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Al Qaeda Web site posts new threats'Strongest threats of mass casualty attacks'
LONDON, England (CNN) -- A Web site considered al Qaeda's has posted new threats against the West, promising to bring "destruction" to Americans and other Westerners if they don't learn the "lesson" of recent al Qaeda attacks, including the attacks on an Israeli-owned hotel and charter plane in Kenya last Thursday. But the new threats are not specific, either in terms of a target or a time frame. The new message was posted on the Web site run by the Centre for Islamic Studies and Research, also known as Alneda, which has carried communiqués from al Qaeda in the past, as well as the group's claims of credit for various terrorist attacks. But soon after CNN reported on it, the site was taken down, with the message "Suspended Account" appearing on the screen. In the past, the Web site will post messages, only to be shut down soon afterward. The site will then reemerge elsewhere on the Web, usually within days. Before the site was taken down, experts and intelligence sources said they considered the site to be al Qaeda's Web site, something the terror group has acknowledged. "After the two attacks in Kenya and Makalla, has the world Crusader alliance learned the lessons of the mujahedeen?" one article asked. The article suggested that recent attacks in Kenya and Yemen mirror previous attacks in the same countries -- the 1998 embassy bombing in Nairobi, Kenya and the 2000 attack against the USS Cole off the Yemeni coast. The article suggested the recent attacks are reinforcements of a lesson the West did not learn. Alneda, which reappeared on the Web Friday for the first time in more than a week, also carried the same message claiming credit for the recent Kenya attacks that showed up last Friday on several Web sites. Paul Eedle, a London-based CNN consultant with expertise on Islamic Web sites, said the "new threat contains some of the strongest threats of mass casualty attacks I've read on a Qaeda source." One quote from the Web site states, "Defeat, death and destruction will strike you even if you are in lofty skyscrapers," an apparent reference to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, and a suggestion that if that "lesson" is not learned, al Qaeda will attempt to repeat it. This posting echoes the warnings issued by Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in October and November warning of new attacks against the United States and its allies. But Eedle dismissed two postings on a different Web site, mujahedoon.net, including one that predicted new attacks at the end of Ramadan, and another, reported in Friday's Washington Post, that claimed an al Qaeda presence in Gaza. Eedle is among the experts consulted by CNN who believe these postings came from al Qaeda supporters, not from the organization. As of Friday afternoon, mujahedoon.net was removed from the Internet. Thirteen people were killed last week in Mombasa, Kenya, when bombers blew up an Israeli-owned hotel there. The three bombers were also killed. Around that same time, terrorists fired two shoulder-fired missiles at an Israeli airliner, but missed. In October, terrorists blew a hole in the side of a French oil tanker near Makalla, Yemen, killing one crew member and spilling thousands of barrels of oil into the sea.
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