From FOX News: White House Adviser Calls Bin Laden 'Virtually Impotent'.
Al Qaeda terror network leader Usama bin Laden is a "man on the run" who has demonstrated in his latest videotape release that he is "virtually impotent" and capable of nothing more than threats, the White House's chief homeland security adviser said Sunday.Frances Townsend told "FOX News Sunday" that the tape out Friday from bin Laden was made recently, possibly in the last several months. While the intelligence community is still evaluating the tape to determine the terror leader's health, possible whereabouts and other details, it does not appear to be a trigger for an attack.
"There's nothing overtly obvious in the tape that would suggest this is a trigger for an attack," she said.
"We know that Al Qaeda is still determined to attack, and we take it seriously. But this tape appears to be nothing more than threats. It's propaganda on their part," Townsend added.
The tape was the first time that the fugitive Al Qaeda leader has appeared in a new video since 2004. In the recording, he tells Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end. He makes no overt threats and does not directly call for attacks.
"This is about the best he can do," Townsend said. "This is a man on a run, from a cave, who's virtually impotent other than these tapes."
Speaking two days before the six-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack that killed about 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the homeland security adviser acknowledged that the latest National Intelligence Estimate shows the terror group has gained some capability and operational leadership.
The network is believed to be regrouping in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, but according to Townsend, is also actively trying to establish sleeper cells in the United States. She refused to talk about ongoing investigations, and said the No. 1 priority for the FBI and U.S. intelligence is to keep Al Qaeda cells out of the U.S.
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UPDATE -- Sept. 11: From FOX News: New Usama Bin Laden Video Shows 9/11 Hijacker's Last Testament.
Usama bin Laden urged sympathizers to join the "caravan" of martyrs as he praised one of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers in a new video that emerged Tuesday to mark the sixth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.Posted by Forkum at September 9, 2007 01:33 PMAl Qaeda traditionally issues a video every year on the anniversary, with the last testament of one of the 19 hijackers involved in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. This year's video showed hijacker Waleed al-Shehri addressing the camera and warning the U.S.: "We shall come at you from your front and back, your right and left."
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