Al Queda Leader, Bin Laden, Rears His Head Again

A one minute audiotape, supposedly containing the voice of Osama bin Laden, was released Sunday (1/24/10) to Al Jazeera News.. The message praised the failed suicide bombing of a U.S. airliner on Christmas day by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian native who boarded the plane overseas and was tackled by another passenger when he attempted to set off the bomb he had in his underwear, and threatened more attacks based on America's support of Israel.

According to the U.S. based IntelCenter, which monitors militant messages, the manner of the recording's release, the content and other factors of the tape indicate that it is credible. The audio message may have resembled other messages attributed to him but there is no way to verify that the voice on the tape is actually bin Laden.

U.S. officials and other researchers that track terrorist groups have said that there is no connection between the failed Christmas airliner bombing and bin Laden or any of his top lieutenants and that bin Laden nor his lieutenants even knew of the Yemeni based plot. Speculation suggests that bin Laden, or whoever manufactured the tape, wants bin Laden to appear as if he has some kind of direct command over the independent al-Quida offshoots.

U.S. State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley said, "He's trying to continue to appear relevant by talking up the attempted attack by an affiliate".

"The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of the Sept. 11," praising the Nigerian suspect in the Dec. 25 failed attack.

"America will never dream of living in peace unless we live it in Palestine. It is unfair that you enjoy a safe life while our brothers in Gaza suffer greatly.

"America will never dream of living in peace unless we live it in Palestine. It is unfair that you enjoy a safe life while our brothers in Gaza suffer greatly.

"Therefore, with God's will, our attacks on you will continue as long as you continue to support Israel," bin Laden said.

"If our messages had been able to reach you through words we wouldn't have been delivering them through planes."

The voice continued directly at President Obama, "from Osama to Obama, America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine".

White House officials could not immediately authenticate the message and are again questioning how much of a link there is between al-Quada's top leadership along the Afghan - Pakistan border and the loosely affiliated groups operating in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and Iraq. The leader of al - Queda has not been heard, supposedly since last September, seems intent on remaining more than just an ideological symbol as most have suggested he has become during al - Queda's evolution.

Al Queda does not usually take credit for it's failures but an interview on HLN News this morning, it was stated "they must believe there is some kind of propoganda value" in claiming the incident on 12/25/09.

Whether or not bin Laden is still alive and in direct contact with Yemeni and Saudi al - Queda leaders in Yemen, this message comes weeks after Yemeni a terrorist group claimed responsibility for the failed Christmas day attack.

David Axelrod told CNN's State of the Union program that "assuming that it is him, his message contains the same hollow justifications for the mass slaughters of innocents that we've heard before and the irony is that he's killed more Muslims than people from any other religion - he's a murderer".

The author of Dining with Terrorists, Phil Rees, told Al Jazeera: "Bin Laden has a great sense of timing; it's a complete poke in the eye to President Obama at a time when Obama is domestically suffering. The reference to Palestine is possibly the most interesting part of this because he almost now becomes the al-Qaeda leader that speaks about Palestine.

What you've now got in Gaza is bin Laden looking at the situation where there's a peace process which is going nowhere, and in an ironic way, Hamas is at the frontline of the battle with al-Qaeda there."

A political analyst and the author of "Hamas the Unwritten Chapters", Azzam Tamimi, speculates that bin Laden is simply using the Palestinian issue in an effort to mobilize Muslims against the U.S. "I would say that al-Qaeda has not been able to set foot in many places in the Muslim world despite its rhetoric," he told Al Jazeera. "In Palestine they failed miserably and that is why I understand this message as a return to the older strategy of waging war against America and the world order in the skies. It is very difficult to compete with an organization like Hamas in Palestine."

the chairman of the Centre for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad, Imtiaz Gul, questioned whether the tape was genuine, "I think the validity of this tape should be subjected to scrutiny because we haven't heard from Mr. Bin Laden for quite some time".

The tape was believed to have been recorded last month.