A Palestinian newspaper has reported that after a year of silence, Osama bin Laden will soon release a new audio message to be broadcast on television. The weekly al-Manar newspaper also says the al-Qaeda leader has decided "along with his aides, to carry out attacks in the New Year," and may strike Afghanistan, North Africa and countries from the former Soviet Union in particular.The long article in the Jerusalem-based publication cites a source it describes as "well-informed and close to the Islamic terror organisation," and claims that when the US attacked Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden moved to a state in the Central Asia area, where he has been taken care of without the knowledge of the government. The source also says the Saudi terror leader receives regular reports from his collaborators in different countries around the world and is in contact with some of them, but never uses email or the Internet.
The source also reveals that al-Qaeda is re-establishing its cells in Afghanistan and has delegated its leadership to three people. "One of the members of this triumvirate is Afghan," al-Manar writes, "and has been given the task of looking after relations with the Taliban so that the two movements can coordinate over which targets to strike and the funding to raise."
However, according to the Palestinian weekly, funding is not a problem for al-Qaeda. "There are actually companies and businessmen who continually give the organisation economic support," the source said. "Al-Qaeda is part of several commercial companies who use frontmen." He also told al-Manar that bin Laden's group has formed cells within the security services of several countries, asking them to await further instructions. Secret armed groups also appear to have emerged in many other countries, but these do not use the name al-Qaeda and rely on the help of people who sell weapons on the black market.
The last message attributed to bin Laden appeared on 16 December last year. In it, he spoke about the militant attack on the US consulate in the Saudi city of Jeddah some ten days earlier, in which five non-American members of the consulate staff were killed and all the attackers were either killed or captured. Two weeks later militants launched a relatively unsuccessful attack on the interior ministry in the Saudi capital Riyadh, but al-Qaeda later admitted in a message that the aim had been to kill the interior minister and his son. Instead, police killed seven militants they said were involved immediately after the attack when they raided a house in the city.
The Palestinian newspaper reports that al-Qaeda recognises its failure in several of the attacks it has tried to carry out in Saudi Arabia. "Their bosses claim that so far they have not managed to strike Riyadh as successfully as they had planned," it says.
It goes on to cite the source as saying that in an internal reorganisation of the network, bin Laden has chosen eight of his aides to coordinate. Four of them are currently in different countries, two are by his side, while the other two operate as the links between bin Laden and his other aides.
Supporting theories that his long absence is just the prelude to a series of new attacks and that it has been caused by differences with his deputy, the Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri, is the current Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faysal. In an interview several days ago for the Saudi newspaper al-Riyadh, the former head of the Saudi secret services said he believes bin Laden is still alive and is hiding near the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but "There are several indications of differences between bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri," he said.
He also said he believes al-Qaeda is still capable of carrying out attacks though, and its members are still taking orders from bin Laden. However, his view is in sharp contrast to that of the US ambassador to Pakistan, Ryan Crocker, who said on Monday that he does not believe bin Laden still has operational control of the network. "I don't know if Zawahiri is heading al-Qaeda or not; what I do know is that al-Qaeda is in serious trouble these days," he said.
