Osama tape proof of fresh threat, says US

US intelligence officials, increasingly confident that Osama bin Laden is the speaker on a new audiotape released this week, said on Wednesd...

US intelligence officials, increasingly confident that Osama bin Laden is the speaker on a new audiotape released this week, said on Wednesday the message was part of a disturbing pattern indicating that terrorist groups may be planning a new wave of attacks on Western targets.

Even before the purported bin Laden tape surfaced on the Al Jazeera network on Tuesday, the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency had detected a significant spike in intelligence ‘‘chatter’’ over the previous 10 days that strongly indicated new assaults are being planned, officials said.

The amount of alarming information was approaching the volume seen in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks and again in the middle of last month following a wave of attacks on overseas targets, some sources said.

Story continues below this ad

The emergence of the new tape — on which bin Laden praises the recent terror attacks and threatens more if the US declares war on Iraq — only heightens the sense of alarm, the officials said.

Unlike an Oct. 6 audiotape attributed to bin Laden, which was inconclusive as to when it was recorded, this week’s tape refers to the string of attacks overseas, including the Oct. 12 bombing outside a Bali nightclub and the deadly standoff with Chechen gunmen that ended in Moscow on Oct. 26.

President Bush, who said he was determined to get bin Laden ‘‘dead or alive,’’ bristled on Wednesday when asked whether the US should have already brought him to justice. ‘‘We’re making great progress in the war on terror. Slowly but surely we are dismantling the terrorist network.’’ (LATWP)

Day after Diwali, Delhi’s air quality remains ‘very poor’

Cities4 min ago

Delhi's air quality worsens after Diwali, with an average AQI of 346 at 5:30 am. Despite the ban on green crackers, 36 out of 38 monitoring stations showed "very poor" to "severe" pollution levels, with four stations recording severe air quality. Dwarka was the most affected area.

View all shorts

Live Blog

PHOTOS