No Plans to Raise Terror Threat Level After Bin Laden Tape

Jan. 20, 2006 — -- The Department of Homeland Security says it has no plans to raise the national security threat level, despite the new Osama bin Laden audiotape threatening more attacks against the United States. But precautions are being taken.

In response to the new tape, Homeland Security officials are sending out a bulletin to 18,000 police agencies telling them to review all their intelligence. Government sources tell ABC News that local officials are being warned to pay attention to mass transit -- including subways, commuter trains and metro buses. Airports, water treatment plants, chemical plants, and facilities storing radioactive material are also of concern.

A recent 9/11 Commission report card identified major areas of weakness in the country's security, including cargo being loaded on airplanes, imported cargo on ships, and mass transit.

"When I get on an airplane, I am less worried about the passengers than what is going into the hole below," said Lee Hamilton, former congressman and vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission. "I worry about containers being shipped into this country. I worry more about rail security than I do air security."

The audiotape, released Thursday by the Al Jazeera television network, was bin Laden's first public statement in more than a year. The national terror threat level currently stands at yellow, or elevated. The government has raised the alert level to orange, signaling a high threat risk, seven times since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Bin Laden's threats should be taken very seriously, terrorism experts warned today.

On the tape, bin Laden warns that al Qaeda is making preparations for attacks on the United States. It appears to be the most explicit warning bin Laden has ever made of a pending attack on the United States.

"… because of God's help the mujaheddin were able to penetrate all the security measures taken by the unjust coalition forces time after time," the voice on the tape says in Arabic. "The proof for that are the bombings that you saw in the capitals of the most important European countries of this hostile coalition."

"It's unlike him to say something like that," said Richard Clarke, a former White House security adviser who is now an ABC News consultant. "It doesn't necessarily mean that he has the capability to carry it out. But it would be unusual, I think, for him to say something and not be able to back it up in some way."

The Central Intelligence Agency confirmed the tape contained the voice of bin Laden, although his voice sounded weak and less robust than in his last audiotape, which surfaced in late December 2004.

The tape's release came after a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan that targeted bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahari. Four leading al Qaeda figures, including possibly Zawahari's son-in-law, were killed. There was no mention of the attack on the segments that were broadcast on al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera said the tape was recorded in the Islamic month that corresponds to December.

Bin Laden goes on to say: "There is no way to end the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our situation is very good; yours is very bad."

The tape then suggests a truce is possible.

"We have no objection to a long-term truce with you based on fair conditions that we would fulfill," he said. "We are a nation prohibited by God from deceit and lying. During this truce, the two sides will enjoy security and stability, and so we can build Iraq and Afghanistan, which were destroyed by the war."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said during a news conference Thursday that talk of a truce was a sign of weakness.

"We do not negotiate with terrorists," he said. "We put them out of business."

Fawaz Gerges, a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Sarah Lawrence College and an ABC News consultant, said the tape would inspire bin Laden's followers, however.

"The rank and file of al Qaeda -- the supporters, the hard-core -- will be delighted, inspired because there has been a great deal of speculation," Gerges said. "People were concerned about the fate of Osama bin Laden. So what the tape does is provide inspiration."

ABC News' Brian Ross contributed to this report.