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Tenet: Attacks could follow tape
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- CIA Director George Tenet warned Wednesday that the latest audiotaped message purportedly made by Osama bin Laden could be followed by al Qaeda attacks. Tenet told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he did not want to discuss the tape in detail until experts finished their analysis, but he said there was a pattern to bin Laden's messages that raised concerns. "He is obviously raising the confidence of his people. He is obviously exhorting them to do more -- and whether this is a signal of a pending attack is something we are looking at," Tenet said. "I can only tell you what the history is. What he said has often been followed by attacks." In the 16-minute audiotaped message, broadcast Tuesday on the Qatar-based, Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera, a voice believed to be bin Laden's urges Muslims to fight any U.S.-led war against Iraq and offered battle strategies aimed at causing the highest number of U.S. casualties. (Full story) Tenet said it was unclear whether the message was intended to be a signal to al Qaeda members, but he said a tape broadcast in October was followed by the murder of a U.S. Marine in Kuwait, the bombing of an oil tanker off Yemen and the bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia, that killed almost 200 people. A hotel in Kenya was bombed 12 days after another statement was broadcast in November, Tenet said. He said the latest message underscored the need to raise the national terror threat level to high. "The information we have points to plots aimed at targets on two fronts in the United States and on the Arabian Peninsula," Tenet said. "It points to plots timed to occur as early as the end of the Hajj, which occurs late this week, and it points to plots that can include the use of radiological dispersion devices as well as poisons and chemicals." The Hajj is the pilgrimage of Muslims to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Tenet said the tape was "unprecedented in terms of the way he expresses solidarity with Baghdad." He said that bin Laden has, in the past, viewed Saddam Hussein's government as un-Islamic. Tenet was on Capitol Hill for his second day of testimony on intelligence issues. On Tuesday, before the tape was released, Tenet told the Senate Intelligence Committee that al Qaeda is "still dedicated to striking the U.S. homeland." Tenet said the reports of planned attacks are "the most specific we have seen" and are consistent with previous al Qaeda plots. "This is not idle chatter on the part of the terrorists," he said, adding the number of messages being sent to and by terrorists is the highest since the September 11, 2001, attacks. "We see disturbing signs that al Qaeda has established a presence in both Iran and Iraq," Tenet said. "In addition, we are concerned that al Qaeda continues to find refuge in the hinterlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan."
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