Bin Laden's Al Qaeda Appeals Passionately for a Holy War

By CHRISTOPHER S. WREN

The Associated Press/CNN, courtesy Al-Jazeera Sleiman Abou-Gheith, a spokesman for the Al-Qaida organization that is linked to Osama bin Laden, speaks on a videotape aired by the Al-Jazeera satellite network on Tuesday. He threatened future attacks on America, saying "The jihad is today the duty of every Muslim."

l Qaeda, the embattled terrorist network of Osama bin Laden, appealed passionately today to Muslims everywhere to mobilize for a "jihad," or holy war against the United States and its interests around the world.

A spokesman for Al Qaeda, Sulaiman Abu Gheith, praised the terrorists who crashed their hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon four weeks ago, killing more than 5,000 people, for having performed a "good deed" in carrying the struggle into the heart of America.

"America must know that the storm of airplanes will not stop, and there are thousands of young people who look forward to death, like Americans look forward to life," Mr. Abu Ghaith said, casting his group's confrontation with the United States in the apocalyptic terms of a death struggle between Islam and the West.

Joining the jihad against American interests, he said, was "a duty of every Muslim."

His call for a holy war, carried in a videotape played on Al Jazeera, an Arabic-language television network based in Qatar in the Persian Gulf, rapidly took on the ranting emotions of a diatribe, implying a desperate search for allies in the face of the American-led military strike against Al Qaeda and its Taliban protectors.

"The Americans have opened a door that will never be closed," Mr. Abu Ghaith said, according to an English translation of his remarks by The Associated Press.

Mr. Abu Ghaith, a stocky, black-bearded young man who wore a white skullcap and robe, was generally unknown outside Afghanistan until he appeared in an earlier videotape, released Sunday as the American-led strike began, that showed him sitting at the right hand of Mr. bin Laden.

It was unclear, however, how much effect his call for holy war would have in the Islamic world. Mr. bin Laden made a similar argument in his videotape shown Sunday, which inspired some Muslims but repelled others with its glorification of violence.

"America must know that the battle will not leave its land until America leaves our land," Mr. Abu Ghaith said, "until it stops supporting Israel, until it stops the blockade against Iraq."

Mr. Abu Ghaith said nothing about Al Qaida's situation under the assault of American air power or its plans for survival. It was also unclear why Mr. bin Laden, who is far better known among Muslims, had failed to appear in the videotape himself.