LOC23:31
20:31 GMT
WASHINGTON, March 25 (KUNA) -- Responding to a reported threat from Osama
bin Laden, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Thursday said the United
States will "continue to keep up the pressure to destroy the al Qaeda network".
Gibbs was asked about an audiotape aired on the al-Jazeera news channel, in
which a voice believed to be that of bin Laden said al Qaeda would kill any
Americans taken prisoner if Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of
the 9/11 terror attacks, was put to death.
President Barack Obama "has rightly increased our tempo and put pressure on
the al Qaeda network," Gibbs said. "We see that al Qaeda has nothing to spread
but hate".
Senior U.S. officials are considering whether to recommend that Mohammed,
who remains at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be prosecuted
in a military trial. Those deliberations began after strong objections were
raised to putting Mohammed and other alleged 9/11 plotters on trial in federal
court in Manhattan, near the site of the World Trade Center attacks. (end)
rm.sd
KUNA 252331 Mar 10NNNN