U.S. officials are skeptical of a report on an Afghan news site about a new video showing Osama bin Laden.
The story from Pajhwok Afghan News, dated Tuesday, describes a new 30-minute tape with a message from Taliban commander Mullah Dodallah and the al-Qaida leader, according to the IntelCenter, a U.S. government contractor that does work for intelligence agencies.
A U.S. counterterrorism official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity in compliance with office policy, said the government could not confirm the tape's existence, but said officials are aware of the media report. U.S. authorities are viewing it skeptically, the official said.
Bin Laden has not been heard from since a December 2004 audio statement. That is the longest stretch the terror leader has been publicly quiet since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The IntelCenter also released an analysis Thursday of a new video from the group run by al-Qaida in Iraq's leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The center said the 9-minute recording appears to be an effort to promote a new video about an April attack on Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, which has been in the middle of the controversy over the U.S. treatment of detainees. |