In Video, Bin Laden Puts a New Slant on His Jihad

On the eve of his intended destruction, he surfaced again--gaunt, glaring, angry--and promising a nightmare that will not fade.

Only two and a half hours after the U.S. launched its attack on Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia and on bases of his Al Qaeda network, Osama bin Laden appeared on millions of television screens throughout the world.

From an undisclosed location, Bin Laden spoke for several minutes on a videotape broadcast by Al Jazeera, the CNN-like Arab news network based on this barren peninsula jutting into the Persian Gulf.

The speech was brief, unapologetic and inflammatory. Bin Laden renewed his call for a jihad, or holy war, against America. And he took a new tack by casting his actions as a response to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Previously, Al Qaeda has made little mention of the Palestinian uprising. The new approach appears to be an effort to tap into widespread and deep sympathy for the Palestinians throughout the Muslim world.

“These events have divided the whole world into two sides. The side of believers and the side of infidels,” he said.

Al Jazeera officials said their correspondent in Kabul was given the tape Sunday by a representative of Bin Laden, though the exact time of delivery was unclear. They said they were unsure when it was taped, though they believed it might have been “two or three days” before the airstrikes.

They said they had no idea whether Bin Laden had planned to deliver the tape as a show of defiance. They described its delivery on the day of the bombings as a “coincidence.” The tape was aired soon after it was received, station officials said.

White House Discredits Tape as a Response

In Washington, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer scoffed at the tape and noted that it appeared to have been made in daylight. The bombings began at night.

“Obviously, it was taped way in advance of this action,” he said. “Obviously, it was put out for the purpose of giving people the impression that Osama bin Laden was speaking after the attack.”

A U.S. national security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “We figure it probably was done a couple of days ago for release if and when any action was taken.”

Al Jazeera has been accused by Arab nations as well as the U.S. of showing inflammatory footage of the intifada, the year-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell recently asked the network’s owner, the ruler of Qatar, to “tone down” the coverage.

“There was someone in the Osama bin Laden network that just delivered it. He had no idea when we would broadcast it,” said one person in the newsroom, who declined to be identified. Al Jazeera has broadcast several interviews with Bin Laden and in recent days has claimed an exclusive link with Al Qaeda.

No matter what the case, the tape was a public relations coup: It showed Bin Laden’s ability to escape the dragnet that has surrounded him for weeks, and it competed for air time with footage of the U.S. attack.

During the broadcast, Bin Laden spoke slowly into a microphone in front of what appeared to be a rocky outcropping, a rifle by his side. He praised those who attacked the United States on Sept. 11 that left nearly 5,600 missing or dead.

Bin Laden was flanked by several men, including Ayman Zawahiri, who is thought to be his top aide.

“There is America, hit by God in one of its softest spots. Its greatest buildings were destroyed, thank God for that. There is America, full of fear from its north to its south, from its west to its east. Thank God for that,” Bin Laden said. “What America is tasting now is something insignificant compared to what we have tasted for scores of years.”

He also accused the world’s “infidel” nations of having a double standard by expressing outrage at the terrorist attacks against the West while ignoring Muslims killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or those who have died after the U.S. imposed sanctions against Iraq. The United States, he said, had committed far worse crimes, such as the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Most chillingly, Bin Laden seemed to imply more terrorism is to come.

“To America, I say only a few words to it and its people: I swear to God that America will not live in peace before peace reigns in Palestine, and before all the army of infidels depart the land of Muhammad, peace be upon him,” he said.

Videotape Reveals More Than Rhetoric

The tape was revealing in several ways. First, Bin Laden, who has long been rumored to suffer from kidney disease, looked much thinner than he did in the last accurately dated tape of him, taken in January on the occasion of his son’s wedding.

Second, he was preceded on the tape by Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor who some suspect may secretly run the network. Zawahiri is the former leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which has terrorized Egypt’s leaders for nearly three decades.

Finally, both Zawahiri and Bin Laden linked their actions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Previously, they had invoked their jihad by reference to supposedly corrupt Arab governments and the U.S. presence in Muslim countries.

“We cannot accept that Palestine will become Jewish,” Zawahiri said. “This is a new battle, like the battle for Jerusalem.”

But the speech may have negative repercussions, according to some Islamic experts who viewed the broadcast. Mohammad Sayed Said, a political scientist in Cairo, said that during the broadcast, Bin Laden “implicitly but strongly” admitted his guilt in the Sept. 11 attacks.

That “may really backfire,” Said said. “People will think this is a confession of sorts and see it with revulsion.”

Those who learned of the airstrikes Sunday night expressed far more fear about the spread of the conflict than the prospect of joining it.

Khalid bin Jabor al Thani, a former government health official and member of Qatar’s ruling family, was relaxing with friends in a coffee shop when he learned of the bombing.

Thani said he was most worried about what would happen within Muslim countries once word spread of the Afghanistan attack.

“The whole thing is a big mess,” Thani said. “The aftermath will have repercussions. It will have a ripple effect.”

Thani doubted that many Muslims would jump to heed Bin Laden’s call to join a holy war. “We are afraid these things might spill over,” he said.

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Times staff writers Michael Slackman in Amman, Jordan, and Bob Drogin in Washington contributed to this report.