Tapes obtained by CNN that appear to show suspected al Qaeda members testing chemical weapons on dogs will be examined by US officials to see if they contain any useful intelligence information, the White House said today.
White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said of the tapes were a, "vivid illustration of what terrorism means."
"This is a good reminder to the people of the world that these are the type of people that we are facing in the war against terrorism," he added.
The footage, which was aired repeatedly on the cable news station today, came from 64 videotapes made over a decade.
Most of the tapes were shot before the September 11th attacks on America last year. Washington blames the attacks on the al Qaeda group led by Osama bin Laden.
The tapes show scenes of what appears to be the testing of a poison gas on dogs. One of the tapes shows several men wearing Afghan-style sandals rushing out of an enclosure where one of the dogs is penned. A white liquid that gives off a gas seeps in and the dog begins showing physical discomfort.
US forces who invaded Afghanistan last year to topple the then Taliban rulers and try to crush al Qaeda seized documents and other evidence they said showed that bin Laden was trying to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. It is not known whether bin Laden survived the US operation in Afghanistan.