Missing in Action: Bin Laden Election Tape Fails to Appear

Nov. 4, 2008— -- Unlike the last election, and despite predictions to the contrary, the Osama bin Laden 2008 election tape has yet to appear.

Senior U.S. officials say that is no accident.

Since the morning of Sept. 11, 2008, U.S. and allied intelligence agencies have largely shut down what had been al Qaeda's routine access to certain Internet sites that distributed its leaders' video messages.

"We've been able to squelch their message," said former CIA intelligence officer John Kiriakou, now an ABC News consultant. "We push al Qaeda's Web operation from country to country, to a point where they're just not able to find a country that's going to be willing to host their Web sites anymore."

CIA officials declined to comment.

The secret effort was launched just days before Sept. 11 of this year, when the group has normally posted a video celebrating the anniversary of the terror attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Al Qaeda propaganda distributors were apparently caught off guard when their normal distribution sites in Germany and Malaysia were shut down in the first week of September. The sites have not come back online since.

The cyber war attack on al Qaeda's Internet access came in coordination this autumn with stepped up missile strikes at suspected terror operation posts in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

"We know bin Laden is extremely concerned about his security, and the attacks have no doubt kept him quite pre-occupied," a senior U.S. official said.