Possible bin Laden tape airs as CIA, FBI warn of attacks

By JOHN YAUKEY
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON — The Qatar-based satellite TV station al-Jazeera aired an audio tape Tuesday purported to be of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden exhorting Muslims to "unite in defending the Iraqi people."

"We are following very carefully the preparations of the crusaders to invade," the tape said referring to the U.S. military buildup around Iraq. "We are with you (Iraqis) and will fight in the name of God."

It urged Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other Arab leaders to "go for jihad against this (Western) crusade ... take up arms and kill all those who are infidels."

The tape, yet to be authenticated by U.S. intelligence analysts, also threatens the governments of Saudi Arabia and Jordan for being too friendly with the West.

If it is authentic, the tape would reinforce the warning issued earlier Tuesday by leading intelligence officials who said al-Qaida terrorists are now aggressively plotting to strike Americans on their home soil - perhaps as early as this week using chemical, biological or radiological weapons.

CIA Director George Tenet and FBI Director Robert Mueller told the Senate Intelligence Committee that al-Qaida terrorists remain the single greatest threat to Americans, stirring concerns by mostly Democratic lawmakers that the Bush administration is concentrating on war with Iraq at the expense of the larger war on terrorism.

`'The al-Qaida terrorist network is clearly the most urgent threat,'' Mueller told lawmakers. `'And the network will remain, for the foreseeable future, the most significant threat to the country.''

While al-Qaida has not struck on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001, Mueller stressed the most serious threat now comes from cells within the United States that `'we have not yet been able to identify.''

Mueller indicated that al-Qaida, weakened by the U.S.-led war on terrorism, will likely be trying to hit soft, or lightly guarded, targets. Those could include hospitals and apartments, possibly in midsize cities that are not as well equipped to deal with terrorist attacks as large metro centers like Washington, D.C., or New York City.

`'Target vulnerability and likelihood of success are of increasing importance to the organization,'' Mueller said.

The sobering assessment came only days after President Bush authorized raising the nation's color-coded threat level to orange, or high, one notch below the highest level red, which means an attack is virtually imminent.

In the past, intelligence officials have often said they based their heightened threat warnings on nonspecific information and indirect evidence such as a surge in electronic `'chatter'' among terrorists, indicating something might be afoot.

Tenet said the evidence of the current high-level threat came from a `'solid base of intelligence.''

`'The intelligence is not idle chatter - it comes to us from credible sources,'' he said. `'Al-Qaida is living in the expectation of resuming the offensive'' against Americans.

That could come sometime this week, Tenet said, reinforcing fears that terrorists might try to act against the United States as a spectacular end to the hajj, the annual pilgrimage Muslims make to the holy city of Mecca that concludes this week.

Some lawmakers have voiced concerns that the Bush administration's aggressive stance on Iraq is drawing resources and attention from efforts to find and fight al-Qaida and other terrorists.

`'I find it hard to believe there isn't a danger and a price to be paid in the war on terrorism if we go ahead with this war (on Iraq),'' said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The Bush administration maintains that al-Qaida and Iraq are linked, and that they both must be confronted before Iraq can transfer its weapons of mass destruction to al-Qaida or other terrorist networks.

`'This nexus between terrorists and states developing weapons of mass destruction can no longer be looked away from and ignored,'' Secretary of State Colin Powell said.

Mueller and Tenet said the intelligence community has stepped up efforts at thwarting terrorist attacks by enhancing information sharing between the various intelligence agencies, establishing threat monitoring units, analyzing more terrorist communications and sending more agents into the field.

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© 2003, Gannett News Service