M A I N   N E W S

Al Qaida statement chilling: Powell

Washington, October 10
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said new threats by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaida network today were chilling but he vowed USA’s anti-terrorism campaign would put a stop to such boasts.

“Chilling words from a terrorist, the kind of words you expect to hear from an evil person with no good intention in mind,” he said Powell, commenting on a statement made by a spokesman for the Al Qaida network on Qatar’s Al-Jazeera satellite television station.

The spokesman, Sulaiman Bu Ghaith, said there would be more attacks on the USA until it “exits our land,” stopped supporting Jews and lifted sanctions on Iraq.

“There is the land of Palestine living under Jewish occupation and its people groaning from all of this killing and massacres and nobody moves.”

The USA, meanwhile, said Mr Powell would leave on a visit to the Asian subcontinent some time after Friday in order to thank India and Pakistan for their support to the fight against terrorism. Agencies

‘We are as keen to die as Americans to live’

Dubai, October 10
Sulaiman Bu Ghaith, spokesman for Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaida, in a videotaped statement broadcast on Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite television yesterday, said: “Praise be to God who shows unjust people the right path and prayer and peace be upon our Prophet Mohammad. May God’s peace and blessings be upon him and his kin and companions, and peace be upon him and those who follow his track until doomsday.

“I direct this message to the entire Muslim nation and say that ranks have united against the nation of Islam and Muslims and here the crusade that Mr George Bush had promised has started against the Muslim land of Afghanistan and its devout people,” he said, adding that they were living under shelling that targeted the entire nation. “The nation should know that we have a just cause. Here is the Islamic nation groaning for more than 80 years under the weight of the joint Jewish-crusader aggression.”

“There is the land of Palestine living under Jewish occupation and its people groaning from all of this killing and massacres and nobody moves. Here is the land of the Arabian peninsula being tarnished with the feet of those who came to occupy this land and rape these (Islamic) sanctities and loot these resources,” he said.

“The (Muslim) nation should know that what the USA is saying and declaring is a form of deception. Reuters