based militants and was killed this year, said he had been contacted by Bin Laden, the man blamed for the 9/11 attacks. "I received a message from him in which he advised me 'I must follow Mullah Dadullah and continue the same activities so that the mujahideen (Islamic fighters) may not weaken," he said, according to the transcript. The video is dated June 15, 2007, IntelCentre said.
Bin Laden, who has a $50-million (BD19m) US bounty on his head, has appeared in a series of video and audio clips since the 9-11 attacks but has not been heard from since May 2006, when the CIA authenticated a voice recording on the Internet as his.
In the recording, accompanied by online text, Bin Laden said Zacarias Moussaoui, a 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan origin and the only man convicted in the 9/11 attacks, had nothing to do with the operation. The recording surfaced on May 23, 2006, about two weeks after Moussaoui was sentenced at a court in Alexandria, Virginia to life imprisonment.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=191481&Sn=WORL&IssueID=30156
Suspected terrorist seeking asylum in Slovakia
8.22.07
Algerian citizen Mustapha Labsi, suspected of cooperating with al-Qaeda, has asked for asylum in Slovakia, the Nový čas daily reported on August 22.
Labsi, who has been in prison in Slovakia, was to be extradited to Algeria. But the process has been suspended due to his asylum application.
http://www.slovakspectator.sk/clanok.asp?cl=28784
SCOTLAND could face attacks by "home-grown" terrorists unless urgent action is taken, according to a prominent Muslim community leader.
Mohammed Akram, president of the Council of British Pakistanis (Scotland), warned there was no evidence that the country would be "immune" to incidents like the 7/7 bombings which targeted London's transport network.
His comments came as a report revealed that almost half of Scotland's mosque leaders believed extremism existed in Muslim communities north of the Border. A study by the council found that the "vast majority" of imams blamed the UK government's foreign policy.
Excerpted
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1335502007
Egypt makes Muslim Brotherhood arrests
August 23, 2007
CAIRO, Egypt - Two lawmakers from the banned Muslim Brotherhood were arrested Wednesday, officials said, in an intensifying crackdown on the nation's most powerful opposition movement.
Legislators Sabri Amer and Ragab Abu Zaid were arrested in Manufiya, a district some 50 miles north of Cairo, in early morning raids on their homes, a police official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the two were "wanted for questioning in a case with other Brotherhood members."
The two legislators had their parliament immunity stripped in May after state security accused them of taking part in the group's unlawful activities. But no arrest warrants had been issued against them.
Excerpted
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070823/ap_on_re_mi_ea/egypt_opposition_arrests
Bin Laden active says Taliban chief
August 22, 2007
WASHINGTON: A top Taliban commander said Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden was alive and well.
“All praise be to Allah, he is extremely healthy and active,” commander Mansour Dadullah said in a video interview, according to a transcript of the video’s English subtitled translation, released on Tuesday by the analyst IntelCentre.
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Didn’t Mansour Dadullah say the same thing just a few months ago?
Answering my own question ;-)
Yes he did:
Bin Laden alive and well, says Taliban
Mark Oliver
****Tuesday June 5, 2007****
Guardian Unlimited
The brother of a Taliban commander killed by US forces has claimed that he received a letter of condolence from Osama Bin Laden, who was “alive, active and well”.
In a television interview today, Haji Mansour Dadullah said the al-Qaida leader had expressed sympathy for the death of his brother, Mullah Dadullah, who was killed by US forces last month.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2095975,00.html