Timeline of al-Qaida statements

--June 10, 1999

In a broadcast of new elements from the January interview, al-Jazeera shows bin Laden telling their interviewer that American civilians are prime targets because they support killing Muslims through their tax payments.  The interview represents his broadest rationale for killing Americans.  “Jihad now knows that with few weapons and people they destroyed the biggest war machine in Afghanistan.  In our opinion, a superpower means nothing.  The U.S. is much weaker than the Soviet Union was.  We've learned from our Somali brothers how weak and cowardly American soldiers are. They lost only 80 people and they fled. “I look at the great men who attacked Khobar and Riyadh with great respect, those who made the explosions in Riyadh, Khobar, East Africa and young Palestinians who are giving the Israelis a lesson.

“A man is considered a fighter whether he carries a gun or pays taxes to help kill us.  So when they say bin Laden kills civilians, who are they killing in Palestine? Children.  Our aim is that every American man is an enemy whether he kills us or pays taxes to kill us.  The U.S. has a double standard...75 percent of  the American people support Clinton hitting Saddam Hussein.  It is a nation where the president’s rating goes up when he kills civilians.”

--Sept. 20, 2000 [Shot between March and May]

Video tape shown on al-Jazeera of bin Laden and three Egyptian clerics calling for the release of Omar Abdul Rahman, the blind sheik imprisoned in the United States. It's believed to have been filmed sometime between March and May 2000. Also seen on the tape are Ayman al-Zawahiri, Rifai Ahmad Taha, a leading figure in the armed Egyptian group, Jamaa Islamiya, and Assad Allah, son of Sheikh Abdel Rahman.  Shown on Al-Jazeera, al-Zawahiri warns at the end of the videotape, "Enough of words. It is time to take action against the iniquitous and faithless force which has spread troops through Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia."

--Oct. 18, 2000

Six days after the bombing of the USS Cole, Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, a leader of the Egyptian Islamic Group, calls for launching attacks on U.S. interests in the region. "Our officers and soldiers, and the sons of our people in Egypt, should learn the lesson of the U.S. destroyer in Aden; they have the Suez Canal through which dozens of U.S. and Jewish ships pass. “They [Jews and Americans] must realize that we have no other option but to besiege their embassies and military and civilian centers in our countries, which are numerous...let the embassies and centers be burned down, ships and destroyers destroyed and individuals killed.”

--Jan. 10, 2001 [Contemporaneous]

Video tape of bin Laden celebrating the marriage of his teenage son, Mohammed, to the daughter of Mohammed Atef, his military commander. The tape was shot the previous day in Afghanistan. Also seen on the tape are Atef and Mohammed bin Laden.

--June 20, 2001 [Shot at various times and locations]

A 98-minute al-Qaida training video tape believed to have been shot at various times -- but after the USS Cole bombing in October 2000 and before the U.S. presidential inauguration in January 2001 -- is distributed by Associated Press Television News and Reuters. On it, bin Laden praises the bombers of the USS Cole, "The courage of our youth was witnessed in Aden, where they destroyed their destroyer and instilled fear. ... Their ships stand so arrogantly in our ports."

--Oct. 4, 2001 [Shot in June]

The al-Qaida graduation ceremony tape. Al-Jazeera reports the video tape was made after the Sept. 11 attacks, but U.S. intelligence says it was shot in June 2001 to celebrate the merger of al-Qaida and Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Also seen on the tape is the EIJ leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.  The tape appears to have been broadcast to assure his followers that he is still alive, a move that is repeated often over the next two years.

--Oct. 7, 2001 [Shot in late September/early October]

A threatening video tape released at the start of the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan and shown on al-Jazeera. It is believed to have been shot in late September or early October. Also on tape are bin Laden spokesman Abu Ghaith, al-Zawahiri, and Mohammed Atef, bin Laden's military commander. Abu Ghaith, a Kuwaiti, was unknown to U.S. intelligence prior to this tape.

--Oct. 21, 2001 [Never aired on al-Jazeera, aired on CNN on Feb 5. 2002]

In a controversial interview with al-Jazeera reporter Tayseer Alouni -- later indicted as a messenger for bin Laden -- the bin Laden makes threats against the United States and says the United States will be easier to defeat in Afghanistan than the Soviets. "We experienced the Americans through our brothers who went into combat against them in Somalia, for example. We found they had no power worthy of mention. There was a huge aura over America -- the United States -- that terrified people even before they entered combat. Our brothers who were here in Afghanistan tested them, and together with some of the mujahedeen in Somalia, God granted them victory. America exited dragging its tails in failure, defeat, and ruin, caring for nothing." The tape never airs on Al Jazeera, which apparently thought it was too incendiary.  CNN obtains it in February and airs it internationally.

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