Agence France Presse November 13, 2002
Purported bin Laden tape revives debate
The debate over the fate of fugitive Islamist militant Osama bin Laden re-emerged Tuesday with an audiotape attributed to him praising recent terror attacks that US experts believe is authentic, according to media reports.
Officials quoted by US television networks said a preliminary analysis of the tape by intelligence experts indicate the voice on the tape is the al-Qaeda leader's.
"It's him," two senior officials from different agencies told NBC News as the Central Intelligence Agency continued to analyze the recording aired earlier by Qatar's Al-Jazeera television. Fox News quoted an unnamed official as saying the analysis was not complete, but it "certainly sounds like the guy."
The White House said it would make no judgment about the tape's authenticity.
"We've seen the reports, we're looking into it, but at this point we're not making any judgments as to whose voice is on the tape," said White House national security spokesman Sean McCormack.
In the tape, bin Laden praised a spate of terrorist attacks in the Arab world and Asia, along with the recent Moscow hostage-taking by Chechen rebels. He also threatened the United States and its allies.
"As you assassinate, so will you be (assassinated), and as you bomb so will you likewise be," the tape said, against the background of a photograph of the al-Qaeda terror network's leader, in turban and khaki jacket, a rifle at his side.
In the message to "the peoples of countries allied to the United States," he warned them against the "alliance between their governments and the United States to attack us in Afghanistan."
He cited "Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Australia."
Al-Jazeera did not provide any details on how it obtained the tape but said it showed bin Laden was still alive at least until the Moscow hostage-taking in late October or the October 28 killing of a US diplomat in Amman.
On October 6, Al-Jazeera broadcast what it said was another recording of the al-Qaeda chief in which he issued a new threat to strike US economic interests until Washington renounced its "injustice and hostility" toward Arabs and Muslims.
Ever since the US-led attack on Afghanistan late last year, there has been debate on whether bin Laden, who was in hiding there, had survived those attacks.
A former Afghan commander said Monday in Pakistan that bin Laden was still alive and hiding in Afghanistan.
"My assumption is that he's alive. He's alive until proven dead," said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org.
© Copyright 2002 Agence France Presse
