American officials believe a new audiotape attributed to Osama bin Laden is probably authentic and are treating it as new evidence the terror leader is still alive, a U.S. official familiar with the tape said Wednesday, according to AP.
"It's probably his voice," said the official. "It cannot be said with absolute certainty."
At the White House, President Bush told congressional leaders Wednesday the new audiotaped statement was "timely," suggesting that bin Laden is alive, House Speaker Dennis Hastert told reporters.
A senior defense official said Wednesday analysts informed the Pentagon that a study of the tape indicates it is bin Laden's voice.
In the tape, Osama bin Laden praised the recent wave of terror attacks throughout the Arab world and Asia as well as last month's Moscow hostage-taking, and threatened US allies.
In the audio-tape attributed to Bin Laden and broadcast by Al-Jazeera TV on Tuesday, the speaker slammed United States President George W. Bush, calling him the "pharaoh of the century," and at his key allies, whom he called "murderers."
"As you assassinate, so will you be (assassinated), and as you bomb so will you likewise be," the tape said, against the background of an old photograph of Al-Qaeda network's leader.
The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera identified the speaker as Osama bin Laden and said they received the tape on Tuesday.
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." In addition, he cited "Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Australia."
The supposed Osama bin Laden said, "What has happened since the conquests of New York and Washington up until now - like the operations against Germans in Tunisia, the explosion of the French tanker in Yemen, on the French in Karachi, the operations against the (US) Marines in Failaka (Kuwait), on Australians and Britons in the explosions in Bali, as well as the recent hostage-taking in Moscow and other operations here and there - were nothing but the response of Muslims eager to defend their religion and respond to the order of God and their Prophet.
"Australia was warned about its participation (in the war) in Afghanistan and its ignoble contribution to the separation of East Timor (from Indonesia). But it ignored this warning until it was awakened by the echoes of explosions in Bali," the speaker said.
"If you suffer to see your (people) killed and those of your allies in Tunisia, in Karachi, in Falaika, Bali and Amman, remember our (people) killed among the children of Palestine, in Iraq ... and in Afghanistan," the speaker added.
"As you look at your dead in Moscow, also recall ours in Chechnya. For how long will fear, massacres, destruction, exile, orphan-hood and widowhood be our lot, while security, stability and joy remain your domain alone," he asked.
"What (US President) Bush, the pharaoh of the century, did by murdering our children in Iraq and what Israel, the ally of America, did in bombing houses of the elderly, women and children in Palestine, using American planes, was enough for the wise among your leaders to distance themselves from this criminal gang. "
He continued, "Our people in Palestine have been massacred and subjected to the worst of suffering for nearly a century. If we defend our people in Palestine, the world gets agitated and coalesces against Muslims under the cover of the war against terrorism, unjustly and in a false way.
"Do your governments not know that the clique in the White House is made up of the greatest murderers of the century?"
Amongst them, the speaker characterized United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as the "butcher of Vietnam who has killed more than two million people."
Claiming such an imbalance had come to an end, he added, "It is high time that equality be established to this effect," promising further attacks against Western targets by young Muslims "committed before God to pursue Jihad (holy war)." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
