Poor Bin Laden gets no respect these days.
From a Yahoo! AP article, Bin Laden Tape Won't Raise Security Level :
Bin Laden Tape Won't Raise Security Level By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The U.S. has no plans to raise the security threat level because of a new tape of Osama bin Laden saying al-Qaida is planning attacks, counterterrorism officials said Thursday. [/] The White House firmly rejected bin Laden's suggestion of a negotiated truce. "We don't negotiate with terrorists," Vice President Dick Cheney said in a television interview. "I think you have to destroy them."
Counterterror officials said they have seen no specific or credible intelligence to indicate an upcoming al-Qaida attack on the United States. Nor have they noticed an uptick in terrorist communications "chatter" — although that can dramatically increase or decrease immediately before an attack. [/] The audiotape, released by the Arab television network Al-Jazeera, brought new attention to the al-Qaida leader after a yearlong lull in his public statements.
[…] CIA analysts verified the recording as bin Laden's voice. They offered no details about how they reached that conclusion, but in the past the agency has verified authenticity in part by comparing new recordings to earlier messages.
Cheney said the tape showed that al-Qaida has been hobbled, because "they didn't have the ability to do anything on video" and because it had been so long since bin Laden had been heard from. [/] Still, "I think we have to assume that the threat is going to continue for a considerable period of time." the vice president said in an interview with Fox News Channel. "Even if bin Laden were no longer to be a factor, I still think we'd have problems with al-Qaida." […] [My ellipses and emphasis]
