L.A., Melbourne Targeted in Purported Al Qaeda Tape

WASHINGTON — A suspected new Al Qaeda videotape that singles out two cities -- including Los Angeles -- as likely targets for terrorist attacks surfaced over the weekend, a dose of chilling propaganda apparently timed to coincide with the fourth anniversary of Sept. 11.

The videotape was reported Sunday by ABC News, which said a copy had been delivered to its office in Pakistan on Saturday. The network also said that it had verified that the speaker was a Southern California native -- Adam Yahiye Gadahn, who is wanted by the FBI and is suspected of having delivered a similar communique for Al Qaeda last year.

The latest 11-minute diatribe targets Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia; attacks the foreign policies of the United States and Britain; and warns that an attack could be imminent unless the United States stops its military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, ABC News said.

"Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Allah willing. And this time, don't count on us demonstrating restraint or compassion," the man on the videotape, speaking in English, warns. "We are Muslims. We love peace, but peace on our terms, peace as laid down by Islam, not the so-called peace of occupiers and dictators."

Los Angeles officials said they were not surprised by the timing of the videotape or the fact that their city was singled out.

"Bombastic pronouncements are expected on the eve of terrorist incidents like Sept. 11, but we cannot let such pronouncements alter our lifestyle," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William J. Bratton said Sunday in a joint statement.

"We have long known that Los Angeles is a target of terrorism."

They cited the foiled plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of millennium celebrations and the indictments last month of four men accused of planning terrorist attacks on area synagogues and military sites.

Villaraigosa and Bratton said they had discussed the tape with officials at the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, "and in spite of the pronouncements, there is no known specific, credible threat to Los Angeles."

In Washington, a counterterrorism official said only that the government was "aware of the tape." And the CIA had no immediate statement Sunday on whether the video was authentic or whether Gadahn was the speaker. The man on the tape wears a turban, and a black scarf covers everything but his eyes.