“It`s the Voice of Bin Laden”

There is a proposal that Osama Bin Laden, who was the man behind the 9.11 terror, might be alive.

An Arabic satellite broadcasting, the Al Jajira aired an audiotape, which Bin Laden praised the serious of recent terrors and warned the western countries including America regarding attacking Iraq on the 12th. The Al Jajira said the tape was delivered to its office.

The Kyoto Press reported on the 13th that after the Japanese Sound Research Center analyzed the voiceprint of the voice that the Al Jajira aired, it concluded that the voice was of Bin Laden.

The MSNBC reported that even the high-ranking officials of the US intelligence systems affirmed, “It`s his (Bin Laden`s) voice.” The Whitehouse said, “We are investigating the tape,” but “we are not making any judgment whether the tape is real or not.”

The US CIA assumes that there is a chance that the voice of the tape might be real Bin Laden, and doing a detailed analysis including the voiceprint analysis.

This 4-minute-long tape, which the Al Jajira aired, praised the incidents continuously happened last month such as the Moscow hostage incident by the Chechen rebels (23rd), the Bali explosive terror in Indonesia (22nd), the attack of the US Army in Kuwait (8th), and the French Naval Ship terror (6th). Therefore, if the voice is of Bin Laden, it could be a strong evidence that he is alive.

He said in the tape that the recent incidents were “done by our sons who are earnest for keeping our religion,” and insisted, “This is the counter attack against the `Modern Pharaoh` Bush, who slaughtered our women and children, and against Israel, who bombed our houses where old people, women, and children live with American planes in Palestine.”

He also warned the UK, France, Italy, Canada, Germany, and Australia to stay away from America and said, “You will be killed like you have killed, and you will be attacked like you have attacked.”

America did massive scale bombing in the Torabora area of Afghanistan, where was known to be the place where Bin Laden was hiding, last month, but failed to confirm whether he was dead or alive. Bin Laden`s whereabouts is not clear after spotted by America that he placed an order to the worriers of the Al Qaida through wireless communication last December.

The President George W. Bush promised to catch Bin Laden dead or alive right after the 9.11 terror, but changed his attitude and has been insisting that arrest of Bin Laden is not related to the War against Terror.

Since the chance of Bin Laden`s survival is strongly proposed when America is hurrying to attack Iraq, the aftermath that affect the carrying out of the War against Terror is taking our attention.

Ki-Heung Han eligius@donga.com