By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — In an audiotape aired by Al-Jazeera on Thursday, Osama bin Laden threatened to kill captured Americans if Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind, is executed.
"The day America will take such decision [to execute Mohammed and any others] it would have taken a decision to execute whoever we capture," Bin Laden said, according to the Al-Jazeera translation of the tape.
While the Obama Administration and Attorney General Eric Holder had originally pushed for Mohammed's trial to be held in a civilian court in lower Manhattan, he will now likely be tried elsewhere in front of a military tribunal.
"Your friend in the White House has been following in the footsteps of his predecessor," Bin Laden told listeners, citing the war in Afghanistan and "unjust" treatment of Al Qaeda captives.
This is bin Laden's first pubic communication since Jan. 24, when he released a tape in which he claimed responsibility for the attempted Christmas Day attack on a U.S. airliner, according to Al-Jazeera.
