* Terror chief blasted in head after refusing offer to surrender
* Three adults including Bin Laden's 'son' reportedly killed in raid
* Compound was yards from Pakistan's 'Sandhurst' military academy
* Body buried at sea after Saudi Arabia 'declines to take corpse'
* DNA tests 99.9 per cent certain man killed WAS Bin Laden
* U.S. embassies on alert over Al Qaeda reprisal attacks
* Barack Obama declares 'Justice has been done'
* David Cameron says death is 'massive step forward'
Osama Bin Laden has been killed by the U.S. military after a decade-long hunt to avenge the 9/11 attacks, President Barack Obama has revealed.
The 54-year-old leader of Al Qaeda was dramatically killed last night in a firefight with American special forces in a $1million mansion hideout around 60 miles from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
Experts used facial recognition techniques to identify the slain terrorist and performed DNA tests,
which are said to be 99.9 per cent certain man killed WAS Bin Laden.
U.S. officials have told broadcaster CNN that Bin Laden's body has already been buried at sea in order to prevent the grave from becoming a shrine for extremists.
Carnage: Blood can be seen on the floor from where Osama was reportedly surrounded by three men, including his son, and a woman who formed a human shield against U.S. troops.Gun fight: A pool of blood on the floor suggests that one Al Qaeda member was shot close to their bed, while right, a wardrobe pulled open by U.S troops to ensure that none of Bin Laden's clan were hiding in the room.Pit of evil: A king size bed where Bin Laden may have once slept at the secretive compound in Abbottabad. Blood from a gun battle can be seen at the foot of the mattress
Hideout: The bin Laden compound was found only a few hundred yards from the military academy known as Pakistan's Sandhurst in the garrison town of Abbottabad, Pakistan
News anchors prepare to go live from the briefing room as US President Barack Obama delivers remarks to the nation from the White House in Washington, May 1, 2011.
US President Barack Obama announcing live on television the death of Osama bin Laden from the White House in Washington yesterday, May 1, 2011
May 26, 1998 file photo of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. The elusive Al Qaeda leader is dead and his body has been recovered by US authorities, CNN reported yesterday, May 1, 2011
Firemen battle the fires in the Pentagon after a hijacked airliner crashed into the building in this September 11, 2001 file photo. Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of the attack.
The World Trade Center towers in New York burn on September 11, 2001. Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of the attacks on New York and Washington.
People cheer and wave US flags outside the White House as President Obama delivers his remarks to the nation.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed yesterday in a firefight with US forces in Pakistan and his body was recovered, President Barack Obama said yesterday.
“Justice has been done,” Obama said in a dramatic, late-night White House speech announcing the death of the elusive mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people.
It is a major accomplishment for Obama and his national security team, and could give him a political boost as he seeks re-election in 2012.
And it was at least a huge symbolic blow to al Qaeda, the militant organisation that has staged bloody attacks in many Western and Arab cities, and has been the subject of a worldwide campaign against it.
US commander seeks 2,000 new troops for Afghanistan
The US and NATO commander in Afghanistan has requested another 2,000 troops for the foreign force fighting the Taliban insurgency, despite waning support for the war in troop-contributing nations, NATO officials said.
NATO officials said the request by General David Petraeus to bolster the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was made last week and included a call for about 750 more personnel to train the Afghan security forces.
“It has been determined that around 2,000 forces will be required,” a NATO official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There is an ongoing discussion on this issue.”
After the failed bombing of a passenger jet on Christmas Day, U.S. intelligence officials told the White House what kept them awake at night was the risk that militants could launch waves of small scale attacks on hard-to-protect targets on U.S. soil.
After the failed bombing of a passenger jet on Christmas Day, U.S. intelligence officials told the White House what kept them awake at night was the risk that militants could launch waves of small scale attacks on hard-to-protect targets on U.S. soil.
The "nightmare" of nuclear terrorism was the theme of President Barack Obama's security summit last month, but many in the U.S. intelligence community believe the chances that al Qaeda will obtain atomic weapons are at the low end of the probability scale and they have more immediate fears.
