WWW- Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia, are threatened with attacks by al Qaeda, according to a videotape aired yesterday and meant apparently as a grim reminder of the Sept. 11 attacks.
On the tape, released by ABC News, a man – believed to be a Southern Californian holed up in Pakistan – goes on an 11-minute diatribe and brags that the two sprawling cities will share the fate of others already targeted.
“Yesterday, London and Madrid: Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, God willing,” said the voice on the video, acquired in the Middle East by ABC News.
“At this time, don’t count on us demonstrating restraint and compassion. We are Muslims. We love peace, but peace on our terms, peace laid down by Islam, not the so-called peace of occupiers and dictators.”
The speaker’s face is partially hidden by traditional Arab garb, but he is believed to be Adam Gadahn, a Californian who converted to Islam at an Orange County mosque. He was influenced by militants at the mosque who took him to Pakistan, ABC News said on its Web site.
Gadahn, 26, was on a similar taped communiqué issued last year that was delivered to U.S. sources. American intelligence officials categorized him as being a propaganda stooge, ABC News said.
The tape has the plain, nondescript background reminiscent of other al Qaeda communiqués. The speaker, who invoked the names of the 9/11 11 hijackers, implied that an attack may be imminent unless the United States pulls out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We love peace, but when the enemy violates that peace or prevents us from achieving it, then we love nothing better than the heat of battle, the echo of explosion, and the slitting of the throats of the infidels,” he said.
Australia has the third-largest contingent in Iraq behind, the United States and Britain. But most of the video’s ire was directed at the governments of President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The LAPD, headed by former New York Police Commissioner William Bratton, indicated it was not overtly concerned by the communiqué, adding that there are no known credible threats to the city.
“The statement . . . should come as no surprise to anyone,” said a joint statement issued by the police and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. “The statement was meant to instill fear, and fear is the most important weapon the terrorists possess.”
A first-person Internet essay attributed to Gadahn said he grew up on a goat farm outside Riverside, Calif., became addicted to “demonic heavy metal” as a teen, and formed an extreme dislike for Christianity.