Message allegedly sent from bin Laden deputy

CAIRO, Egypt -- An e-mail purportedly from an al-Qaida chief, posted on a Web site Tuesday, says Americans should be killed and that Sept. 11 helped the cause of Islam.

The 150-word message -- allegedly from Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's top deputy -- was posted on the Islamic affairs site of a lawyer who spent time in prison with al-Zawahri.

In Washington, U.S. intelligence officials said it was plausible the message was from al-Zawahri, but they could not be certain.

Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian, is bin Laden's doctor and spiritual adviser. Both he and bin Laden have recently issued audio statements that convinced American officials they are alive and at large.

The e-mail attributed to al-Zawahri urges lawyer Montasser el-Zayat not to doubt the purpose of the Sept. 11 attacks or "to stop the new Muslim souls who trust your word from taking the road of holy war, represented by killing all Americans as they are killing us all."

It says that after Sept. 11, "the number of young people who follow the Islamic faith has increased to an unimaginable degree and in a short time."

El-Zayat told The Associated Press in Cairo the e-mail was received Monday and said he believed the e-mail came from al-Zawahri. The e-mail refers to al-Zawahri in the third person, and the lawyer acknowledged he could not be certain.

El-Zayat suggested al-Zawahri could have dictated the message to someone else. He would not reveal the address of the sender or provide AP with a copy of the e-mail.

Al-Zawahri emerged from Egyptian Islamic Jihad and allied a faction of it with al-Qaida. El-Zayat met al-Zawahri in an Egyptian prison, where they were held on charges related to President Anwar Sadat's 1981 assassination. They were freed in 1984.

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