Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Voice of Terror
Aired October 20, 2003 - 09:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's turn now to audio tapes said to be a recording of Osama bin Laden. U.S. officials say they are analyzing the tapes, which aired over the weekend on Al Jazeera Television.
CNN's Mike Boettcher joins us from the CNN Center with more on this this morning.
Mike, good morning.
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. Well, there were two messages. One addressed to the Arab world. The other to the people in the United States. Now, in the address to the Americans, Osama bin Laden, or the voice believed to be Osama bin Laden, and analysis is still under way by the CIA to make sure it is, but that voice threatened the United States with more suicide attacks, both within and outside U.S. borders. And the message to the Arab world, he asked young Muslims to rise up and fight a jihad against the United States in Iraq. He also urged Iraqis not to join any government that was being formed by the United States in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Any government that's formed by America will be an agent, a puppet government, just like all the other governments in the area like Karzai or Mahmoud Abbas that were set up to shed the blood of Muslims.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOETTCHER: Now the last tape released by bin Laden or by people following him was on September 10th, and in that, it was a general message by Osama bin Laden, but no time reference. In this particular audio tape, there are two time references, one where he just referred in that audio you just heard to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas resigned September 6th. He also refers to U.S. deficit figures, which were released in Washington July 15th. So the conventional wisdom, with terrorism experts and intelligence analysts is, this tape, if it is Osama bin Laden, was probably made somewhere in late summer -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Well, Mike, as you point out, there's this rallying cry for jihad against the United States. Is there any sense, any indication, and maybe it's too early to really see this, of an impact of those words?
BOETTCHER: Well, I received a call last week from a source and friend of mine who lives in one of the Palestinian camps near Beirut, who told me that there is heavy recruitment inside those camps for people to go fight in Iraq, and he said he knew eleven of his friends who had volunteered and who had left to go infiltrate into Iraq and fight U.S. forces -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Scary stuff. Mike Boettcher, thanks for that update.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 20, 2003 - 09:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's turn now to audio tapes said to be a recording of Osama bin Laden. U.S. officials say they are analyzing the tapes, which aired over the weekend on Al Jazeera Television.
CNN's Mike Boettcher joins us from the CNN Center with more on this this morning.
Mike, good morning.
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. Well, there were two messages. One addressed to the Arab world. The other to the people in the United States. Now, in the address to the Americans, Osama bin Laden, or the voice believed to be Osama bin Laden, and analysis is still under way by the CIA to make sure it is, but that voice threatened the United States with more suicide attacks, both within and outside U.S. borders. And the message to the Arab world, he asked young Muslims to rise up and fight a jihad against the United States in Iraq. He also urged Iraqis not to join any government that was being formed by the United States in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Any government that's formed by America will be an agent, a puppet government, just like all the other governments in the area like Karzai or Mahmoud Abbas that were set up to shed the blood of Muslims.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOETTCHER: Now the last tape released by bin Laden or by people following him was on September 10th, and in that, it was a general message by Osama bin Laden, but no time reference. In this particular audio tape, there are two time references, one where he just referred in that audio you just heard to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas resigned September 6th. He also refers to U.S. deficit figures, which were released in Washington July 15th. So the conventional wisdom, with terrorism experts and intelligence analysts is, this tape, if it is Osama bin Laden, was probably made somewhere in late summer -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Well, Mike, as you point out, there's this rallying cry for jihad against the United States. Is there any sense, any indication, and maybe it's too early to really see this, of an impact of those words?
BOETTCHER: Well, I received a call last week from a source and friend of mine who lives in one of the Palestinian camps near Beirut, who told me that there is heavy recruitment inside those camps for people to go fight in Iraq, and he said he knew eleven of his friends who had volunteered and who had left to go infiltrate into Iraq and fight U.S. forces -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Scary stuff. Mike Boettcher, thanks for that update.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
