EON

Washington – The prospect of a new message from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to mark the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States left US officials distinctly unimpressed Friday.

Presidential Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend told US network CNN that the video, slated by al-Qaeda’s media wing al-Sahab for release just ahead of the September 11 anniversary, was nothing more than propaganda.

“I just think people have got to be clear that we’re being manipulated every time that they (al-Qaeda) issue a statement, because they’re trying to use the media as a way to terrorize us,” Townsend said. “After all, we haven’t seen an attack, and this is one way that they try to terrorize the American people.”

The Department of Homeland Security had said Thursday when news of the video emerged that there was “no credible information” about any possible terrorist threat to the US.

Arab websites showed a still from the video in which bin Laden’s normally greying beard has been dyed black.

Terrorism experts IntelCenter near Washington said the video would be broadcast in the next three days.

Video messages are nothing new on the anniversary of the attacks in 2001 in which some 3,000 people were killed. The al-Sahab media centre releases a video each year in which they show the final words of one of the attackers.

The most recent video message from bin Laden was on October 29, 2004, shortly before the US elections, when he claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York and warned of further attacks.

After remaining silent for all of 2005, bin Laden’s voice was aired in four audio messages between January and July 2006.

There have always been doubts about the authenticity of the messages.