New Terror Alerts

[Manu]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. and coalition officials said Wednesday they believe a new audiotaped warning to Western leaders is the recently recorded voice of Osama bin Laden. President Bush said the tape's message should be taken "very seriously."

The statement, broadcast Tuesday by the Qatar-based satellite network Al-Jazeera, praises recent terror attacks against governments that have aligned themselves with Washington and threatens U.S. allies with more bloodshed if they support an American-led war against Iraq.

Ahmed Mwaffac Zeidan, Al-Jazeera's Islamabad bureau chief, said in his column in the Al-Hayat London-based Arabic language newspaper Wednesday that he obtained the audiotape in Pakistan.

Coalition intelligence sources with long experience in analyzing bin Laden's voice told CNN that the voice on the audiotape belongs to al Qaeda leader.

They said there is no indication the tape had been edited in any way and that they think the tape dates from the last two and a half weeks.

A senior State Department official said: "Yes, it is his voice. But we don't know yet whether anybody put it together, spliced, or computer-generated" it.

The source told CNN that U.S. officials "haven't seen a definitive statement as to whether it's fabricated."

"It's going to take a little more time to determine with a certain degree of certainty whether it's fabricated. But by implication, it would suggest he [bin Laden] is in league with Iraq."

Another U.S. official said: "We're about 95 percent sure" the voice on the tape is that of bin Laden and that the recording was made recently.

The official said, however, that experts were performing technical tests on the tape to assess its authenticity. (More on tape analysis)

Bush told congressional leaders the voice on the tape appeared to be that of bin Laden and referred to the message as "timely."

Bush said later at a Cabinet meeting that no matter who released the tape, it puts the United States on notice that "there is an active enemy" that continues to pursue its goals through hate and killing.

"Whoever put this tape out has put the world on notice yet again that we're at war, and we need to take these message very seriously," he said.

The message calls Bush the "pharaoh of the century" and vows to avenge the deaths of Afghans, Iraqis and Palestinians.

"Why it is acceptable for [Muslims] to live with fear, murder, destruction, displacement, the orphaning of children and the widowing of women, but peace, security and happiness should be for you? This is not fair," the voice on the tape says.

"Now is the time to become equals. Just like you kill us, we will kill you."

The speaker refers to the killings of Germans in Tunisia and French in Pakistan in the past year, to the bombing of a French tanker off Yemen, to the killings of a U.S. Marine in Kuwait and Britons and Australians in the Indonesian resort isle of Bali last month, and to the seizure of a Moscow theater by Chechen rebels.

The taped voice says the events "are just some of the attacks here and there, and they're only a reaction to how the Muslims have been treated in response to what God had ordered them."

The purported bin Laden statement came as security services and police in Europe are on high alert. Coalition intelligence agencies have warned that the threat of a new and massive attack is higher now than at any time since the September 11, 2001, attacks against the United States.

CIA Director George Tenet said in October that al Qaeda had reorganized since U.S. attacks in Afghanistan last year and "you must make the assumption that al Qaeda is in an execution phase and intends to strike us here and overseas."

The commander in charge of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, Gen. Tommy Franks, said Tuesday he had "seen no evidence" that bin Laden is dead.

"On the other hand, I've seen no evidence that he is alive," Franks said in a speech in Coral Cables, Florida.

Franks said he tells people the same thing he tells his granddaughter when she asks in bin Laden is still alive: "I don't know. But if he's alive, we'll certainly get him. This much I can tell you, he's having a bad year."

A tape said to contain the voice of bin Laden's second-in-command, Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, was delivered on October 8 to London-based APTN television.

The voice on the tape said that "neither America nor its allies have been able to harm the leadership of al Qaeda and the Taliban, including Mullah Mohammed Omar and Sheikh Osama bin Laden. They are both in good health, along with all of the sincere mujahedeen, directing the battle against the American crusader assault on Afghanistan."

CNN terrorism expert Peter Bergen, one of the few Western journalists ever to meet bin Laden, said he was "98 percent sure" the latest tape is authentic and said it could indicate "a second phase in the war on terrorism, where we're going to see a lot of attacks on American economic targets."

Bergen said if the latest tape is authentic, it means the Al-Zawahiri recording is also authentic.

"This is not rhetoric. This is for real," Bergen said. (More from Bergen)

www.cnn.com

[RedLine99]

it would suggest he [bin Laden] is in league with Iraq

hmmmmm...Saddam says, "sure, inspect me" and now we have a new tape with an implication he is somehow an accomplice?

[Geoffrey]

Originally posted by RedLine99


hmmmmm...Saddam says, "sure, inspect me" and now we have a new tape with an implication he is somehow an accomplice?

another good reason to take him out!

[Manu]

Kraw...im suprised you said that.

PROOF man. Where's the proof.

How come no one is screaming for Saudi blood?