WASHINGTON/DUBAI, 4 August 2003 — US plans to bring terror suspects before military tribunals has angered Al-Qaeda, judging from a new tape attributed to a top leader in the network accused in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The purported Al-Qaeda audiotape aired yesterday on the Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya notes “America has announced it will start putting Muslim prisoners in Guantanamo on trial before military courts that could sentence them to death,” and says the United States will “pay dearly” if it harms the detainees.
US Attorney General John Ashcroft, speaking yesterday on ABC’s “This Week,” said he did not know if the tape was authentic, but said it signaled to America “that the war is still under way, that Al-Qaeda still has the same intentions toward the United States that it did when it unleashed its savage attack on Sept. 11.”
The voice believed to be Al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman Al-Zawahiri vowed to take revenge if any prisoners held at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay sentenced to death, in the tape recording.
About 680 alleged members of Al-Qaeda and Afghanistan’s deposed Taleban regime are imprisoned at Guantanamo. Originating from 42 countries, they have been held and interrogated by the United States there for up to 18 months.
Classified as “illegal combatants” by President George W. Bush, their fate is uncertain. Several groups have already been returned to their countries of origin, where the local authorities decide if they are to be released.
But hundreds more remain in Guantanamo with the prospect of facing a US military tribunal, which can pass the death sentence. “By judging them America will hold its own trial, and by condemning them it will condemn itself,” said the voice on the tape, the authenticity of which could not be immediately confirmed.
“We expect neither justice nor fairness from America when it shows little interest in the principles to which it subscribes.”
Anti-US attacks worldwide will intensify, the voice warned. “What America has seen up until now is nothing but the first round of skirmishes. The big battle has not yet started.” The tape urged the American people to “take the initiative and follow the path of reason and wisdom before it’s too late.”
It also warned “all those who helped (the US) arrest” the Guantanamo detainees that “they will pay the same price” as the United States, which “is not capable of defending itself, and even less of defending them”.
“May each prisoner held by the infidels know that their liberation is the responsibility of all the Mujahedeen and that the day of liberation is close.”
On July 3, the Pentagon announced Bush had designated six prisoners to become the first terrorism suspects who could be tried before military tribunals. Trial dates have not been set. At Guantanamo, US officials are preparing a makeshift courtroom, a permanent detention facility and an execution chamber.