Al-Qa'ida organization has broken its silence and denied in an electronic message to "Al-Majallah" the reports about the success of US and Pakistani forces in capturing Usama Bin Ladin or besieging him in the tribal border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Al-Qa'ida's denial of these reports coincided with the denial that came from Washington and Islamabad of the information reported by the British "Daily Express" newspaper last week and which was followed by an Iranian radio report in the Pashtu language citing its correspondent in Afghanistan last Saturday in which he reported that Bin Ladin has been in custody for a long time with the Americans who, according to the correspondent, were delaying the announcement of his capture for electoral reasons.

Abu-Muhammad al-Ablaj, an Al-Qa'ida leader, revealed in his electronic message that was received last Saturday that he had received new instructions from Bin Ladin two days before sending the message and said: "The shaykh is free and in good health. He is managing the organization's new plans and strategies with the help of his aides." He called the media organs' reports "lies", whose trade he said, "is deception and fabrication so as to win international publicity."

He reiterated the threats made by Ayman al-Zawahiri, "Bin Ladin's" right-hand man, against the United States in the audiotape that was aired by two Arab satellite channels recently. He attributed the reasons for not carrying out their threats to stage a major operation deep inside US territories between the two (Al-Adha and Al-Fitr) ids in accordance with their former electronic messages to what he called the change to their strategies and plans. But he did not divulge the nature of these new plans and strategies and merely said: "They will be harmed in the coming days, sooner rather than later, God willing."

He added: "We have changed our whereabouts for some reasons and have reformulated the plans, their programs, and their maps again in line with the requirements." He pointed out that one of the principles of their new strategy and reviews focuses on activating their military action against the US forces and their allies in Iraq and said the eyes of Al-Qa'ida's leaders are on Baghdad, the capital of the caliphate, which he described as "the paradise for the mujahdin yearning for martyrdom."

Al-Ablaj had reported in a previous message that the war between them and the United States was an all-out war and swore they would fulfill their promise to strike the United States in its own backyard with blows that would surpass the 11 September ones. He said that Al-Qa'ida organization was preparing to overturn the Americans' balances and asked in his electronic message: Will it be only Al-Qa'ida that would deliver a nuclear strike. But he hastened to add: Follow up the conditions of agriculture in the United States and how the livestock is...bring diseases to the United States, inject stray dogs and cats as well as cattle with them and bring SARS and new diseases to which there is no successful medicine and in sufficient quantities.

(Description of Source: London Al-Majallah in Arabic -- London-based Saudi-owned weekly; sister magazine of Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper providing independent coverage of Arab and international issues)