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Washington: Illusive terror mastermind Osama bin Laden is alive and the tape that recently surfaced figuring him was a recent material, the intelligence community in the US believes.
"The intelligence community, having looked at it (the bin Laden tape), believes it is bin Laden. The indications from the contents of the tape are that it was made recently, certainly in the last several months," White House adviser for Homeland Security Frances Townsend said on Fox News today.
She slammed a leading Democratic contender for 2008, who had said that America is less secure today than it was six-years ago.
Townsend maintained that there is nothing in the tape that suggests an impending attack on the United States. "There's nothing overtly obvious in the tape that would suggest that this is a trigger for an attack," she said.
The senior Bush administration official said the last audiotape was received in June last year. The last video was received just before the election in October of 2004.
"We take the tapes seriously. Look at the activities recently in Germany and Denmark. So we know that Al Qaida is still determined to attack, and we take it seriously. But this tape appears to be nothing more than threats," Townsend said. She said the war in Iraq was used as a propaganda tool by the "enemies".
"There is no question that Al Qaida in Pakistan, in the federally administrated tribal areas, Al Qaida operatives in the Taliban in Afghanistan are connected to Al Qaida in Iraq. We take those threats very seriously," the senior White House official said.
Townsend maintained that the intelligence community believes that the United States is a "more difficult" target to attack.
"They have regained some of their operational leadership. We do still have Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri at large. What they haven't seemed to be able to do is find a way to get the operatives inside the United States."
The intelligence estimate makes clear Al Qaida views the United States as a more difficult target to attack. That's the result of the efforts of thousands of public servants who work very hard every day to stop the next attack, she said.
"We look every day to see if there are connections between Al Qaida operatives overseas and here in the United States, and that's the sort of thing we work with our allies like our German counterparts, like our Danish counterparts, to make sure to look for connections," Townsend said.
"I think Senator Edwards' comments are irresponsible. To suggest that we are not safer than we were six years ago and haven't made progress is just irresponsible and not supported by the facts," Townsend said.
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