New Videotape From Bin Laden; Al Qaeda's No. 1 Still Alive
September 07, 2007 9:23 AM
Brian Ross Reports:
Intelligence sources tell ABC News they believe the expected video message from Osama bin Laden is authentic, recently produced and evidence the al Qaeda leader is still alive.
U.S. authorities now say they have a transcript which they say is aimed at potential suicide bombers who he urges to carry out missions against the West.
Good Morning America Video: Bin Laden Alive?
The jihadist Web site announced the tape with a banner, showing a still picture of bin Laden, now 50 years old, looking fit with a full beard of dark black hair, no gray at all.
"It does look oddly like he is wearing a false beard," Richard Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism official and now ABC News consultant, said. "If we go back to the tape three years, he had a very white beard. This looks like a phony beard that has been passed on."
The "phony beard" may be an important clue as to where bin Laden is hiding, according to Clarke.
"One place where a beard would stand out would be southeast Asia, the Philippines, Indonesia," Clarke told ABC News. "No one's thought he was there, but that is an environment where most men, Muslim men don't have beards."
U.S. officials say there is little doubt the al Qaeda leader timed his latest message to the 9/11 anniversary.
"He came up on this occasion to prove he's alive, to taunt us and to take advantage of the 9/11 remembrance ceremonies to get some propaganda," Clarke said.
The actual videotape – bin Laden's first in 35 months since October 2004 – is expected to be released in the next few days or hours.
Sources in the intelligence community, who are already busy analyzing the image of bin Laden for clues of his whereabouts, say the tape is likely to be a direct message to Americans. |
