Al-Qaida's American spokesman urged fighters to meet US President George W. Bush with bombs when he visits the Middle East, according to a new video posted on the Internet.

US-born Adam Gadahn also tore up his American passport as part of a symbolic protest in the nearly hour-long rhetoric-dominated tape - al-Qaida's first message of the new year - which was posted on Sunday.

The release comes just three days before Bush is scheduled to arrive in Israel for a weeklong trip that will also bring him to the West Bank, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as part of his push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

"Now we direct an urgent call to our militant brothers in Muslim Palestine and the Arab peninsula ... to be ready to receive the Crusader slayer Bush in his visit to Muslim Palestine and the Arab peninsula in the beginning of January and to receive him not with flowers or clapping but with bombs and booby-trapped vehicles," Gadahn, 29, said in Arabic.

"This just shows once again, al-Qaida offers nothing but violence and death," said Gordon Johndroe, the spokesman for Bush's National Security Council. "The purpose of President Bush's trip is to meet with mainstream Arab leaders and people to talk about a positive future for the region, based on hope and opportunity."

As for Gadahn's tearing up his US passport, Johndroe said: "He is wanted for treason against the US. His passport was already void."

During the rest of the 50-min video, titled An Invitation to Reflection and Repentance, Gadahn, who was raised in California, spoke mostly in English, appearing to specifically address the American people.

"We felt it necessary to address the American people and explain to them some of the facts about these critical and fast-moving events," said Gadahn, who wore a white-and-red headscarf and sat behind a desk with a laptop computer and coffee mug nearby.

The video could not immediately be independently verified, but it appeared on a website often used by Islamic militants and carried the logo of al-Qaida's media wing, al-Sahab. At the beginning of the video, the date December 2007 was displayed. Gadahn also mentioned Robert Hawkins, who killed eight people at a mall in Omaha, Nebraska, on December 5, suggesting the tape was made sometime after then.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/08/2008 page12)