A new audio tape said to be from Osama Bin Laden that claims responsibility for the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt in Detroit has warned of further attacks against America.
The short recording purporting to be from the al-Qaeda leader, which was aired on Al Jazeera television, said: “The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of the September 11.” Bin Laden directed personally to President Barack Obama, sought once again to draw a direct link between al-Qaeda's terror campaign and US support for Israel.
On Christmas Day, Mr Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national, allegedly attempted to blow up the Northwest Airlines flight he was sitting on as it approached Detroit Metro Airport. But the bomb he was said to have been hiding in his underwear failed to explode.
He told police shortly afterwards that he had been trained and instructed in the plot by al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen.
More than 60 messages have been broadcast by bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda’s number two, and their allies since the September 11 attacks in 2001.
The tape was aired after MI5 raised the terrorist threat level in Britain from "substantial" to "severe" — meaning that counter-terrorism agencies believe that an attack is "highly likely".
It is believed that intelligence whispers from America that an al-Qaeda affiliated group is close to finalising another atrocity coupled with a conference on Yemen and Afghanistan in London this week led to the decision.
The measure was approved by the Government's Cobra emergency committee and announced by Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, who said he wanted to emphasise that “there is no intelligence to suggest than an attack is imminent”.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said today that it would be “very stupid” of him to comment on the intelligence behind the change in threat level.
“The fact is though that these people will stop at nothing; they will try every trick in the book, they will use advanced technology, they will use all the mechanisms of open society that we depend on for their own terrible purposes.
“And they will try to strike Christians, Muslims, Jews randomly.”
The Government had a responsibility to keep the terrorist threat to the UK “under very careful scrutiny”, he added.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7000386.ece