US diplomats in Qatar were given a copy of a videotape in which Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatens new attacks on the United States before it aired on Al Jazeera television and unsuccessfully sought to prevent the network from broadcasting it, a senior State Department official said Friday.
"We got a copy of the tape a few hours before it aired," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"We asked them not to air it because we don't think they should give a platform to terrorists like this who call for the killing of innocents."
The official said the request for the Doha-based Al Jazeera not to broadcast the tape was made to the Qatari government, the head of which, Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, is the main backer of the channel.
The official suggested that there may have been more to the tape than the 18-minutes aired by Al Jazeera during which bin Laden threatened the United States with attacks similar to September 11, 2001 and accused US President George W Bush of "misleading" the American people.
"They seem to have aired only excerpts," said the official, a fluent Arabic speaker who watched the complete broadcast on Al Jazeera.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1231262.htm
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