Is Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Najdi Really Karl Rove?

THE ALERT LEVEL SHOULD BE RAISED WITHIN DAY. ROVE WILL DO A POLL TO
SEE HOW THE SPEECH DID. IF SHRUB IS STILL PLUNGING, WE'LL FIND WMD IN IRAQ OR GO TO "IMMINENT ATTACK" STATUS.
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Al-Qaida issues a chilling warning

Brian Whitaker and agencies
Monday September 8, 2003
The Guardian

A new tape purporting to be from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network yesterday threatened an onslaught against Americans so devastating it would obliterate memories of the September 11 suicide attacks.

The audio tape message, dated September 3, was broadcast on al-Arabiyya satellite TV channel yesterday and seemed timed to coincide with the second anniversary of the devastation in New York and Washington in which about 3,000 people were killed.

"We announce there will be new attacks inside and outside [the US] which would make America forget the attacks of September 11," said an al-Qaida spokesman who identified himself as Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Najdi. The television showed a still photograph of a bearded militant.

"We assure Muslims that al-Qaida ranks have doubled ... Our casualties are nothing compared to our (good) conditions now. Our coming martyrdom operations will prove to you what we are saying," he added.

The speaker denied al-Qaida had been involved in the car bombing that killed Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim, a leading Shia cleric, in Iraq last month.

Some reports have suggested that al-Qaida might have been behind the attack, though others have blamed Ba'athist supporters of Saddam Hussein, or possibly rival Shia elements.

"We strongly deny that al-Qaida had any hand in this bombing which killed Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim, violated the sanctity of one of God's houses and killed innocent people," the speaker said on the tape. "Our highest aim is to fight the Americans and kill them everywhere on earth and drive them out of Palestine, the Arabian peninsula and Iraq," he continued.

He accused the US and Israel of orchestrating the attack on Ayatollah Hakim because, he said, they feared that his links to Iran would boost the Islamic republic's influence in the area.

"We have no motives. Those who killed Baqr al-Hakim are the Americans and Jews. They wanted to get rid of him because they know that his loyalty was to Iran," he said.

Another motive behind the assassination, he added, was to incite trouble between Shias and Sunnis and turn the Shia, who form 60% of Iraq's population, against al-Qaida, which is dominated by an austere version of Sunni Islam.

There was no immediate verification of the speaker's identity. Al-Qaida has purportedly issued five other audio tapes this year threatening action against the US. Bin Laden and his deputies also made several appearances in videos circulated during 2001.

Mr Najdi was first mentioned as an al-Qaida spokesman in another audio tape broadcast by al-Arabiyya on August 17. The organisation's previous spokesman was Sulaiman abu Ghaith, a Kuwaiti-born teacher.

In the tape released in August, Mr Najdi urged Iraqis to continue their "jihad" (religious struggle) against US troops occupying their country.

In the tape broadcast yesterday, he said that Bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar, the ousted Taliban leader, were both alive and leading the battle against US-led forces in Afghanistan.

He urged Muslims to fight against US forces elsewhere. "God has opened the doors of jihad in Iraq and Palestine, so do not close them," he said.

The latest tape appears to reinforce warnings by the FBI and homeland security officials last week that al-Qaida is still targeting Americans and has a presence in the US.

The US department of homeland security said it remained concerned about al-Qaida's "continued efforts to plan multiple attacks against the US and US interests overseas."