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Full al-Qaida video put on Web

By TIMES WIRES
Published September 11, 2006

CAIRO, Egypt - A 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 55-minute documentarylike retrospective of the five years since the attacks was unusually long and sophisticated in its production quality, compared with 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 network.

Excerpts of the footage aired on Al-Jazeera television on Thursday, and al-Qaida had said it would later release the full video on the Internet. The video released Sunday was stamped with the emblem of As-Sahab, al-Qaida's media branch.

"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 tape showed the al-Qaida leader meeting with colleagues in a camp believed to be in Afghanistan.

Rice: 'Not really yet safe'

WASHINGTON - The United States is safer now than it was before the Sept. 11 attacks, but must not relent in fighting terrorism in Iraq and elsewhere, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.

"I think it's clear that we are safe - safer - but not really yet safe," said Rice, who was President Bush's national security adviser when al-Qaida masterminded the attacks.

Democratic leaders said the Bush administration has gotten the United States bogged down in Iraq when there was no evidence of links to the Sept. 11 attacks, detracting from efforts against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.

"I think we're in trouble," said Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Cattle trust fund set up

ENOOSAEN, Kenya - When Masai tribesmen marry, they give cattle. When there is a friend in need or a condolence call to make, more cattle. So it was in this spirit that the elders of Enoosaen four years ago donated 14 prized bulls and heifers to the people of the United States to help ease the pain of the Sept. 11 attacks. But there was one little problem: the cattle - and how to get them from here to there.

On Sunday, U.S. diplomats returned to this town in southern Kenya and announced, much to the delight of the hundreds of Masai gathered, that the cattle were not going anywhere, especially not to the slaughterhouse.

Instead, they will be blessed, and their offspring will be used to pay for education for Enoosaen children. To get the trust fund going, the Americans are donating 14 high school scholarships.

What you did to help us will not be forgotten," said the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Michael E. Ranneberger.

The Masai elders beamed.

[Last modified September 11, 2006, 01:57:52]