WASHINGTON - CNN yesterday broadcast excerpts of videotapes it said it had obtained in Afghanistan that appear to show al Qaeda members testing chemical weapons on dogs.
The TV network said it had obtained 64 videotapes made over a decade, nearly all of them shot before the September 11 attacks.
"Among the most frightening scenes in the collection of tapes are those of testing of a poison gas on three dogs," CNN said. "The disturbing images show the dying moments of the defenceless, enclosed animals."
It quoted a senior Bush administration official involved in weapons issues as saying he was "very troubled" by the video, particularly as it related to chemical weapons.
The official told CNN the video of chemical tests on the dogs suggested "a very strong desire to acquire the capability to use such weapons against humans".
"This tape is unquestionable documentation that [al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden] has some capability." The tape showed "some level of sophistication, and indicates they were trying to get results".
One of the tapes shows several men wearing Afghan-style sandals rushing out of an enclosure where one of the dogs is penned. A white liquid that gives off a gas seeps in and the dog begins showing physical discomfort.
CNN said experts who were shown the tape had different theories as to what kind of chemical agent may have been used. "But there was agreement that whatever it was, it was a powerful agent," the network said.
United States forces who invaded Afghanistan last year to topple the then Taleban rulers and try to crush al Qaeda seized documents and other evidence they said showed that bin Laden was trying to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
CNN correspondent Nic Robertson said he obtained the tapes from a source in Afghanistan following a 17-hour drive from Kabul to a remote part of the country.
According to the source, the tapes had been found in an Afghan house where bin Laden had stayed.
Some of the tapes are video training manuals with one showing how to make purified TNT from easy-to-get materials. One tape shows segments from televised news reports of the attacks on New York and Washington.
Several experts had told CNN the footage portrayed al Qaeda operatives training in the field as they practiced assassinations, kidnappings and urban combat.
Rohan Gunaratna, an expert on the terror group, said he believed the tapes were intended only for al Qaeda eyes.
"Whenever Osama bin Laden met with foreign journalists, he always had his own cameraman. And it is those tapes that are there, because that itself shows that this is the al Qaeda library. This is their history, the record room of Osama bin Laden."
One scene shows bin Laden with his security detail firing shots into the air as they get set to announce their jihad against Americans in 1998.
- AGENCIES
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Links: War against terrorism
Timeline: Major events since the Sept 11 attacks
Al Qaeda 'library' tapes on CNN
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