DUBAI, 14 November 2002 — Experts said yesterday they believed the voice on a tape broadcast by independent television station Al-Jazeera was that of the world’s most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden. Gulf officials as well as Muslim activists said they were convinced the audiotape carried the voice of Osama with a $25 million reward on his head for allegedly masterminding last year’s Sept. 11 attacks.
US officials told reporters in Washington linguists had listened to the tape and believed it was Bin Laden warning US allies over backing the "White House gang of butchers". "They have had linguists listen to it and believe it is him, electronic analysis is being done," said one of the officials, who asked not to be identified.
Another US official said the audiotape "is probably" authentic. "It is likely that it is Bin Laden, but it cannot be stated with absolute certainty until technical analysis is completed," said the official in Washington on condition of anonymity. In the audiotape, the supposed Bin Laden blasted US President George W. Bush as the "pharaoh of the century" and his key allies as "murderers."
"I am certain that it was the voice of Bin Laden, the same tone and style that are impossible to fabricate," said Yasser El-Serri, a London-based Islamist sought by Washington on charges of funding Osama’s Al-Qaeda network. "Anyway, we did not need the audiotape to convince us that he is alive and well because this is a known fact to Muslims," Serri told Reuters.
"He has chosen to come out with this tape to announce all these strikes in order to silence his critics among moderate Islamists who say he is nothing but a big mouth," said Abdel-Bary Atwan, editor of London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper.
According to a Japanese voice expert, the voice on the audiotape was definitely that of Osama. Matsumi Suzuki, whose testimony helped convict the killers in the 1983 assassination of Philippine opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, said there was no mistaking the voice, Kyodo news agency said. Suzuki told Kyodo news service that he was "99.999999 percent" sure that the voice was that of Osama. "It’s undoubtedly that of the same person," he said, referring to Osama.
An Egyptian writer said he believes the voice was that of Osama because of his choice of archaic Arabic words. "I have studied all of Bin Laden’s messages since the start, especially the vocabulary," including archaic terms the Al-Qaeda leader is fond of using, journalist and author Gamal Al-Ghitani said.
