Homeland Security

DATE=11/29/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=FRANCE / BIN LADEN TAPE (S)

NUMBER=2-296940

BYLINE=PAUL MILLER

DATELINE=PARIS

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Swiss researchers say they do not believe that the voice on a recently released audiotape is actually that of Osama Bin Laden. The tape was broadcast by the Al-Jazeera Arabic television channel. The French TV network France 2 commissioned the experts to examine the recording. Paul Miller reports from Paris.

TEXT: Researchers at the Dalle Molle Institute in Lausanne Switzerland compared the audiotape with 20 others of Osama bin Laden that are believed to be genuine. In a broadcast (Thursday) on the France 2 channel, the researchers reported that they were 95 percent certain that the voice on the latest tape is not Osama Bin Laden's.

One of the researchers said the recent tape was considerably different from the earlier recordings and the voice could be that of an impostor.

That conclusion contradicts U-S experts who said the tape, broadcast on November 12, was probably genuine, although it was of such poor quality that they could not be certain.

If genuine, it would be the first evidence that Mr. Bin Laden had survived the U-S attacks on al-Qaida in Afghanistan -- the last known recording of him was made in December 2001. (Signed)

NEB/PM/KL/MAR