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Bush meets advisors over new bin Laden tape
New videotaped message warns Americans
Saturday, October 30, 2004 Posted: 11:03 AM EDT (1503 GMT)

CNN) GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan -- President Bush instructed top homeland and national security advisers on Saturday to "take all actions that might be necessary" to respond to the new message from Osama bin Laden, the White House said.

Senior officials, however, stressed initial analysis suggested no "actionable intelligence" suggesting possible al Qaeda attacks.

Bush held secure video conference in his hotel in Columbus, Ohio, before beginning a busy day of campaigning in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Florida.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was with the president in Columbus; other participants included Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, CIA Director Porter Goss, deputy CIA director John McLaughlin, Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller and Rice counterterrorism deputy Fran Townsend.

In the videotape, broadcast Friday by Arabic-language television station Al-Jazeera, bin Laden spoke to the American people, telling them their security does not depend on the president they elect, but on U.S. policy.

He took direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001, attacks, and he said al Qaeda remains motivated to strike the United States again.

"Although we are ushering the fourth year after 9/11, Bush is still exercising confusion and misleading you and not telling you the true reason. Therefore, the motivations are still there for what happened to be repeated," bin Laden said.

It marked the first videotaped message from the al Qaeda leader in nearly three years. (CNN's Octavia Nasr discusses the tape)

Political response
Both Bush and Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry denounced a new videotape from Osama bin Laden, released days before Americans head to the polls in the highly contested presidential election.

As he was boarding Air Force One for Ohio on Friday night, Bush said: "Americans will not be intimidated or influenced by an enemy of our country. I'm sure Sen. Kerry agrees with this. ... We are at war with these terrorists, and I am confident we will prevail."

Kerry told reporters at the West Palm Beach, Florida, airport Friday night: "Let me make it clear -- crystal clear: As Americans, we are absolutely united in our determination to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden and the terrorists. They are barbarians."

Earlier Friday evening, Kerry repeated a familiar criticism that "when George Bush had the opportunity in Afghanistan at Tora Bora, he didn't choose to use American forces to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden. He outsourced the job to Afghan warlords.. I think it was an enormous mistake, and we're paying for that today."

Hours later, at a rally in Columbus, Ohio, Bush blasted Kerry for those comments.

"Unfortunately, my opponent tonight continued to say things he knows are not true, accusing our military of passing up a chance to get Osama bin Laden in Tora Bora," the president said. "It is the worst kind of Monday morning quarterbacking. It is especially shameful in light of a new tape from America's enemy."

Bin Laden said the 2001 attacks were the result of U.S. foreign policy in Arab lands, referring specifically to Lebanon and the Palestinians. The U.S. terror attacks killed nearly 3,000 people.

At one point, he mentioned Bush and Kerry.

"Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands. Any nation that does not attack us will not be attacked," bin Laden said in the video.

Bin Laden criticizes Bush's response
Bin Laden sharply criticized Bush for his behavior on the morning of 9/11 when the president was reading a book to a group of schoolchildren in Florida at the time he was informed of the attacks.

"It never occurred that the highest leader of the military armed forces would leave 50,000 people to face the horror that they faced all by themselves when they needed him most," bin Laden said.

"He was more interested in listening to the child's story about the goat rather than worry about what was happening to the towers. So that gave us double the time for us to execute our attacks."

Bin Laden was wearing a gold robe with a white headdress and white cloak. He had a long, mostly gray beard and appeared to be sitting behind a desk, reading from a paper statement, occasionally moving his right hand as he spoke.

U.S. government officials said the tape appeared to be authentic and recently made.

The U.S. Embassy in Qatar received a copy of the bin Laden tape from the Qatari government Friday, a senior State Department official said. Al-Jazeera is based in the Qatari capital of Doha.

The length of the tape received by the U.S. government is 18 minutes. Bin Laden spoke for 14 minutes and 39 seconds. U.S. officials would not comment on what else is on the tape.

The official said that once the embassy received the video, the U.S. ambassador to Qatar asked the Qatari government to use its influence with the management of Al-Jazeera to convince the network not to air the tape.

"We are disappointed that the tape was aired," the official said.

It was unclear whether the Qatari government urged Al-Jazeera to refrain from airing the tape. However, the network did not air the tape in its entirety.

The United States regularly complains to the Qatari government about Al-Jazeera's coverage and has often asked the government to use its influence to rein in the network.

Intelligence officials have warned previously about the possibility of al Qaeda trying to attack the United States around the time of Tuesday's election, similar to the train bombings in Madrid on March 11 before the Spanish presidential election.

U.S. officials said there was no immediate plan to raise the nation's terrorism alert level because of the taped message.

One official said that among things analysts will be looking for are any hidden messages that might be contained in the tape.

The videotape was aired a day after ABC News broadcast a video of a man claiming to be an American operative of al Qaeda who said the United States should brace for a large-scale attack that "will make you forget all about September 11."

Although authorities have been unable to authenticate that message, a senior law enforcement official said the bin Laden message, coupled with the one broadcast by ABC, has "set off alarm bells among top officials."

"The anxiety level is through the roof," the official said.

The official said federal law enforcement agencies are taking the bin Laden tape "extremely seriously," and officials are on "a high state of alert."

In the video, bin Laden said he decided to attack the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1982 after the invasion of Lebanon by Israel, which he claimed was backed by the U.S. Navy.

"And as I was looking at those towers that were destroyed in Lebanon, it occurred to me that we have to punish the transgressor with the same," he says, "and that we had to destroy the towers in America, so that they taste what we tasted and they stop killing our women and children."

He underscored it was U.S. foreign policy that led to the 9/11 attacks, saying, "Bush says and claims, that we hate freedom, let him tell us then, 'Why did we not attack Sweden?' "

The statement aired Friday was the first videotaped message from the al Qaeda leader since December 2001.

Since he was last seen speaking on tape, at least seven audiotapes have surfaced on which a voice believed to be bin Laden issued messages. The most recent of those messages came in April in which he made references to the train bombings in Madrid the month before.



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