White House cautions about al-Qaeda tapes

WASHINGTON -- Suspicious that Osama bin Laden is using American TV to send coded messages, the White House asked the networks Wednesday to think twice before airing his terrorist organization's videotaped messages. \n"At best, this is a forum for prerecorded, pre-taped propaganda inciting people to kill Americans," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. \nAt worst, the broadcasts could contain signals to "sleeper" agents, he added. "The concern here is not allowing terrorists to receive what might be a message from Osama bin Laden calling on them to take any actions." \nFollowing a conference call with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox agreed they would not broadcast transmissions from bin Laden's al-Qaida group without first screening and possibly editing them. \nOne day earlier, CNN and NBC's cable network aired unedited a tape of al-Qaida spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith praising the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States and warning there would be more. That message, like one from bin Laden just after U.S. military attacks began in Afghanistan on Sunday, was picked up from Al-Jazeera television, the only station now broadcasting from within Afghanistan. \nAn administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said CIA analysts studying the broadcasts detected nothing specific but made a compelling enough argument about the risk of coded messages that the administration rushed to put President Bush's highest ranking national security official on the phone to TV executives. \nA third official noted that bin Laden and his spokesman both wore white turbans, the Muslims' traditional color of martyrdom, in the two tapes aired since U.S. military attacks began on Sunday. Bin Laden also wore combat fatigues. \n"He wears a camouflage jacket to signify he's at war." said retired CIA counterterrorism expert Vincent Cannistraro. \nAt the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a news-media watchdog group, Matthew Felling called the administration's request "a silky form of censorship ... uncomfortable but understandable." \n "Because bin Laden is resourceful, he would use our cultural tools as weapons, be they airplanes or airwaves," said Felling, the center's media director. \n Ibrahim Hilal, chief editor of Al-Jazeera, scoffed at the notion of hidden signals and said the terrorists were sophisticated enough to communicate with each other directly. "I don't think the United States, who taught the world about freedom of expression, should now begin to limit it," Hilal said in an interview. \n The warning about al-Qaida broadcasts was the latest in a series of White House efforts to limit the flow of information about its war against the terrorists and the Afghan Taliban militia that shelters them. \nBush, angry about leaks to reporters last week, abruptly shut down classified briefings to all but eight members of Congress.\nThe State Department also tried to block the government-funded Voice of America radio station from airing an interview with a Taliban official. \nAnd last month, Fleischer publicly scolded the host of TV's "Politically Incorrect" talk show for controversial comments on the terrorist attacks and admonished all Americans "to watch what they say"