London – A new videotape shows two of the Sept. 11 hijackers smiling for a camera and reportedly reading a will in footage taken more than 19 months before they carried out the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
Mohamed Atta and Ziad Jarrah look much different in the tape than they do in photographs made famous after the attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.
Both seem younger and are bearded, and the infamously bleak gaze of Atta, the ringleader of the attacks five years ago, is replaced by a softer expression. Osama bin Laden also appears on the tape, speaking to a large group of people in January 2000.
The Sunday Times, which originally reported on the video and posted it on its website, said the footage was taken in Afghanistan and was meant to be released after the men’s deaths.
The soundless video appears to be a departure from previous releases by al-Qaeda, which is “normally, very professional in their media,” said Paul Beaver, an independent defense and security expert.
It did not appear on websites commonly used by the group. The newspaper quoted an unidentified American source who said lip readers had been unable to decipher what the men were saying.
The Sunday Times said it had obtained the video “through a previously tested channel” but gave no further details. It said sources from al-Qaeda and the United States had confirmed the video’s authenticity on condition of anonymity.
A U.S. intelligence official, who declined to be identified, citing government protocol, told The Associated Press, “We’re aware of the tape, and we’re reviewing it.” The official declined to answer further questions.
The newspaper said the hour-long video was made at an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, is dated Jan. 18, 2000, and contains the only known footage of Atta and Jarrah together.
Ben Venzke, head of the Virginia-based IntelCenter, which monitors terrorism communications, said the video was probably raw footage that al-Qaeda had intended to edit into a package similar to one released last month showing the last testament of two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Wail al-Shehri and Hamza al-Ghamdi.
