'Bin Laden Tape' Nearly Confirmed

Nov. 13, 2002 -- U.S. officials are all but certain the voice on the audiotape broadcast Tuesday on the Arab television network al Jazeera is that of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden himself.

Intelligence sources told ABCNEWS that the recording was apparently made off an audio connection on the Internet. They also said officials are almost certain the tape is an authentic, recent recording of bin Laden speaking.

"I think it's been authenticated. It is his voice," said former CIA counterterrorism chief Vince Cannistraro.

ABCNEWS correspondent John Miller — one of the few American journalists to ever interview the alleged architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States — said the voice "certainly sounds like bin Laden, not a crudely edited tape."

Yossef Bodansky, author of The Man Who Declared War on America, a book about bin Laden, said there's no doubt in his mind the tape is the real thing.

"It is his language. It is his dialect. It's his voice," Bodansky said.

Forensic audio specialist Tom Owen said technology allows officials to make a very well-educated guess at the tape's authenticity. "You could get a high certainty based on the fact that you have a large sample of the known voice vs. this voice," Owen said.

"This voice is four minutes long. That's an eternity in voice identification."

A journalist with al Jazeera said today he received the audiotape in Pakistan from an agent of the al Qaeda leader. Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan told Reuters the agent telephone him Tuesday and they met in the capital, Islamabad, later that night.

"He only gave me the cassette, and in half a minute he disappeared," Zaidan said.

American officials have not been able to verify bin Laden's whereabouts this year. It had not been known if he had survived the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan, where he had been based.

Bush Being Cautious

President Bush said today he was taking the tape "very seriously," although he was, at the urging of CIA Director George Tenet, being very careful about jumping to any conclusions.

"Our experts are analyzing the voice content, and we'll let them speak about whether it's him or not," Bush said.

The president told reporters after a Cabinet meeting at the White House today that "whoever put the tape out has put the world on notice yet again that we're at war."

FBI Director Robert Mueller said he is taking the threats very seriously. "The fact that is tape's out there, does and should put us on greater alert," he said.

Intelligence sources said the tape raises many questions, like "Does it signal another round of terrorist attacks?" and "Has bin Laden done an audio tape instead of a video because he has changed his appearance and does not want his pursuers to know?"

On ABCNEWS' Good Morning America today, Miller said the audiotape would be a break with bin Laden's tradition of releasing videotaped messages, and that it opened up questions about the state of his health. Audiotapes are also easier to manipulate than video.

"Was bin Laden badly hurt or is his appearance a problem that would be bad for morale and al Qaeda?" asked Miller. "Those are some of the questions they are asking today in Washington."

Intelligence sources told ABCNEWS they can hear labored breathing on the tape, perhaps indicating the speaker is suffering from a respiratory problem.

Bin Laden is believed to have kidney problems and is said to be in need of dialysis.

The last time any video of bin Laden was aired was on Dec. 26, 2001, when, looking gaunt and sickly, he vowed to continue his fight against America.

A Warning to U.S. Allies

On the tape — first broadcast by al Jazeera on Tuesday — the voice identified as bin Laden's refers to the Oct. 12 bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia.

It also mentions a rash of recent attacks against Western targets, including the killing last month of a U.S. Marine in Kuwait, the bombing of a French oil tanker last month off Yemen and the taking of hundreds of hostages by Chechen rebels at a Moscow theater.

On the tape, the speaker warned nations against forming alliances with the United States and defended recent terror attacks as a "defense of their religion" according to a U.S. government translation.

The speaker specifically mentions "Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Australia," and asks: "What do your governments want by allying themselves with the criminal gang in the White House against Muslims? Do your governments not know that the White House gangsters are the biggest butchers of this age? "

In closing, the speaker warned: "It is time we get even. You will be killed just as you kill, and will be bombed just as you bomb. And expect more that will further distress you."

ABCNEWS' John Miller and Andrew Chang in New York and John McWethy in Washington contributed to this report.