Bin Laden Warning to America

A new videotape of Osama bin Laden surfaced yesterday, just four days before the US presidential election, in which the al-Qaida leader admitted for the first time that he masterminded the September 11 attacks, and threatened new strikes against America.

If genuine, the video broadcast by al-Jazeera television is an audacious attempt by Bin Laden to leave his imprint on the US electoral process. There are also fears that it could be a coded warning to al-Qaida operatives for a fresh attack, intensifying existing fears of a spectacular strike on US soil in the run-up to the vote.

Bin Laden played on those sentiments in yesterday's video - the first from the al-Qaida leader in more than a year - warning Americans that they could well face a repetition of the 9/11 attacks.

"Despite entering the fourth year after September 11, Bush is still deceiving you and hiding the truth from you, and therefore the reasons are still there to repeat what happened," he said.

Bin Laden also gave an indication that he had been keeping close watch on public debate in the US - or at least was familiar with the accusation that the attacks would have been far less deadly if President Bush had been swift to act.

He said he got the idea of attacking the twin towers after watching Israeli aircraft bombing tall buildings in Beirut in 1982.

"While I was looking at these destroyed towers in Lebanon [during the 1982 Israeli invasion], it sparked in my mind that the tyrant should be punished with the same and that we should destroy towers in America, so that it tastes what we taste and would be deterred from killing our children and women."

Terrorism has been the main issue in these fiercely contested elections, and President Bush and his Democratic challenger, John Kerry, have been scathing in attacking their opponent's credentials on national security.

But both leaders declined to rise to Bin Laden's bait. "Let me make this very clear: Americans will not be intimidated, or influenced by an enemy of our country," Mr Bush said. "We are at war with these terrorists and I am confident that we will prevail."

The White House acknowledged that the video tape was probably authentic and recent.

The president refused to respond to reporters' questions on Bin Laden's claim that he had been astounded by Mr Bush's decision, after being told of the attacks, to remain in a Florida classroom reading a children's book about a pet goat.

In the video, Bin Laden said: "It never occurred to us that he, the commander in chief of the country, would leave 50,000 citizens in the two towers to face those horrors alone, because he thought listening to a child discussing her goats was more important."

Mr Kerry, who has repeatedly assailed Mr Bush for taking his eye off al-Qaida by going to war in Iraq, also refused to be drawn into Bin Laden's game.

"All of us in the country are completely united," he said. "We are all united hunting down and capturing or killing those who conduct that raid. We always knew it was Osama bin Laden.

"I will stop at absolutely nothing to hunt down and capture or kill the terrorists," he added.

The message abruptly cut across the final frantic campaigning of a bitterly contested race that promises to give one of the closest elections in recent history. Polls put the two candidates neck and neck, and the outcome is likely to turn on results in a handful of swing states.

Although both men vowed to carry on the war on terror, yesterday's videotape was a cause for serious dismay, confounding hopes that Bin Laden was dead, or at least incapacitated, following reports that he had been seriously wounded or was gravely ill with kidney disease.

Instead, the Osama bin Laden who surfaced yesterday was very much alive, and apparently fit, dressed in golden cloak and white turban, and sitting in front of a desk in front of a plain backdrop.

He gave no hint that he was on the run, speaking with apparent composure, in his first appearance on film in two years.

US intelligence agencies were examining the tape last night, but officials said it appeared to be genuine. It was unclear where, or when, the tape was recorded although Bin Laden is believed to be in the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Last night's message differed from previous audio and videotapes released by Bin Laden, with a first direct appeal to the American people.

But the message was chilling: neither Mr Bush nor Mr Kerry could guarantee their safety, he said.

"Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands," he said.

"To the US people, my talk is to you about the best way to avoid another disaster," he said. "I tell you: security is an important element of human life and free people do not give up their security."

US officials said the entire tape lasted 18 minutes, of which al-Jazeera showed just a one-minute extract.

The White House said there was no change in the US terror alert level at present despite the video, "but it's something we analyse all the time", said spokesman Scott McClellan. "We are on a heightened state of awareness already."

Al-Jazeera said it had received the video tape on Friday but did not say how.

At face value, Bin Laden's intervention appears calculated to hurt Mr Bush's re-election chances, reminding American voters that the US president has failed to catch him despite two wars and hundreds of US lives.

But at a different level it could play in Mr Bush's favour, reminding Americans of the formidable security challenges that face the man voted into the White House next Tuesday. Mr Bush has outscored Mr Kerry on the security question in opinion polls.