Matt Drudge has been reporting all day that ABC is in possession of a tape warning of an impending terror attack on the United States:
In the last week before the election, ABCNEWS is holding a videotaped message from a purported al Qaeda terrorist warning of a new attack on America, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
The terrorist claims on tape the next attack will dwarf 9/11. “The streets will run with blood,” and “America will mourn in silence” because they will be unable to count the number of the dead. Further claims: America has brought this on itself for electing George Bush who has made war on Islam by destroying the Taliban and making war on Al Qaeda.
ABCNEWS strongly denies holding the tape back from broadcast over political concerns during the last days of the election.
It’s beginning to look as though there’s something to the story after all:
Reuters:
ABC News Gives Attack Threat Tape to FBI, CIA
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – ABC News has asked U.S. security officials to examine a videotape it obtained in Pakistan of an English-speaking man threatening a massive attack on the United States in retaliation for its war against al Qaeda, the network said on Wednesday.
A source familiar with the tape — whose authenticity U.S. intelligence officials have so far been unable to verify — said it contains a threat that the “streets will run with blood.”
Responding to questions about the tape after its existence was first reported by Internet columnist Matt Drudge, ABC News vice president Jeffrey Schneider said the network has not aired the video because its authenticity has not been verified.
CIA can’t authenticate
taped threat to U.S.CIA can’t authenticate
taped threat to U.S.CIA can’t authenticate
taped threat to U.S.But the senior intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told NBC News that “we can’t authenticate” the tape, a copy of which ABC gave the CIA on Monday. He would not elaborate, adding, “I think that is where we are going to stand.”
Video Contains Threat of Major Attack on U.S.
WASHINGTON — The CIA is unable to authenticate a videotape that has someone who identifies himself as an American threatening an assault on the United States that would “dwarf” the Sept. 11 (search) attacks.
The tape was handed to the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency by ABC News two days ago, multiple government sources told FOX News. ABC is said to have received the tape last weekend from a terrorist source in Waziristan, a region in Pakistan near the Afghan border where the Taliban and Al Qaeda (search) are believed to be holed up.
“We cannot verify the authenticity of this tape,” one official told FOX News after the preliminary technical analysis presented inconclusive results. One source said one problem with the verification process is that the government has only a copy of the tape, not an original.
The speaker in the video is disguised but speaks “alarmingly” fluent English in an American accent, leading some U.S. officials to believe that the voice belongs to Adam Yahiye Gadahn (search). On the tape, the speaker identifies himself as “Assam the American,” a law enforcement source said.
Gadahn, who also goes by the names Adam Pearlman and Abu Suhayb Al-Amriki, is a 25-year-old Southern Californian fingered by the FBI for possible ties to Al Qaeda.
It’s hard to know what to make of this story. Clearly, there is a tape. Whether the threats on the tape constitute an actual danger is apparently anybody’s guess. An attack some time in the next few days would certainly be consistent with the Spanish experience.
It may be that the greatest significance to this story may be ABC’s decision to keep the tape mum. Ann Althouse wrote this on Instapundit this morning:
Maybe ABC is holding this story because it’s a piece of junk that it shouldn’t air under any circumstances. I wrote yesterday about the problem of news organizations unethically timing their stories in an attempt to affect the election. There is some reason to speculate that the New York Times and CBS/”60 Minutes” were doing something like that with the al-QaQaa story (though I don’t think it’s at all clear that they did). I think it’s good that bloggers are standing by, monitoring the ethics of MSM. But we bloggers need to be careful not to cry wolf here. Not every withheld story is an outrage.
I disagreed with her via email. The tape itself is news. Since Fox, Reuters, and MSNBC have all been able to get some off-the-record comments from officials on the tape, surely ABC should be able to tell us something as well. I think there is actually something sinister about an attempt to manage the news this way. Give us the information and let us decide if it’s of any significance.
UPDATE: My own opinion is that although we shouldn’t be surprised if somebody tries something over the next few days the warnings on this tape don’t represent a credible threat. If the folks in Washington thought much of this they’d probably be raising the threat level. They haven’t so there may not be much more to it. Once again the news media may be the story here.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – ABC News has asked U.S. security officials to examine a videotape it obtained in Pakistan of an English-speaking man threatening a massive attack on the United States, the network says.
Sources familiar with the tape — the authenticity of which U.S. intelligence officials have not been unable to verify — said the man, who claims to be a U.S. native and al Qaeda supporter, warns that the “streets will run with blood.”
The video appears to have been made as recently as late summer because the speaker discusses the Darfur conflict in Sudan, makes a reference to the Massachusetts same-sex marriage legislation and mentions the September 11 Commission, one U.S. intelligence official told Reuters on Wednesday.
ABC News vice president Jeffrey Schneider said the network has not shown the video because its authenticity has not been verified by either independent analysts or government experts.
“We have worked with the CIA and the FBI, neither of whom have authenticated the tape,” he told Reuters. “Obviously, it would be beyond irresponsible to broadcast this tape without first authenticating it.”
The first disclosure of the tape by Internet columnist Matt Drudge prompted ABC to publicly acknowledge the video’s existence before knowing whether it was real or fake.
Schneider said the tape was obtained from a source in Pakistan over the weekend and arrived in New York on Monday, where it was first viewed by network officials.
Asked about the tape at a campaign stop with President George W. Bush in Ohio, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters, “The intelligence community is analyzing it, working to verify its authenticity.”
A source familiar with the tape told Reuters the hourlong video features a man, whose face is concealed by a headdress, warning that a coming attack on the United States would dwarf the September 11, 2001 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
According to the source, the man says, “The streets will run with blood” and says the United States has brought this on itself for electing a president who has declared war on Islam by attacking the former Taliban rulers in Afghanistan and waging war against al Qaeda.
The source said linguistic experts believe the man, who identifies himself as “Assam the American,” learned English at a young age but is not a native English speaker.
where can i see this tape?
has it been uploaded to the internet?
if so where on the internet?
-f2k
I’d like to see it too. has anyone uploaded it to the net?