- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A
U.S. intelligence analysis has found that an audio recording broadcast
last week was almost certainly the voice of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden
and the tape was genuine, suggesting he was alive as recently as late October,
U.S. officials said Monday.
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- The audiotape broadcast on the Qatar-based al-Jazeera
television channel praised attacks that took place as recently as Oct.
28, and was considered the hardest evidence since December 2001 that bin
Laden survived the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan.
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- "Our intelligence experts do believe that the tape
is genuine. It cannot be stated with 100 percent certainty. It is clear
that the tape was made in the last several weeks," said White House
spokesman Scott McClellan.
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- Release of the audiotape focused attention on the threat
still posed by al Qaeda, amid Washington's focus in recent months on the
threat posed by Iraq.
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- The CIA and National Security Agency, which eavesdrop
on communications worldwide, have been analyzing the broadcast of the tape,
which was of shaky quality because it apparently was recorded over the
telephone.
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- The analysis found that it was "almost certainly
the voice of Osama bin Laden," a U.S. intelligence official said.
"At this point, there is no evidence to indicate, and no reason to
believe, that the tape was manufactured or altered," he said.
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- 'CAPTIVE AUDIENCE'
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- The recording was also played for some of the al Qaeda
members in U.S. custody, who said it sounded like bin Laden making threats,
another U.S. official said, declining to identify the detainees.
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- Congressional Democrats have called into question how
successful the Bush administration's war on terrorism has been if bin Laden
was still alive.
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- The audiotape showed that despite more than a year of
efforts to catch him, the man President Bush said was wanted "dead
or alive" remained on the loose and able to get his anti-American
message out.
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- The most recent event mentioned on the tape took place
on Oct. 28 when a senior administrator of the U.S. Agency for International
Development was gunned down in Jordan.
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- The recording praises the Oct. 12 Bali bombings, the
killing of a U.S. Marine in Kuwait, the bombing of a French oil tanker
off the coast of Yemen and the hostage-taking in Moscow. And it warns U.S.
allies against siding with the United States.
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- The United States has vowed to destroy al Qaeda, which
it says was behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America that killed about
3,000 people.
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- U.S. forces have been hunting for bin Laden mainly along
the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and the United States has offered a $25
million reward for information leading to his capture.
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- ANALYSIS TO CONTINUE
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- Officials said there was nothing that could be gleaned
from the recording about bin Laden's location.
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- "The analysis consisted of comprehensive examination
by very experienced linguists and translators as well as highly sophisticated
technical reviews of the tape by experts," the intelligence official
said. Intelligence agencies will continue to review the recording "and
the circumstances surrounding it" for additional clues, he said.
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- "It could well be that we never get any more certain
than we are today," another official said.
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- The audiotape has contributed to heightened concerns
that al Qaeda may be planning another strike.
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- U.S. intelligence agencies have picked up an increased
level of "chatter," or communications by al Qaeda operatives,
and the FBI last week said the network may attempt "spectacular attacks"
that result in mass casualties.
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- "It's a reminder that we are at war on terrorism.
It's a reminder that we need to continue doing everything we can to go
after these terrorist networks and their leaders wherever they are and
we will," McClellan told reporters.
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