http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20640658/
Details of purported bin Laden video emerge
Officials: No specific threat made; Web sites carrying tape shut down
NBC News and news services
Updated: 12:58 p.m. CT Sept 7, 2007
WASHINGTON - (excerpted)
The U.S. government has obtained a new video of Osama bin Laden marking the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and is analyzing it, a counterterror official said Friday.
Several intelligence agencies were looking at the 25-minute video — the first new images of the terror leader in nearly three years.
The tape contains no specific threat, senior U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News’ Robert Windrem. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Officials said bin Laden criticized Democrats in Congress in the video for being unable to stop the war in Iraq. The al-Qaida leader also urged young Muslims to carry out suicide bombings against the West — a piece of advice he offers in most tapes.
Bin Laden also recommended reading books by American authors Noam Chomsky and Michael Scheuer, a former CIA analyst, officials said. Chomsky’s book cites various examples of American imperialism, while Scheuer’s book argues that the U.S. does not understand the Islamic predicament.
Bin Laden also suggests the Jews could have avoided the Holocaust if they had put themselves under the protection of Muslims and indicates that the mujahadeen are now determining U.S. policy. . .
Web sites shut down
Soon after Washington announced it had the video, all the Islamic militant Web sites that usually carry statements from al-Qaida went down and were inaccessible, in an unprecedented shutdown.
The reason for the shutdown was not immediately known. Evan Kohlmann, an NBC News terrorism expert, said he suspected it was the work of al-Qaida itself, trying to find how the video leaked to U.S. officials.
“For them this is totally disruptive that the U.S. government could have a copy before their targeted audience does,” he said. “They could be concerned and trying to plug the leak quickly.”
Another possibility is that the U.S. government shut down the sites, but that was unlikely, he said.
“I don’t think they would have the legal or technical capability to do so, to collectively shut all these sites at the same time. Also, I don’t think the U.S. government is necessarily interested in shutting these sites down, unless there is something so provocative and dangerous in what bin Laden is saying.”
“It’s pretty remote that the content of his speech is so incendiary that they would shut down all the sites. The idea that they (U.S. government) could totally prevent this from coming out on the Internet is ludicrous,” he said. . .
The Associated Press and NBC News’ Robert Windrem contributed to this report.