More likely, they say, al Qaeda and other groups could shift focus to less-sophisticated violent attacks on "soft targets" that have the potential over time to do as much economic damage as another massive Sept. 11-style event.
Somalia's transitional government condemned the blasts
Causality figures in the Mogadishu mosque explosions on Saturday include 34 dead and almost 70 wounded, hospital sources said.
Local hospitals and emgercy services say that the death toll now stands at 34 while almost 70 others have been admitted to the Daynile Hospital on the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu.
Witnesses at the scene of the blast speak of carnage and confusion, with dozens of dead and wounded people lying on the floor of the mosque following the twin explosions in the packed mosque in the main Bakara market in Mogadishu
An Islamist official of the Al Shabaab Islamist groups was among the injured in the attack on a mosque frequented by supporters of Islamist Al Shabaab movement.
The group's senior leader Fuad Mohamed Khalaf, who was at the mosque at the time and "slightly" injured in the arms, was the target of the attack, according to Al Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamoud Rageh.
Rageh accused foreign security firms operating inside Mogadishu of being behind the attack.
The Al Shabaab spokesman vowed to tighten security and be more alert to any future attacks from what he called the foreign security firms' "local collaborators."
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Germany's defense minister has announced a thorough investigation into the friendly fire clash that left six Afghan soldiers dead.
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg told journalists on Sunday that his office and the office of the German prosecutor general will investigate what happened Friday night near the northern Afghan city of Kunduz. NATO's ISAF and the Afghan Defense Ministry have also launched investigations.
The incident occurred on the same day that three German troops died and eight were wounded in heavy fighting with insurgents near Kunduz.
Guttenberg expressed his sympathy to the families and relatives of the Afghan soldiers killed by German soldiers. The German troops were rushing to the scene of their comrade's fighting after nightfall and mistook them for insurgents, the military said.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
BERLIN (AP) — A German minister urged the country's public to show more understanding and support for their troops in Afghanistan after German soldiers accidentally killed six Afghan soldiers in a friendly fire incident.
Development Minister Dirk Niebel told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that the public should have "more comprehension for the need that they sometimes have to defend themselves preemptively."
The incident occurred on the same day that three German troops died and eight were wounded in fighting with insurgents in Afghanistan.
Niebel said German soldiers can't understand the lack of comprehension by the German public and why they have to fear prosecution at home for defending themselves.
Niebel met with German soldiers in Afghanistan on Saturday after visiting development projects and was flying back to Germany on Sunday with three coffins from Friday's fighting.
The presence of some 4,000 German troops in Afghanistan is increasingly unpopular in Germany, where politicians stop short of calling military operations there a war.
Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was holding a news conference Sunday and was expected to face tough questions over the deadly friendly fire incident Friday night in Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan.
There was still conflicting information about what happened. The German military maintains the vehicles carrying the Afghan soldiers could not be recognized as such, but the commander of Afghan forces in northern Afghanistan, Gen. Murad Ani, however, said both vehicles were clearly marked.
The Afghan military puts the death toll at six, the Germans speak of five troops killed.
Kunduz is also where German forces were sharply criticized last September when they ordered an airstrike on two tanker trucks that had been captured by the Taliban. Up to 142 people died, many of them civilians.
Chancellor Angela Merkel called Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Saturday to express her condolences over the accidental killing of Afghan troops, and he expressed sympathy regarding the deaths of the three German soldiers.
In a separate development, retired General Harald Kujat, formerly the highest ranking German soldier and chairman of the NATO Military Committee, accused the government of "ignorance regarding the military's needs" for operations in Afghanistan.
Kujat told daily Welt am Sonntag that crucial equipment for a successful mission is missing and there aren't enough boots on the ground.
The current mandate — allowing a maximum of 5,000 soldiers — is a political compromise "which is not reflecting the real operational needs." The government lacks a coherent strategy, he said.
Kujat — who was Germany's top soldier between 2000 and 2002 before moving to the NATO headquarters — also said he expects more brazen attacks by the Taliban on the German military in northern Afghanistan.
So far, 39 German soldiers have lost their life in Afghanistan, 22 of them in combat or following bomb attacks.
