'Bin Laden' Hails Attacks in Bali, Moscow

Nov. 12, 2002 -- A voice purported to belong to Osama bin Laden praised terrorist strikes in Bali and Moscow and warned Western nations against supporting the United States in an audiotaped message aired today across the Arab world.

If the voice is confirmed to be bin Laden's, the message's references to recent events will end months of speculation over whether or not the terrorist mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks survived last year's punishing U.S. airstrikes over Afghanistan.

The speaker on the tape broadcast on al Jazeera television referred to the Oct. 12 bombing of a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali, 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 who seized a Moscow theater.

The speaker said the attacks "are only a reaction and an equal treatment that the sons of Islam have carried out, in fulfilling the orders of their God and their prophet," according to an ABCNEWS translation.

Addressing his remarks to U.S. allies, specifically Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Australia, the speaker asked: "What do your governments have to do with the criminal gang in the White House that's against Muslims? Don't your governments know that the White House gang is the greatest killer of this era?"

The speaker singled out Australians, saying: "We had warned Australia before against its participation in Afghanistan."

"It ignored the warnings until it woke up to the sounds of bombings in Bali. Its government then claimed, unrightfully, that they were not targeted," he continued.

If the tape is authentic, it will validate the theory that many, if not all the attacks listed, were the work of bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network. In closing, the speaker warned: "As you kill, you will be killed. As you bomb you will be bombed."

An al Jazeera official received the four-minute audiotape in Doha, Qatar, earlier today. It had originally been sent to an undisclosed al Jazeera office, the network said.

Does It Sound Like Him?

U.S. intelligence officials were evaluating the tape to verify if the voice was bin Laden's, according to officials in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity. During a question and answer session, Secretary of State Colin Powell said: "I'm sure it will be analyzed to determine its authenticity."

At the White House, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said,"We don't know whether he's alive or dead. But if he's alive, weknow he's on the run and this war on terrorism is about more thanany one person."

"We've seen the reports and we're looking into it," McClellansaid.

Upon initial analysis, experts consulted by ABCNEWS expressed confidence that the tape was bin Laden's. ABCNEWS correspondent John Miller, one of the few American journalists to ever interview the accused terrorist mastermind said: "It certainly sounds like bin Laden, not a crudely edited tape."

Earlier, Gen. Tommy Franks said at a West Palm Beach, Fla., news conference that he has assumed bin Laden was alive."I've said to many, many people that I have seen no evidence that he has been killed, and therefore I assume that he was alive," said the head of U.S. Central Command.

Franks said "If he's alive, we'll certainly get him. This I can tell you: He's having a bad year."

American officials have not verified bin Laden's whereabouts this year.

Latest Evidence

The last time any new video of Bin Laden was aired was on Dec. 26, 2001. On Dec. 13, a videotape of him having dinner with deputies was released, but that was believed to have been filmed on Nov. 9, 2001.

Audio recordings are easier to make than videotapes. Videotapes could also reveal bin Laden's location, and whether he is injured or has significantly altered his looks.

Two months ago, al Jazeera aired voice recordings of bin Laden and top al Qaeda operatives that were authenticated by the CIA. But officials suspected the recordings weren't recently made.

The closest American troops believe they came to getting bin Laden was during a massive bombing campaign last December in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan.

DNA was retrieved from bodies found in caves and compared with DNA from a bin Laden relative. It was not a match.

Earlier this year, a Hellfire missile from an unmanned Predator aircraft hit a group of suspected al Qaeda members. One was especially tall, just like bin Laden, but it was another miss.

If bin Laden is still alive, it means al Qaeda still has its best recruiter, its charismatic leader and its top mastermind. Al Qaeda is reportedly on a public relations binge aimed at keeping its profile high and its actions relevant.

ABCNEWS' John Miller and Martha Raddatz contributed to this report.