A chilling videotape of an alleged member of al-Qaeda, cradling a rifle, eyes closed, is among videos and photos of five suspects delivering what authorities call "martyrdom messages from suicide terrorists."
Attorney General John Ashcroft released the videos and photos Thursday, urging the public to help "identify, locate and incapacitate terrorists who are suspected of planning additional attacks against innocent civilians."
One of those depicted was an associate of hijacking ringleader Mohammed Atta. Authorities believe the man intended to take part in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Ashcroft said the videotapes had been recovered recently from the rubble of the home of Mohammad Atef, believed to have been Osama bin Laden's military chief. Officials say Atef was killed by a US airstrike in November.
The sound was left out of the released versions to guard against the possibility that the messages contained signals for other terrorists, officials said.
In one video a man buries his head in his arms for moment. The next image is of the same man, eyes closed, hugging a rifle. He leans his face close to the barrel, his lips appearing to touch it. He then looks up and smiles.
The strap of the rifle is inscribed with Arabic writing that the man seems to be showing off. Officials did not transcribe the message.
The videos were shown without sound. Ashcroft said preliminary translations of statements from the men indicated they may have been trained and prepared for attacks.
"The videotapes depict young men delivering what appear to be martyrdom messages from suicide terrorists," said Ashcroft.
Authorities don't know where the men are; there is no evidence they ever entered the US.
"These men could be anywhere in the world," Ashcroft said, urging viewers to call the FBI or an American consulate if they think they've seen any of the five men.
He said the government had tentatively identified four of the five men depicted in the video as: Abd Al-Rahim, Muhammad Sa'id Ali Hasan, Khalid Ibn Muhammad Al-Juhani and Ramzi Binalshibh. The fifth man's identify is not known.
Ashcroft said little was known of the five except Binalshibh, a Yemeni whom officials allege was an associate of the Sept. 11 suicide hijacker Atta.
In the indictment handed down in December against Zacarias Moussaoui, Binalshibh was named along with Atta and the 18 other hijackers as an unindicted conspirator.
At a news conference, Ashcroft showed 30-second videos of Hasan, Al-Rahim and Al-Juhani. There were technical problems with the videos of the other two men; for them, the government released only still photos taken from the tapes. Photos shot from the tapes were also released for the other three.
Ashcroft said investigators were still translating the tapes; a decision about releasing the sound or a translation would be made after weighing security concerns, he said, adding that the department may decide not to release the sound.
"The portions we released today we felt were safe for release and we didn't believe they contained any surreptitious messages or coded signals that would be designed to alert parts of the terrorist network," Ashcroft said.
In the tapes, Hasan speaks, eyes cast down; he appears to be reading but only his face is shown. He wears a black and white scarf around his head.
Al-Rahim is shown seated, talking and gesturing rapidly, at one point holding fingers up as if listing off various points.
Al-Juhani is shown seated in front of a colorful curtain taking a red and white scarf off his head and burying his head in his arms.
Ashcroft said the release of the video footage and photos was part of an effort to help "freedom-loving people become the best line of self-defense."
As for the attack that he said was called for in the video, Ashcroft said: "Whether or not the attack would be imminent or not is something we can't determine."
FBI Director Robert Mueller said the videos came "from a trove of valuable information" discovered within Afghanistan. He said the tapes are still being analyzed to determine when they were made. He said there was no evidence any of the men had entered the US, although at least one had tried.
"Every piece of information is potentially valuable," he said. "The principle is simple: An informed and enlightened public works."
Mueller said that as the US military action goes forward, "it continues in ways that I think supports what we and the CIA are engaged in, which is identifying terrorists and preventing future attacks."
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS