Video aims to incite Muslims

CAIRO, Egypt — Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims to step up their resistance against the U.S. in a video aired by CNN early today on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The footage appeared to be new as al-Zawahri refers to Israel's bombardment of Lebanon this summer and the capture of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah and militants in Gaza.

"Your leaders are hiding from you the true extent of the disaster," al-Zawahri says in the video. "And the days are pregnant and giving birth to new events, with Allah's permission and guidance."

The video could not be located by The Associated Press on any militant Web sites that normally carry messages and videos from al-Zawahri and other al-Qaida figures. As-Sahab, the terror network's media arm, posted notices late Sunday that the video would be posted shortly.

It was unclear where CNN got the tape. The network quoted a counterterrorism expert as saying the video had appeared on the Web site for As-Sahab, but the production company normally uses other Islamic Web sites to post its material.

Another videotape posted on the Internet late Sunday, purportedly by al-Qaida, showed previously unseen footage of a smiling Osama bin Laden and other commanders in a mountain camp apparently planning the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The documentary-like retrospective of the five years since the attacks was unusually long and sophisticated in its production quality compared to previous al-Qaida videos. The footage — with English subtitles — surfaced on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the attacks on a Web site that frequently airs messages from bin Laden's terror network. "Planning for Sept. 11 did not take place behind computer monitors or radar screens, nor inside military command and control centers, but was surrounded with divine protection in an atmosphere brimming with brotherliness ... and love for sacrificing life," an unidentified narrator said.

The earlier video released Sunday was stamped with the emblem of As-Sahab, al-Qaida's media branch.

IntelCenter said the video released Sunday was titled "Knowledge is for Acting Upon" and subtitled "The Manhattan Raid." It was 91 minutes long and consisted of two segments, the first of which was 55 minutes.

The first segment showed the al-Qaida leader meeting with colleagues in a mountain camp believed to be in Afghanistan, as well as video clips of Vice President Dick Cheney defending his old job at the oil company Halliburton, and President Bush at his inauguration.