wid/medialine: AL-QAEDA THREATENS U.S. AND JEWS IN NEW TAPE: 'THE WAR HAS
ONLY JUST BEGUN' AND 'WE WILL STRIKE WHEN AND WHERE WE WISH'

By Michael Widlanski (The Media Line)

Sunday, June 23, 2002 2:49 PM

Osama Bin-Laden's terror group Al-Qaeda issued a series of threats Sunday
morning against the United States and Jews, proclaiming that Bin-Laden and
the other leaders of the organization were alive and well.

The threatening message enunciated by Al-Qaeda spokeman Suleiman Abu-Gheith
was the first major Al-Qaeda message in many weeks, specifically mentioning
President George Bush and other key members of his Administration such as
Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"Sheikh Osama Bin-Laden is in good health, praise Allah," said the Al-Qaeda
spokesman, "and so it is with Dr. Ayman Zawahri and Mullah Omar," he
continued referring to the organization's three key leaders who were
believed to have been wounded in the Tora Bora battles in Afghanistan.

Abu-Gheith promised that Al-Qaeda was getting ready for new attacks on the
United States and on Jews around the world to protest America's "anti-Muslim
tendency.,"

However, at least one intelligence source in Israel told The Media Line that
the Bin-Laden group may be trying to harass the American security community
into making erors of judgment that will reveal areas of weakness and
readiness.

While there was no clear indication of the terror group's continued
operational capabilities, the message was a strong sign that the terror
group continued in its hatred from America and its desire at least to harass
it on the eve of its Independence Day celebration.

The Al-Qaeda threats came in an apparently new, seven-minute long audio tape
message delivered to Al-Jazeera Arab satellite television, and they included
the following key points:

*--Bin-Laden and "98-per cent of the Al-Qaeda leadership" are alive and well
and plotting to strike at America and the world's Jews at various points
around the world;

*--Al-Qaeda took responsibility for an attack on an ancient synagogue and
tourist site in Tunisia in which 17 people were murdered, including 11
German tourists;

*--And Bin-Laden and his organization were planning on initiating new terror
attacks on the United States beyond the World Trade Center and Pentagon
attacks of last September in which more than 2,000 people were murdered.

"While the Palestinians bleed in their land, the Jews will scream in their
city, as they saw in their synagogue in Djerba (the island community in
Tunisia)," proclaimed Al-Qaeda spokesman Abu-Gheith.

He said America was fooling itself into believing that it had hurt Bin-Laden
with the military strikes at his bases in Afghanistan.

"In fact, I can say that 98-percent of the Al-Qaeda organization are in
completely good health," said the organization spokesman.

"Muslims around the world who struggle in Allah's path will soon see Sheikh
Osama Bin-Laden again," Abu-Gheith said, adding "the war has only begun."

© 2002 Michael Widlanski
Michael Widlanski is senior analyst at The Media Line and lecturer at The
Rothberg School of the Hebrew University. Fuller versions of this article
and others are available at www.themedialine.org