Al-Qaeda releases new videotape

Sunday, September 3, 2006

A 41 minute long video, released by al-Qaeda, has appeared on the internet featuring an al-Qaeda operative wanted by the FBI.

The man speaking on the tape is known as Azzam or Adam Yahiye Gadahn, 28, a native of the United States and from California. He calls himself "Azzam the American."

Al-Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri introduced him on the video. Zawahiri gives "an Invitation to [join] Islam" before making the introduction.

"To Americans and the rest of Christendom, we say either repent misguided ways and enter into the light of truth or keep your poison to yourself and suffer the consequences in this world and the next. We invite all Americans and unbelievers to Islam. Muslims don't need democracy to rid themselves of their homegrown despots and tyrants," said Gadahn.

"Ignorance of Islam causes the people of the West to rapturously applaud when Israel perpetrates wholesale slaughter of Muslims in Lebanon and Palestine and leads them to give their consent to the atrocities that governments commit in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the Muslim world," added Gadahn.

The CIA has confirmed that one of the voices on the tape is Zawahiri, but has not confirmed if the other voice is Gadahn.

Zawahiri and Gadahn were not speaking together.