German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg informs the media about the recent incident in Afghanistan during a news conference in Bonn, Germany, Sunday April 4, 2010. German troops in a deadly firefight with Taliban insurgents accidentally killed six Afghan troops. Three Germans died in the firefight with the militants. The friendly fire incident Friday took place in northern Kunduz province, where German forces were sharply criticized last September when they ordered an airstrike on two tanker trucks that had been captured by the Taliban. Up to 142 people died, many of them civilians.
In this photo released by the German government on Sunday, April 4, 2010, German ISAF soldiers attend a military farewell ceremony for three killed comrades at the German ISAF base in Kunduz, Afghanistan, Sunday, April 4, 2010. Three German ISAF soldiers have been killed during a fight with Taliban fighters on Friday, April 2, 2010, eight soldiers were wounded, four of them seriously
In this photo released by the German government on Sunday, April 4, 2010, German ISAF soldiers carry a flag-drapped coffin to a transport helicopter at the German base in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Sunday, April 4, 2010. Three German ISAF soldiers have been killed during a fight with Taliban fighters on Friday, April 2, 2010, eight soldiers were wounded, four of them seriously.
German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg informs the media about the recent incident in Afghanistan during a news conference in Bonn, Germany, Sunday April 4, 2010. German troops in a deadly firefight with Taliban insurgents accidentally killed six Afghan troops. Three Germans died in the firefight with the militants. The friendly fire incident Friday took place in northern Kunduz province, where German forces were sharply criticized last September when they ordered an air strike on two tanker trucks that had been captured by the Taliban. Up to 142 people died, many of them civilians
German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg informs the media about the recent incident in Afghanistan during a news conference in Bonn, Germany, Sunday April 4, 2010. German troops in a deadly firefight with Taliban insurgents accidentally killed six Afghan troops. Three Germans died in the firefight with the militants. The friendly fire incident Friday took place in northern Kunduz province, where German forces were sharply criticized last September when they ordered an airstrike on two tanker trucks that had been captured by the Taliban. Up to 142 people died, many of them civilians.
German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, left and the Inspector General of the German army, General Volker Wieker, right, jointly inform the media about the recent incident in Afghanistan during a news conference in Bonn, Germany, April 4, 2010. German troops in a deadly firefight with Taliban insurgents accidentally killed six Afghan troops. Three Germans died in the firefight with the militants. The friendly fire incident Friday took place in northern Kunduz province, where German forces were sharply criticized last September when they ordered an air strike on two tanker trucks that had been captured by the Taliban. Up to 142 people died, many of them civilians.
Iraqi journalists and representatives of Iraqi political blocs and entities look at a screens showing the partial preliminary results from four of 18 provinces in Iraq in Baghdad, Thursday March 11, 2010, which showed the secular coalition led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has the lead in the former insurgent strongholds of Diyala and Salahuddin, north of Baghdad, and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was ahead in two mainly Shiite provinces in southern Iraq
Graphic shows preliminary results of the Iraq parliamentary election
Iraqi journalists and representatives of Iraqi political blocs and entities look at a screen showing the partial preliminary results from four of 18 provinces in Iraq in Baghdad, Thursday March 11, 2010, which showed the secular coalition led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has the lead in the former insurgent strongholds of Diyala and Salahuddin, north of Baghdad, and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was ahead in two mainly Shiite provinces in southern Iraq.
Counting and data input workers at the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, March 11, 2010, as data is calculated before an election result can be declared. The partial preliminary results from four of 18 provinces in Iraq show the prime minister's bloc and a secular challenger winning two provinces each
An Iraqi Shiite religious alliance with ties to Iran is leading in one southern province according to the latest vote tallies released.
Results have only been released for six of 18 provinces, excluding Baghdad, so the final outcome is far from certain.
Election officials said Friday that the Iraqi National Alliance has almost 30,000 votes in Maysan province, which borders Iran, compared to about 23,000 for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition.
The results are based on 23 percent of the votes counted in that province.
Friday's announcement complicates the picture after results released the day before showed al-Maliki's coalition and a secular alliance led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi winning in two provinces each.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
BAGHDAD (AP) — The Iraqi prime minister's bloc says it has started laying the groundwork to form a coalition government after preliminary election results showed it winning in at least two southern provinces.
