MIDDLE EAST Arabic TV airs audiotapes of Al-Qaida threats to U.S.

The tapes dispute Bush's contention that the terrorist group has lost power.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Audiotapes purported to be from Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant aired on Arabic TV stations today, one taunting President Bush and threatening more attacks on the United States, the second criticizing France's decision to ban Islamic headscarves in schools.
Portions of separate audiotapes attributed to Ayman al-Zawahri were broadcast a few hours apart on Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera, competing pan-Arab satellite channels based in the Persian Gulf.
Officials at both stations said they had aired only excerpts judged newsworthy. The two stations said they had received different tapes.
In Al-Jazeera's tape, the voice believed to be al-Zawahri's challenged Bush's contention to have liberated Iraq and indicated Al-Qaida is still running operations from Afghanistan.
"We remind Bush that situation is not stable in Afghanistan, or else how do we wage, with God's support and might, our attacks on your troops and agents. ... How do we send our messages that challenge you and reveal your lies," the tape said.
Additional threats
"We remind Bush that he didn't destroy two-thirds of Al-Qaida. On the contrary, thanks be to God, Al-Qaida is still in the holy war battleground raising the banner of Islam in the face of the Zionist-Crusader campaign against the Islamic community," it added.
In his State of the Union address in January, Bush said "nearly two-thirds" of Al-Qaida's known leaders had been captured or killed.
"Bush, fortify your targets, tighten your defense, intensify your security measures," the voice warned, "because the fighting Islamic community -- which sent you New York and Washington battalions -- has decided to send you one battalion after the other, carrying death and seeking heaven."
Dia'a Rashwan, an expert on radical Islam at Egypt's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said the tapes appeared to be a response to recenty reports that U.S. forces are closing in on bin Laden and his aide.
"While the tapes don't deny this, they seem to signal that [Zawahri] is still connected, and give the impression that he has great communication abilities," Rashwan said.
Rashwan said he believed both tapes were authentic and that issuing them at about the same time to the two stations "requires logistical ability ... and also a central decision to be able to do that. This is not insignificant organizational capabilities."
Criticism of France
The audiotape aired by Dubai-based al-Arabiya also criticized France's decision to ban religious symbols in public buildings, including headscarves worn by Muslim women. The law is expected to go before the French Senate early next month, where little opposition exists.
"The decision of the French president to issue a law to prevent Muslim girls from covering their heads in schools is another example of the Crusader's malice, which Westerners have against Muslims," the voice said in Al-Arabiya's tape.
"This envy boils in their hearts and overflows in their chests and they pass it on to the generations."
Both stations identified the voice on their tapes as that of al-Zawahri, and both said they had received the material today. Officials at both stations spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Al-Arabiya official said his station's analysts believed the voice to be al-Zawahri's and that the station believed it was authentic primarily because of the source from which it received the tape, which he would not disclose.
The Al-Jazeera official said only that his station had received the material over telephone lines and that al-Zawahri's voice was familiar to his staff.
The voices on the two tapes sounded identical. The tone and rhetoric were familiar to previous videotapes and audiotapes also believed to be from al-Zawahri, though it was not possible to independently confirm the speaker's identity.