Steve Quayle News Alerts

November 12, 2002

CAIRO, Egypt — Usama bin Laden may be alive.

In an audiotape broadcast Tuesday by the Al-Jazeera television network, a voice purported to be that of the international terror mastermind can be heard praising the recent terror attacks in Bali and Moscow.

The speaker on the tape also threatens Western nations considering an attack on Iraq.

U.S. officials told Fox News Tuesday afternoon that although official assessment of the tape is not yet complete, there is a "good chance it is authentic."

If the voice on the tape does, in fact, belong to bin Laden, it will prove that the Al Qaeda leader behind the Sept. 11 attacks is alive somewhere and has survived the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan.

On the tape, the speaker purported to be bin Laden referred to the Oct. 12 Bali bombing, the killing last month of a Marine in Kuwait, the bombing of a French oil tanker last month off Yemen and the Chechen hostage-taking in Moscow, saying the attacks were "undertaken by sons who are zealous in the defense of their religion."

He said the attacks were in response to "what (President) Bush, the pharaoh of the age, is doing by killing our sons in Iraq and what America's ally Israel is doing, bombarding houses with women and old people and children inside with American planes."

"Our people in Palestine are being killed, are being subjected to the worse kind of suffering for almost a century now," the speaker said. "If we defend our people in Palestine the world is disturbed and allied against Muslims under the banner of combating terrorism."

The speaker then castigated U.S. allies that have joined the war against terrorism, specifically Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Australia.

After listing those countries, he warned: "If you don't like looking at your dead ... so remember our dead, including the children in Iraq."

Early in the tape, the person purported to be bin Laden says:

"From Usama bin Laden to the people of the countries cooperating with the Americans:

"The road for a secure life will begin when you give us peace. The killing of the German people in Tunisia, the French in Karachi and the killing of the British in Bali, it was reaction from the sons of Islam.

"What Bush made by killing our people in Iraq and what Israel is doing in Palestine should be enough clue for our leaders to stop cooperating with the United States.

"If we are fighting for Palestine, we are terrorists, and there is a war against us terrorists.

"If we get bombed, you get bombed.

"If we get killed, you get killed.

"We warned Britain about getting attacked. And remember the Moscow killings and wait for what is going to happen to you."

Al-Jazeera did not say how it received the tape, nor how it verified that the voice was really that of bin Laden.

But the speaker can be heard threatening six Western countries that are supporting the United States and specifically mentions Great Britain as a possible future target for terror attacks.

Audio recordings are easier to make than videotapes, which could reveal whether bin Laden is injured, has significantly altered his looks, or is in a vulnerable location that could be given away in a video appearance.

The last certain evidence bin Laden was alive was a videotape of him having dinner with some of his deputies, which is believed to have been filmed on Nov. 9, 2001.

In September, the Al-Jazeera network aired voice recordings of bin Laden and top Al Qaeda operatives. The CIA authenticated bin Laden's voice then, but officials said the recordings probably weren't made recently.

Those statements came out around the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Experts say bin Laden's Al Qaeda network is on a renewed public relations campaign aimed at keeping itself in the public eye and associated with events, such as a possible war in Iraq, which could turn the Arab public against the United States.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,70114,00.html