News of the New York plot surfaced amid a flurry of new messages from Osama bin Laden, his chief deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, and one of the suicide bombers in last July’s attack on London. The new messages demonstrated the increasing media savvy of Al Qaeda’s high command. A day or two before the release of one recent message from bin Laden, his media handlers issued Internet “teasers”–brief announcements declaring that a bin Laden message was about to be released. Later, an elaborately produced Qaeda message surfaced commemorating the London bombings; the presentation included a previously unseen extended English-language video of Shehzad Tanweer, one of the suicide bombers, and an American-accented Qaedite called Azzam the American. Zawahiri also appeared on tape to claim the London bombers had attended Qaeda camps (an assertion British and U.S. investigators have not yet validated). One of the U.S. counterterrorism officials said the use of promos and edited video packages with English speakers demonstrates the increasing sophistication of Al Qaeda’s PR methods. The official also said the fact that Zawahiri appeared in recent video messages but bin Laden has appeared only in audio messages suggests the two terror leaders live apart, and that bin Laden is still stringently protecting himself.
