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Tape fabrications Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/dailynews/obltape020910.htmlThe tape is intended to look like a planning session for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A crude sign in Arabic saying "Destruction to America" hangs on a wall. But experts say the closeups showing specific targets were apparently inserted long after the attacks. In one shot on the videotape, a finger points to the location of the Pentagon on a map of the Washington, D.C. area. According to Vince Cannistraro, an ABCNEWS consultant and a former CIA counterterrorism chief, the image was an addition. "These are post-9/11 fabrications. They weren't done before," Cannistraro said.
Abdulaziz Alomari: But some shots clearly came before Sept. 11. A suicide message given by one of the hijackers is aired, although a photo of the destruction at the Pentagon has been added behind him. But speaking on Good Morning America today, ABCNEWS' Brian Ross said the fact that the image behind Alomari showed the Pentagon while the hijacker was on the plane that crashed into the World Trade Center suggested that the tape was probably not made by a high ranking al Qaeda member.
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/dailynews/obltape020910.html
The Bin Laden Link
Experts Looking for Clues in Tape; Report Says Suspected 9/11 Ringleader Met With Bin Laden
Sept. 10 Ñ Experts were looking for clues in a new videotape released by the Arab broadcaster al Jazeera as a report today said Mohamed Atta, the suspected ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks, personally met with Osama bin Laden two years ago.
It was the first time the two men have been placed together and investigators may have uncovered the strongest evidence yet that bin Laden personally supported the 19 hijackers, a New York Times report said.
The development came a day after al Jazeera released a videotape in which a voice said to be bin Laden's was heard naming some of the Sept. 11 hijackers.
According to the report, most of the new information has been gleaned from interviews with al Qaeda members captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past few months. It said Atta met with the al Qaeda leader in Pakistan in November 1999.
The report came as experts were carefully studying the voice on the new videotape, which al Jazeera officials said belonged to bin Laden. The voice can be heard naming four of the hijackers, but the Saudi-born terror mastermind is not seen on camera. Some experts say there is no verification that the voice belongs to bin Laden.
The tape, which was delivered by mail on Monday to the television network's headquarters in Qatar, shows a group of men al Jazeera identifies as some of the hijackers in a small room. According to al Jazeera, the tape was made in the eastern Afghan town of Kandahar, but it was not clear whether the scenes were filmed there or the narration was added in Kandahar.
The tape is intended to look like a planning session for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A crude sign in Arabic saying "Destruction to America" hangs on a wall.
But experts say the closeups showing specific targets were apparently inserted long after the attacks.
In one shot on the videotape, a finger points to the location of the Pentagon on a map of the Washington, D.C. area. According to Vince Cannistraro, an ABCNEWS consultant and a former CIA counterterrorism chief, the image was an addition.
"These are post-9/11 fabrications. They weren't done before," Cannistraro said.
Suicide Message by Hijacker
But some shots clearly came before Sept. 11. A suicide message given by one of the hijackers is aired, although a photo of the destruction at the Pentagon has been added behind him.
The suicide comments come from Abdulaziz Alomari. On the day of the attacks, Alomari traveled with Atta from Portland, Maine, to Boston. The men boarded American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center.
"Let America know that we can destroy you and [our] other enemies," Alomari said on the videotape. "We will continue to seek your destruction and humiliation as long as the book of Allah and the Sunna [life story] of our Prophet Muhammad are in our hands."
But speaking on Good Morning America today, ABCNEWS' Brian Ross said the fact that the image behind Alomari showed the Pentagon while the hijacker was on the plane that crashed into the World Trade Center suggested that the tape was probably not made by a high ranking al Qaeda member.
In one part of the videotape, a picture of Atta and other hijackers are shown over misty mountains.
Al Jazeera claims bin Laden's voice can be heard praising each of the hijackers. The voice says: "It takes a lot more to remember those men with what they deserve. The pen finds it impossible to register all their good qualities and the good effects of their blessed conquests."
Voice of Bin Laden?
There is no verification that this is the voice of bin Laden, whose whereabouts are unknown. Past tapes aired by al Jazeera have shown bin Laden delivering his message directly to the camera.
In the excerpts, the voice identifies four of the Sept. 11 hijackers Ñ Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi, Ziad Jarrah and Hani Hanjour Ñ as participants in the plot and he prayed for their souls.
All 19 hijackers were described as "great men who deepened the roots of faith in the hearts of the faithful and reaffirmed allegiance to God and torpedoed the schemes of the crusaders and their stooges, the rulers of the region."
Cannistraro said the tapes can help investigators somewhat but not that much. "First of all, the pictures and the activities of the perpetrators themselves are known to investigators," he said, adding that the tapes do show some of the hijackers "talking about their plans and what they're going to do."
"If anything, what [the tapes] do is finally put to rest any theories that it wasn't al Qaeda that did 9/11," Cannistraro said.
But while there have been questions about whether some of the shots Ñ which included close-ups of hands marking out U.S. targets on a map Ñ were staged, ABCNEWS' John Miller said U.S. officials were taking the tape and the timing of its release seriously.
Al Jazeera said it would air the latest video in full Thursday.
ABCNEWS' Martha Raddatz contributed to this report.
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