WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush on Wednesday said U.S. experts were analyzing an audiotape broadcast on Arab news network Al Jazeera that reportedly contains the voice of Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden.
"Nevertheless, the contents of the tape, the message, is a serious message, and it should remind all of America and remind our friends and allies that there is a active enemy that continues to hate, is willing to use murder as a way to achieve their goals," Bush said.
The president made his comments after a Cabinet meeting and hours before he was set to hold talks with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Security Council resolution demanding that Iraq divest itself of its biological, chemical and nuclear arsenal.
Bush said news of the taped message proves the war against terrorism was not over.
"Whoever put this tape out has put the world on notice yet again that we're at war and that we need to take these messages very seriously. And we will," Bush said.
Preliminary assessments by the U.S. intelligence community found that the voice on the tape "could very well be" the voice of accused terrorist bin Laden.
Bush stressed that the United States and its allies were making progress in the global terrorism war, that al Qaida was being dismantled and terrorist sanctuaries being found. He said 90 nations had joined the effort and "an international manhunt is on.
"I warned the American people that this is going to take a time to achieve our objective. We're in a different kind of war. It's a war that requires international cooperation. We got to cut off their money. We got to share intelligence. And we're on a manhunt," Bush said.
The tape aired on Al Jazeera was addressed to "peoples of the countries allied with the tyrannical U.S. government," and it specifically mentions Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Germany, Australia and Israel, according to a U.S. government translation.
U.S. officials told United International that "at first blush" the recording sounds like bin Laden. The tape, which aired Tuesday, reportedly contains references to the Moscow theater siege and apparently constitutes the first evidence that bin Laden survived the U.S.-led attacks against Afghanistan.
In the first months of the war campaign in Afghanistan, the White House maintained that U.S. military forces would capture bin Laden and his lieutenants and bring him to justice. But as the war progressed, bin Laden proved elusive, forcing Bush to change his stance, saying instead the action was about more than any one person.
The tape said the West would continue to pay for its actions against the Muslim world.
"You have to continue weeping and crying for your loved ones as much as our people in Palestine, Iraq and elsewhere are crying for their loved ones," the voice said. "The Muslim nation will attack you with its young and enthusiastic and will defend Islam and ummah (the Islamic nation)."
U.S. officials blame bin Laden and his al Qaida network for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, which killed some 3,000 people.
The attacks prompted U.S. forces and their global allies to force Afghanistan's Taliban regime from power. The Taliban leadership along with its al Qaida guests were forced to flee.
(With reporting by Anwar Iqbal and Eli Lake.)