Friday's announcement that Nouri al-Maliki's alliance has created a committee to open talks with other groups signals growing optimism about a strong showing in the parliamentary balloting.
Partial tallies have only been released from only five of Iraq's 18 provinces, excluding Baghdad. They show the prime minister and his secular rival, former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, locked in a tight contest amid fraud allegations.
But Al-Maliki supporter Abbas al-Bayati says the alliance has already reached out to other parties and believes it will need at least two allies.
We have seen the Twin Towers collapse hundreds of times on TV. The steel and glass skyscrapers exploding like a bag of flour, the dust and smoke pluming out across Manhattan. But never like this, from above.
Nine years after the defining moment of the 21st century, a stunning set of photographs taken by New York Police helicopters forces us to look afresh at a catastrophe we assumed we knew so well.
You know but cannot see the 2,752 men, women and children who died at the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001. None is visible here.
All we see is the spectacular moment of collapse, what film directors call the wide shot, showing the towers in their urban setting, before, during and after their fall.
Even for those who were there, like me, running from the cloud and choking in the dust, it is hard to believe. But what is all too evident to everyone is that this event changed the world, with consequences that will haunt us for decades.
With the Twin Towers collapsed the world we thought we knew.
These dramatic images were taken by police photographers in helicopters and it is the first time they have been seen, having been released under a Freedom of Information request made by America's ABC News.
Burning buildings can be seen crumpling in on themselves as plumes of smoke rise up over the New York skyline that terrible September morning.
The images show how the police helicopter first began taking images from afar before moving in to reveal the devastation taking place underneath.
They also reveal the horror faced by those trapped in the burning buildings and then the walls of smoke and debris that enveloped the surrounding area as the towers came crashing down.
Released more than eight years after the deaths of 2,752 people on that day, they are powerful reminders of the attack that led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The legacy of the New York attack continues today with as British forces joining with Afghan soldiers and Nato to launch the biggest attack on the Taliban - accused of harbouring Al Qaeda who organised the 9/11 attack - since the initial 2001 offensive.
Meanwhile, in New York, work is continuing to build on the rubble of what became known as Ground Zero.
Structural steel for the 1,776ft tower, which will be known as 1 World Trade Centre, has already reached 200ft above street level.
Workers are now installing 16 steel nodes on the 20th-floor of the tower which will serve as joints between the steel framing for the building's podium and the steel for the rest of the tower. The 104-storey skyscraper is due to be completed in 2013 and will be one of the tallest buildings in the U.S.
The Obama administration's top intelligence officials on Tuesday described it as "certain" that al-Qaeda or its allies will try to attack the United States in the next six months, and they called for new flexibility in how U.S. officials detain and question terrorist suspects.
The officials, testifying before the Senate intelligence committee, also warned of increased risk of cyber-attacks in the coming months, saying that the recent China-based hacking of Google's computers was both a "wake-up call" and a forerunner to future strikes aimed at businesses or intended to cause economic disruption.
"Al-Qaeda maintains its intent to attack the homeland -- preferably with a large-scale operation that would cause mass casualties, harm the U.S. economy or both," Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told the committee in a hearing convened to assess threats against the country.
Blair, flanked by the directors of the CIA and FBI and the chief intelligence officers of the State and Defense departments, put al-Qaeda at the top of a threat list that included the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, criminal cartels and the potential for economic collapse in developing countries hard-hit by recession.
The notable positive trends over the past year, he said, were the continuing security improvements in Iraq and the signs of economic recovery in developed countries. Last year, the prospect of global economic collapse ranked as the top security concern.
"Missteps could set back the recovery, particularly if inflation or political pressures to consolidate budgets emerge before household consumption and private investment have begun to play a larger role in the recovery," Blair said.
Blair and CIA Director Leon Panetta warned of new threats from al-Qaeda's regional allies, such as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Several groups appear increasingly intent on attacking U.S. and other Western targets, even as al-Qaeda's core leadership struggles to regain its footing after repeated setbacks and eroding popular support in the Muslim world, the officials said.
