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Arab networks air 'al Qaeda tape'
(CNN) -- An audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahiri, has aired on several Arabic language television networks. Among other things, the voice on the tape urges Pakistanis to overthrow Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, for what it calls "betraying Islam." The tape first aired on the Arabic news network Al Arabiya. Network officials refused to tell CNN how or when they received the tape. CNN cannot independently verify whether the voice on the tape belongs to al Zawahiri. The speaker blames Musharraf for enabling the U.S. to topple Afghanistan's Taliban government. "Without his help, America would have not managed that," he says. "They would not have managed to kill thousands of innocent people in Afghanistan. ... Those innocent people were killed by the hands of Musharraf." The United States supports Musharraf because he "recognizes Israel," the speaker said, and because he is willing to send Pakistani troops into Iraq. "Musharraf is the one who wants to send Pakistani troops into Iraq so they will be killed instead of the American troops, and he wants to kill Muslims in Iraq," the speaker says. "All that to strengthen America in the Muslim countries." The speaker on the tape decries the U.S.-led "crusade movement" that wants "the Muslim world to be controlled by the world's powers in Washington, Tel Aviv, and London." He urges Muslims to resist "this Jewish-Christian crusade." The speaker on the tape also mentions former Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Omar, calling on his audience to continue their support of him. Al Zawahiri was a medical doctor exiled from Egypt, where he founded and led the outlawed militant Egyptian Islamic Jihad. He was on the U.S. 'Most Wanted Terrorist' list for his involvement in the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
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