Bin Laden addresses Americans

In a minute-and-a-half portion of the video, shown on the Al-Jazeera television network four days before Election Day, the Al Qaeda leader also directly admitted for the first time that he ordered the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and led to the war on terrorism.

"Your security is not in the hands of Kerry, Bush, or Al Qaeda," he said, in his first message since just after the attacks to include audio as well as video. "Your security is in your own hands. Any state that does not mess with our security has naturally guaranteed its own security."

US officials expressed a "high degree of confidence" that the videotape -- the first footage of Bin Laden in more than a year -- is authentic and the CIA is analyzing the tape further, looking for any hidden messages about possible attacks or bin Laden's whereabouts. The initial analysis pointed to the figure, dressed in white robes, a turban, and a golden cloak, as being the Saudi fugitive who carries a $25 million bounty on his head.

"We are saying with a high degree of confidence the image and voice appear to be that of Osama bin Laden," a US official said, on condition of anonymity and that his government agency not be named. "The tape lacks an explicit threat and reiterates a well-worn theme."

The Department of Homeland Security said it had no plans to raise the national terror alert.

The tape seemed to have been recorded recently because of references to Tuesday's US election, bin Laden's remark that it is more than three years since the 2001 attacks, and a reference to more than 1,000 US war dead in Iraq, reached in September.

Text shown on the screen at the beginning of the footage attributed it to Al-Shahab for Media Production, the name used for Al Qaeda's media committee. US intelligence officials who viewed the entire 18 minutes of the tape said it also bears the date 10 Ramadan, which was last Sunday, although it is unclear whether that was the date it was sent to Al-Jazeera or when bin Laden recorded it.

The Arabic network's spokesman, Jihad Ali Ballout, told the Associated Press that the station received the tape yesterday and aired what was "newsworthy and relevant" and declined to describe the unaired portions.

The AP also reported that before the tape was aired, the State Department urged the government of Qatar, which finances Al-Jazeera, not to broadcast it, a senior State Department official said. The US reasoning was that the satellite television network should not offer a platform to someone who runs terrorist operations and promotes terrorist activities against innocent people, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

On the part that was broadcast, bin Laden criticizes Bush's handling of the Sept. 11 attacks, saying the president did not react quickly enough when he was informed of the attacks while reading to schoolchildren in Florida.

"It never occurred to us that 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," bin Laden said, referring to Bush's visit to a school when the attack occurred.

He accused Bush of "misleading" the American people about the intentions of Al Qaeda.

Reading calmly into the camera, looking older but relatively healthy, bin Laden said that only the American people can secure their safety. "To the US people, my talk is to you about the way to avoid another disaster. I tell you: security is an important element of human life, and free people do not give up their security."

He warned that more attacks will be launched against the United States unless it changes it policies, especially regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He responded to a common refrain of Bush that Al Qaeda terrorists hate freedom.

"If Bush says we hate freedom, let him tell us why we didn't attack Sweden, for example. We fought you because we are free . . . and want to regain freedom for our nation. If you undermine our security, we undermine yours."

Specialists said the message was the best evidence in several years that the world's most-wanted criminal is still at large and is trying to maintain -- or increase -- his worldwide stature. Bin Laden sat calmly behind a desk and read from a prepared statement, almost appearing as a head of state would.

"It's him, it's current, it's the real deal," said Peter Bergen, an Al Qaeda specialist who interviewed bin Laden in 1996. "It seems [Al Qaeda] was holding it for the election for maximum psychological impact. It pokes a giant finger at the Bush administration, saying, 'I am still around.' "

Nevertheless, "he has made it clear he doesn't care whether it's Bush or Kerry" who gets elected, Bergen said.

The last message from bin Laden using both audio and video came three months after the attacks, while there subsequently have been at least eight audiotapes attributed to him and at least one piece of video footage.

In December 2001, he congratulated the 19 hijackers and expressed surprise at the damage inflicted on the United States. But yesterday, he took direct responsibility, saying, "We decided to destroy the towers in America" because of US policies toward Muslims.

A videotape aired Sept. 30, 2003, showed bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman Al Zawahiri, hiking in the mountains of what is thought to be the remote region at the Afghan-Pakistan border. In a separate taped message issued at the same time, bin Laden praises the "great damage to the enemy" on Sept. 11.

Bin Laden's voice has surfaced on three audiotapes this year, the most recent on May 6, when he offered gold for dead US troops, and previously warned European nations this year to pull their troops out of Iraq.

He said he was first inspired to attack the United States because of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, in which towers and buildings in Beirut were destroyed in the siege of the capital.

"While I was looking at these destroyed towers in Lebanon, 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," he said.