"They are moving to other safe havens and regional nodes such as Yemen, Somalia, the Maghreb and others," Panetta said. He said al-Qaeda-inspired groups had successfully "deployed individuals to this country," citing recently disrupted terrorist plots in Colorado and Chicago.
The intelligence officials and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said U.S. counterterrorism agencies have absorbed the lessons of the Dec. 25 attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 over Detroit, but all said future attempts are inevitable and could happen soon.
Asked by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), committee chairwoman, to assess the likelihood of an attempted terrorist attack on the United States within the next six months, Blair described it as "certain." Each of the four other officials, asked the same question, agreed with Blair.
The Obama administration has begun looking for places other than the heart of New York City to prosecute the accused Sept. 11 attack plotters in the face of fierce criticism tied to security and costs, U.S. officials said on Friday.
Critics have said the government's plan to try self-professed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators blocks from the World Trade Center would require a large security cordon, hurt area businesses and afford the defendants certain legal rights in criminal court.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was considering other venues for the trials, according to one Obama administration official. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said: "We're considering our options."
The New York Times and Washington Post reported that the lower Manhattan courthouse was out of the running, citing unnamed administration officials. However, one Obama administration official told Reuters that "no decision has been made."
Holder in November decided the trials would be held in New York City, whose federal courthouse is connected to a fortified detention center with a tunnel.
"Conversations have occurred with the administration to discuss contingency options should the possibility of a trial in lower Manhattan be foreclosed upon by Congress or locally," another administration official said.
New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters he believed the trials are "unlikely" to occur there.
It was not clear what other venues are under consideration. New York officials have suggested a military base, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, or nearby Governor's Island, though some said that last option was not feasible.
A U.S. official has said that no terrorism trials had been held outside of a federal courthouse and there were questions whether a trial could be held on a military base.
PRESSURE ON OBAMA
The decision to reconsider the location comes as President Barack Obama faces increased political pressure to refocus his agenda. Obama has been trying to push through a healthcare reform initiative and reduce the high U.S. unemployment rate.
Earlier this week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg reversed his support for holding the trials in Manhattan.
"I can tell you I would prefer if it was done elsewhere, I think some of the suggestions make sense, like a military base, because it's far away from people and you can provide security easily," Bloomberg said on Friday on his weekly radio show.
He said he called the Obama administration on Thursday to express his concerns but acknowledged ultimately the city could handle the trials. "I will be as supportive as, and the city will be, as supportive as we can, period," Bloomberg said.
New York Governor David Paterson has also been hesitant about the trials in Manhattan. "We are worried about the effects of mass law enforcement on lower Manhattan, congestion, traffic, resources that have to be spent," he told reporters.
Administration officials have pointed to past terrorism trials that were held in U.S. courts with little difficulty, including one this week of a Pakistani scientist charged with firing a rifle at U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan.
Those entering that courtroom have faced airport-style security: removing shoes and belts, passing through a metal detector and having purses and other personal items searched.
HIGH COST
Bloomberg has estimated the cost of security for the Sept. 11 trials to be at least $200 million a year, and has asked the Obama administration to pick up the tab.
That could be tough for Obama because he has had enormous trouble getting the U.S. Congress -- despite big Democratic majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives -- to approve funding for his bid to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where terrorism suspects are held.
Republicans and even some of Obama's fellow Democrats have ramped up pressure in recent weeks against the planned criminal trials, urging that the alleged Sept. 11 plotters be tried in military tribunals instead.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham plans to offer legislation next week aimed at barring funding for the Sept. 11 trials in civilian court. They "should be tried by military commission -- not civilian court where they will be given the same legal rights as American citizens," he said.
In addition to security concerns, some lawmakers -- as well as some relatives of the almost 3,000 people who were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks -- have said the defendants could use the criminal courts as soapboxes to propagate their anti-American beliefs and turn the trials into a media circus.
But Holder testified to Congress last year that the judges who will preside over the trials will be able to prevent such a scenario.
Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, spoke publicly for the first time about the botched Christmas Day airliner bombing, praising the attempt — but not explicitly taking responsibility for it — in an audiotape broadcast Sunday that was aimed personally at President Obama.
