Pre-9/11 bin Laden tape aired

CAIRO, Egypt — An Arab television station broadcast previously unseen footage Thursday of a smiling Osama bin Laden meeting with the top planners of the Sept. 11 attacks in an Afghan mountain camp and calling on followers to pray for the hijackers as they carry out the suicide mission.

The sections shown on Al-Jazeera TV were part of a video that al-Qaida announced it would release later on the Internet to mark the fifth anniversary of the airborne attacks on the United States.

The footage was broadcast on the same day Al-Qaida in Iraq released what was purported to be the first audiotape by its new leader, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, in which he vowed victory was coming and condemned Sunni Muslims cooperating with the Iraqi government.

Al-Muhajer was named leader of Iraq's most feared terror group after his predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a June 7 airstrike north of Baghdad. The U.S. military has put a $5 million bounty on al-Muhajer's head.

The bin Laden video includes the last testament of two of the hijackers, Wail al-Shehri and Hamza al-Ghamdi. It shows bin Laden strolling in the camp, greeting followers, who Al-Jazeera said included some of the hijackers. But their faces are not clear in the video, and it was not immediately known which are purportedly shown.

In one scene, bin Laden addresses the camera, calling on followers to support the hijackers.

"I ask you to pray for them and to ask God to make them successful, aim their shots well, set their feet strong and strengthen their hearts," bin Laden said. The comments were apparently filmed before the attacks but never before released.

The footage was the fourth in a series of long videos that al-Qaida has put out to memorialize the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings against the Pentagon and World Trade Center, said Ben Venzke, head of IntelCenter, a private U.S. company that monitors militant message traffic and provides counterterrorism intelligence services for the American government.

The previous ones were issued in April and September 2002 and September 2003, each showing footage from the planning of the suicide hijackings and hijackers' last testimonies, Venzke told The Associated Press.

The latest full video probably lasts from 40 minutes to two hours, based on the past ones, he said. Al-Jazeera did not say how it obtained the video, which bore the logo of As-Sahab, al-Qaida's media branch.

"They produce long videos like these not just for 9-11, but for any significant events they feel warrant their attention," Venzke said.