Bin Laden TV threat

by IVOR KEYand CATRIONA DAVIES, Daily Mail

Terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden is alive and planning more attacks against America, it was claimed last night.

On the eve of the first anniversary of the U.S. attack on Afghanistan, Al- Jazeera, the Qatar-based television station, played an audio cassette tape which it insisted bore the recorded voice of the world's most wanted man.

The chilling message warns of more attacks against the U.S. unless it stopped its plans for 'oppression and aggression' against Moslems - a possible reference to plans for war on Iraq.

Observers see the tape as an attempt to upstage U.S. President George Bush who today addresses the American people on Iraq.

The tape also addresses the American people, telling them that the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, which claimed more than 3,000 lives, were 'in response to some of your previous crimes'.

Al-Jazeera, which has released several messages from Al Qaeda since September 11, broadcast the message with a picture of Bin Laden in the background.

Chief editor Ibrahim Helal said the station received the tape two hours before last night's broadcast. He refused to say how it was received.

'We had no doubt this was Bin Laden. It was not only the tone of the voice but also the way he spoke and the logic of the message,' Helal said.

He said the fact the message was so brief 'showed that the man was in tough circumstances and does not have a chance to talk'.

The voice says: 'By God, the youths of God are preparing for you things that would fill your hearts with terror and target your economic lifeline until you stop your oppression and aggression.'

Americans are urged to 'understand the message of the New York and Washington attacks which came in response to some of your previous crimes'.

'But those who follow the activities of the band of criminals in the White House, the Jewish agents, who are preparing for an attack on the Moslem world ... feel that you have not understood anything from the message of the two attacks.

'Those who have initiated (the attacks) are the ones who brought injustice ... so let America increase the pace of this conflict or decrease it, and we will respond in kind.'

In recent months there has been widespread speculation over the fate of Bin Laden.

CIA voice analysts were confident they heard Bin Laden rallying his forces during the bombardment of the Tora Bora cave complex last December.

And last month an Arab newspaper carried a statement allegedly from Al Qaeda admitting Bin Laden was killed in Tora Bora.

But Al-Jazeera last month aired excerpts from a videotape in which a man, said to be Bin Laden, named the leaders of the September 11 hijackers.

In Washington, a White House official said: 'We're aware of the tape and its contents. We will be reviewing it.'

A U.S. State Department spokesman said there were always rumours that the Al Qaeda leader was still alive.