Failed Bomb Attack: Bin Laden Claims Responsibility

Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas in a new audio message released yesterday threatening more attacks on the United States.
A senior U.S. intelligence official in Washington said there is “no evidence whatsoever” that bin Laden had any involvement on the Christmas Day attack — or even knew about it beforehand. The message suggests the al-Qaida leader wants to appear in direct command of the terrorist group’s many affiliates around the world at a time when some analysts have suggested he is mostly a figurehead.
In the minute-long recording carried by Al-Jazeera Arabic news channel, bin Laden addressed President Barack Obama saying the Christmas attack was meant to send a message similar to that of the September 11 attacks.
“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 Sept. 11,” he said. “America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine,” he added.
“God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support for the Israelis continues.”
On Christmas Day, Nigerian Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up his Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit Metro Airport. But the explosive powder he was hiding in his underwear failed to detonate.
He told federal agents shortly afterward that he had been trained and given the explosives by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, an al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen.
The U.S. intelligence official said the Yemen-based group is linked with the central al-Qaida group that bin Laden heads and recent intelligence indicates there are ongoing contacts between al-Qaida in Yemen and Pakistan. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.
Bin Laden’s message, coming long after AQAP gave its own claim of responsibility, appears to be an effort on his part to stay relevant, said Rohan Gunaratna, author of “Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror.”
“The training and the definition of the attack was by the local leaders of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, so in many ways you can say bin Laden is exploiting for his benefit this particular attack,” he said. “Bin Laden still wants to claim leadership for the global jihad movement.”
Of all the various offshoots and branches of al-Qaida around the world, Gunaratna said the group in Yemen is one of the closest to bin Laden since it is made up of bodyguards and associates of the organization’s top ideologues. Yemen is bin Laden’s ancestral homeland.
“Today the operational relationship has somewhat suffered, but the ideological relationship is very strong and that is why bin Laden claimed this attack,” Gunaratna said.
Two of the group’s top members were former detainees released in November 2007 from the U.S. military prison Guantanamo Bay.
Since the Christmas Day attempt, the Yemeni government, at the U.S.’s urging has stepped up its attacks on the group’s hideouts in the rugged country’s remote hinterland.
Analysts have long debated how much control bin Laden, who is believed to be somewhere in Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, really has over the various organizations using his group’s name.
The Yemen-based group, however, has closer ties than most to bin Laden and his key lieutenants, many having once been their bodyguards.
There was no way to confirm the voice on the audio message was actually that of bin Laden, but it resembled previous recordings attributed to him.
The U.S. says it can’t immediately authenticate the message but White House adviser David Axelrod told CNN’s “State of the Union” that whatever the source, the message “contains the same hollow justification for the mass slaughter of innocents.”