By John K. Cooley
Sept. 25 — Accused terrorist Osama bin Laden has reappeared on the world stage vowing to free the blind Egyptian cleric imprisoned in the United States for the 1993 bombing of New York City’s World Trade Center.
“We swear we will work with all-out power to free our brother, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and all our prisoners in America, Egypt and Riyadh [Saudi Arabia],” an emaciated-looking bin Laden said in a video recording of a meeting with several senior aides.
Qatar’s private satellite television channel, Al-Jazeera, broadcast the video without giving a date or a place for the meeting in which new anti-U.S. violence was threatened.
Aides Present at Meeting
One of those flanking bin Laden was Ayman al-Zawahiri, a former psychiatrist considered to be his chief aide, and Rifai Ahmad Taha, a leader of the armed Egyptian group, Jamaa Islamiya.
Both men have been condemned to death in absentia in Egypt.
Also shown at the meeting was Assad Allah, son of Sheikh Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in New York of ordering or approving the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center that killed six and wounded 1,000 others.
The FBI has offered a $5 million reward for the Saudi-born bin Laden, who took refuge in Afghanistan in 1996, for the bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.
It is not clear how significant the video taped statement is for U.S. security and intelligence agencies. Bill Carter, spokesman for the FBI, said that while he was aware of the tape, he had not watched it, but any information on bin Laden would be taken seriously. “Obviously, Osama bin Laden is a fugitive and on the FBI’s most wanted list. We certainly want to locate him and take him into custody, but I have not seen the tape, so I can’t comment on it.”
Recorded ‘Sometime Since April’
Also in the broadcast, bin Laden said one of his followers, whom he did not name, was captured “during an operation” in Saudi Arabia while “trying to fight injustice, atheism and shame.”
“Enough of words, it is time to take action against this iniquitous and faithless force [the United States] which has sent its troops all over Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia,” said Al-Zawahiri. Applause could be heard off camera.
Sheikh Omar’s son, Assad Allah, urged Muslims to “move forward and shed blood.”
Al-Jazeera officials said they believed the video had been recorded “sometime since April” and that it was obtained from Al-Jihad (Holy War) Television, close to Afghanistan’s Taliban and to Al-Qaida, or The Base, bin Laden’s international cover organization.
There was no immediate explanation for the broadcast’s timing.
Abu Sayyaf Connection
Freedom for Sheikh Omar and Ramzi Ahmed Yusuf, another prisoner extradited by the United States from Pakistan and also convicted for the World Trade Center bombings as well as other attacks, was an early demand of the Abu Sayyaf, a militant organization originally based in Afghanistan and now under attack by the Philippines military.
Senior Filipino officials have in the past said they have evidence of links between the Abu Sayyaf and bin Laden, but they have not revealed any details.
After a number of European and Asian hostages were apparently ransomed and freed by payments of millions of dollars from Libya’s leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi, Abu Sayyaf captured an American hostage, Jeffrey Schilling , 24, of California.
Members of Philippines president Joseph Estrada’s government and security forces have accused Schilling, a converted Muslim, of supporting his captors after he broadcast radio appeals for the military action against Abu Sayyaf to stop. (See related story)
He was last reported to be fleeing with his captors.
ABCNEWS.com’s Leela Jacinto contributed to this report.
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