Mr. bin Laden said that the bombing attempt was a heroic act meant to recall the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington. He warned that more strikes against the United States were looming because of American support for what he called Israel’s repression of the Palestinians, one of Mr. bin Laden’s recurring themes in his occasional audiotaped anti-West invectives.
“America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine,” Mr. bin Laden said. “God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support to the Israelis will continue.”
Mr. bin Laden said his statement was “from Osama to Obama.”
The one-minute recording, broadcast by Al Jazeera’s Arabic news channel, was the first time Mr. bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border, had issued an audiotape in four months.
White House officials said they could not immediately authenticate the recording, but did not dispute that the voice was Mr. bin Laden’s. David Axelrod, a White House senior adviser, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that whatever the source, the message “contains the same hollow justification for the mass slaughter of innocents.”
It was not clear why Mr. bin Laden waited nearly a month to say anything about the Dec. 25 bombing attempt on Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, which was carried out by a passenger who sought to detonate explosives sewn into his underwear but was overpowered by other passengers. Federal investigators have said the suspect, a 23-year-old Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, received training and the explosives in Yemen.
“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 Sept. 11, Mr. bin Laden said.
American and Yemeni intelligence analysts said that they believed the veracity of a statement issued Dec. 28 by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the affiliate based in Yemen, claiming responsibility for the attack.
Experts on Al Qaeda said Sunday that Mr. bin Laden’s statement did not change that assessment, since it did not explicitly claim that he or his closest associates in Pakistan played a role in planning or directing the Christmas attack.
“If you read it carefully, it’s not really a claim of responsibility,” said Steven N. Simon, senior fellow for Middle Eastern affairs at the Council on Foreign Relations. “He endorses the attack. He valorizes it. He says, ‘You’re going to get more of the same.’ ”
Indeed, American intelligence officials have expressed concern that the Yemeni group may have trained other suicide bombers, and Britain last week increased its terrorism threat level in advance of a conference this week in London on aid to Yemen organized by the British government.
The increasing terrorist threat from Yemen prompted Mr. Obama to decide to send Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the conference, even though that meant that Mrs. Clinton would miss Mr. Obama’s first State of the Union address, a senior administration official said.
“Prudence dictates we should assume Northwest Flight 253 was a test run for a campaign of attacks,” said Bruce O. Riedel, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer now at the Brookings Institution, a research organization. “We are putting more pressure on Al Qaeda, and it plans to hit back in Afghanistan and at home.”
Mr. Simon said Mr. bin Laden’s statement, which was very brief by Mr. bin Laden’s standards, did not suggest that he was merely belatedly claiming responsibility for an attack perceived as at least partly successful, since it penetrated airport security measures that have been greatly enhanced since the 2001 attacks.
Rather, he said, it vividly illustrated the way Al Qaeda had become a franchise, with branches of varying size and strength in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, North Africa, Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
“A franchise, just like McDonald’s, is supposed to create mutual benefits,” Mr. Simon said. “The benefit for bin Laden is he gets to associate himself with this attack. The benefit for the regional group is it gets to use the Al Qaeda name for fund-raising and recruiting.”
In the case of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the franchise relationship may be particularly close, since its current leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, once served as Mr. bin Laden’s personal secretary.
Analysts offered varying interpretations of Mr. bin Laden’s decision to highlight American support for Israel, as opposed to the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq or other grievances, as a motive for attacks. Some said the Qaeda leader was simply focusing on an issue with broad popular resonance across the Muslim world. Mr. Simon said the remarks might reflect Mr. bin Laden’s longstanding desire to create a Palestinian branch of Al Qaeda, a decade-long project that has so far made little progress.
Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” that the recording showed that Mr. bin Laden was “still a motivating force for jihadists, Islamist extremists throughout the world.”
He added, “And so we have to stay after him.”
The last audiotape attributed to Mr. bin Laden was issued Sept. 25. It urged European nations to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan, with a veiled threat of reprisals and an allusion to past bombings in Madrid and London.
The last bin Laden tape directed at the United States was issued Sept. 13, two days after the eighth anniversary of the attacks in New York and Washington. That tape advised how the conflict between Al Qaeda and the United States might come to a close.
