This Day In History

Aug 20 1968
The Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia.

Aug 20 1979
Social studies teacher Albert Fentress of Poughkeepsie New York lures an 18-year-old boy into his basement, ties him up, murders him, and then cooks and devours the boy's genitals. Fentress is found totally nuts and is sentenced to psychiatric care.

Aug 20 1986
Rather than submit to being fired, part-time letter carrier Pat Sherrill shoots 14 coworkers at his Edmond, Oklahoma post office.

Aug 20 1998
President Clinton orders cruise missile attacks against terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan suspected of making chemical weapons.

Video Thought to Show American Held in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan – A new video released by the Taliban shows a man believed to be the only known American serviceman held captive in Afghanistan, a group that tracks militant websites said Wednesday.

Spc. Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho, has been held by the Taliban since June 30, 2009, when he disappeared in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan. It was not immediately clear when the video was made.

The U.S.-based IntelCenter said that along with Berghdal, another man in the video appeared to be the Taliban commander who had once threatened to kill the U.S. soldier. The video, taken in a wooded area, shows Berghdal looking thin in a loose gray top, with bags under his eyes and what appeared to be an abrasion along his left cheekbone.

In July 2009, Taliban commander Mawlavi Sangin's spokesman told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that Berghdal would be killed unless the U.S. stops strikes in Ghazni province's Giro district and Paktika province's Khoshamand district.

The video, which also shows militant attacks in Afghanistan, was released by Manba al-Jihad, a video production group affiliated with the Taliban. The man believed to be Bergdahl appears only briefly in the video and is not the main focus.

The 24-year-old Bergdahl has appeared in three videos the Taliban released prior to this: on July 18, 2009; Dec. 25, 2009; and April 7.

Separately, two NATO service members died Wednesday following an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan. The coalition did not disclose their nationalities or details about their deaths. So far this month, 12 members of the NATO coalition have been killed in Afghanistan. At least 671 have died so far this year.

The Afghan Defense Ministry on Wednesday condemned a coalition airstrike that it said mistakenly killed two Afghan soldiers on Tuesday afternoon. The ministry said in a statement that three other Afghan soldiers were wounded in the airstrike in Charkh district of Logar province in eastern Afghanistan.

NATO said it was investigating the incident.

On Tuesday, Afghan soldiers killed a suicide attacker who threatened to blow himself up at an Afghan army base in the Gereshk district of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, the Afghan Defense Ministry said. The ministry did not disclose any other details of the incident.

Also in the south, one child was killed and two men were injured in a homemade bomb explosion in the Shahjoy district of Zabul province, said Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar, spokesman for the provincial governor

Purported Bin Laden Tape Slams U.S. Role in Pakistan

(CNN) -- Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden purportedly issued another statement Wednesday, saying U.S. policy in Pakistan has generated "new seeds of hatred and revenge against America."

Al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language TV network, aired segments of what it said was a "voice recording by bin Laden." This message comes as President Obama begins his trip to the Middle East, where he is visiting Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and, in Egypt on Thursday, is to make a major speech to the Muslim world.

This would be bin Laden's first assessment of an Obama policy. CNN analysis of the audiotape as it aired indicates that the voice on the tape sounds like bin Laden's.

Since the message was not posted on the usual radical Islamist Web site that carries statements from al Qaeda, it is believed that this latest message was hand-delivered to the TV network, based in Doha, Qatar.

Watch what the speaker says on the tape »

It was believed to have been recorded several weeks ago when the mass civilian exodus occurred because of fighting in northwestern Pakistan.

The message refers to the conflict in Pakistan's Swat Valley -- where Pakistani troops are taking on Taliban militants -- and it argued that Obama is proving that he is "walking the same road of his predecessors to build enmity against Muslims and increasing the number of fighters, and establishing more lasting wars."

The speaker cited strikes, destruction and Obama's "order" to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari "to prevent the people of Swat from implementing sharia law."

It was believed to have been recorded several weeks ago when the mass civilian exodus occurred because of fighting in northwestern Pakistan.

The message refers to the conflict in Pakistan's Swat Valley -- where Pakistani troops are taking on Taliban militants -- and it argued that Obama is proving that he is "walking the same road of his predecessors to build enmity against Muslims and increasing the number of fighters, and establishing more lasting wars."

The speaker cited strikes, destruction and Obama's "order" to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari "to prevent the people of Swat from implementing sharia law."

"All this led to the displacement of about a million Muslim elders, women and children from their villages and homes. They became refugees in tents after they were honored in their own homes," the message said.

"This basically means that Obama and his administration put new seeds of hatred and revenge against America. The number of these seeds is the same as the number of those victims and refugees in Swat and the tribal area in northern and southern Waziristan."

The message added: "The American people need to prepare to only gain what those seeds bring up."

In March, bin Laden also issued purported messages. He called for Somalia's new president to be overthrown and called Israel's recent offensive in Gaza a "holocaust."

Bin Laden has delivered many messages over the years, but the last video message from him was in early September 2007.

In the video message, he criticized U.S. Democrats for failing to stop the war in Iraq; spoke of the anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II; the troop surge in Iraq; and world leaders such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

On that tape, bin Laden's appearance was artificially changed for the first time. He dyed his beard from grayish white to black, leading analysts to believe that he is only sending audio messages because he is altering his looks and doesn't want people to know what he looks like. Analysts also believe that bin Laden hasn't made videos lately because they are more labor-intensive to produce.

There have been gaps between videos from bin Laden, with many audiotapes in between, prompting analysts to theorize he might be dead. The last two videos of bin Laden himself delivering an address were the 2007 tape and another in 2004.

Al Qaeda's second in command issued an audio statement Tuesday that said Obama is not welcome in Egypt.

Ayman al-Zawahiri said relations with the United States cannot be mended so long as the administration maintains its alliance with Israel.

In a message called "Tyrants of Egypt and America's agents welcome Obama" that was posted on Islamist Web sites, al-Zawahiri once again lashed out at the United States. Obama's message to the Muslim world, he said, has already been delivered with his support for "Zionist aggression."

In the 10-minute audio message, al-Zawahiri said Obama had already made himself an enemy of Muslims by sending more soldiers to Afghanistan, ordering bombings in the tribal areas of Pakistan and administering a "bloody campaign against Muslims" in Pakistan's Swat Valley.