White House says bin Laden tape authentic

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2004

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House said that US intelligence agencies believe a newly broadcast videotaped threat by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was authentic and recorded recently.

"Our intelligence community has said they believe it is authentic" and that it was taped recently," spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters as US President George W. Bush campaigned in Ohio.

A US intelligence official, who asked not to be identified, said analysts believe the tape was made recently because Bin Laden referred to US casualties in Iraq as having reached 1,000 dead.

"That would suggest it was filmed as recently as last month, but whether he said that specifically at the time that they in fact reached (that number) or meant that in a general sense it's not...