Al Qaeda tape genuine

LONDON - A voice recording of Ayman al-Zawahri, al Qaeda's fugitive second in command, appears to be genuine and to have been recorded in the last few weeks, a U.S. official said Wednesday. In the statement, he threatens new attacks on the United States and its economy.\nAl-Zawahri probably recorded the statement in the last few weeks, but it could have been made as early as August, the official said, adding that the recording was still being analyzed.\nAl-Zawahri refers to a July 1 U.S. bombing in Afghanistan and speaks about the United States' campaign against Iraq, accusing Washington of seeking to subjugate the Arab world on behalf of Israel.\nThe recording was obtained by APTN in the form of a video compact disc. On the disc, an interview with al-Zawahri is played against a video backdrop with English subtitles of the conversation, along with scenes from the Sept. 11 attacks and other news footage.\nA title in the video identifies the speaker as al-Zawahri and says the video is a production of the As-Sahaab Foundation for Islamic Media. The production company is credited with earlier al Qaeda statements that appeared on Web sites and with the so-called farewell video of Ahmed Ibrahim A. Alhaznawi, a Sept. 11 hijacker.\nAl-Zawahri, 51, is believed to be bin Laden's doctor and spiritual adviser, providing the ideology that drove al Qaeda. He was the head of Egyptian Islamic Jihad until he forged an alliance with bin Laden in 1998.\nAl-Zawahri is on the U.S. most wanted list and the government is offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading to his capture. Egypt sentenced him to death in absentia in 1999 for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan and for attempting to kill officials in Egypt. He has been indicted in the United States for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.