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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Investor Clouseau who wrote (19811)	11/13/2002 7:57:17 PM
From: Richnorth	Respond to of 27666

Osama alive - voice on tape is his Audiotape aired by Al-Jazeera praising recent terrorist attacks and pressing for new strikes is believed to be authentic WASHINGTON - After more than a year of suspense over whether Osama bin Laden is dead or alive, American officials now believe the terrorist mastermind is alive, and pressing for new strikes against the United States and its allies in a tape aired on Tuesday. The tape, broadcast around the Arab world on Al-Jazeera television, also praised a string of recent terrorist attacks, including those in Indonesia and Russia, as acts by ''pious Muslims defending their religion and heeding God's orders''. It also went on to threaten more such attacks on Western targets if the US went to war against Iraq. ''As you kill you will be killed, and as you bomb you will be bombed. And expect more that will further distress you,'' the speaker said, specifying that his message was intended for the people of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Australia. ''We had warned Australia about its participation in Afghanistan,'' he added. ''It ignored the warning until it woke up to the sound of explosions in Bali.'' More than 190 people, most of them Australians, were killed in the Oct 12 Bali bombings. President George W. Bush said yesterday that the US took the threats ''very seriously'' even though tests were still underway on whether the speaker was indeed Osama. ''Whoever put this tape out has put the world on notice yet again that we're at war and that we need to take these messages very seriously, and we will,'' he said. He added that the message reinforced the need for the global war on terrorism he declared after the Sept 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killed around 3,000 people. ''We've got to cut off their money. We've got to share intelligence. And we're on a manhunt and we're not quitting,'' he said. The tape was provided to Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television. Previous tape recordings attributed to Osama by Al-Jazeera have proven authentic. Several US officials said that initial checks were coming up positive that the founder of the Al-Qaeda terror network - silent, hunted and unseen since last year - was indeed the man heard issuing the latest call to arms. If confirmed, the tape would be the clearest evidence yet that Osama survived the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan. It rang alarm bells in Washington, US officials said, because Osama has been known to make such public pronouncements just before a terrorist strike, as was the case before Al-Qaeda truck bombs killed 224 people at two US embassies in Africa in 1998. US authorities have cautioned in recent days that there has been an alarming spike in the kind of intelligence ''chatter'' that normally precedes a major terrorist attack, at a level unseen since the Sept 11 attacks. Several counter-terrorism experts said Osama's apparent resurfacing might have been triggered by the increasing drumbeat of war with Iraq. ''The confrontation with Iraq is perfect grist for the jihadist mill,'' said Mr Daniel Benjamin, a former National Security Council counter-terrorism expert. -- Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Reuters, AP