Al-Qaeda Issues New Threat

Osama bin Laden's No. 2 has issued a new videotaped threat to the US, claiming that the collapse of the West is imminent. Wearing a white robe and speaking in a hectoring tone, the Egyptian cleric Ayman al-Zawahiri calls for unity among warring Iraqi factions against America. The 95-minute  al Qaeda video is among the most sophisticated to date.

Victory "looms on the horizon," Zawahiri exults. The tape has English subtitles, incorporates clips from Western television stations, and references journalist Bob Woodward's book on Iraq, "Plan of Attack." It appears to have been made before the bungled bombings in Britain and the arrest of doctors allegedly involved in an al-Qaeda cell. (More Osama bin Laden stories.)