A CIA technical analysis ofan audiotape aired on al Jazeera satellite television channelthis week shows "almost certainly" that it is of al Qaedaleader Osama bin Laden, a US intelligence official has confirmed.
"The technical analysis tells us it is almost certainly binLaden," the intelligence official said, adding the audio was ofbetter quality than a tape released last November.
Another US official said "fairly sophisticated" meanswere used to compare the recent audiotape with past samplesknown to be of bin Laden's voice.
US intelligence analysts familiar with bin Laden's voicehad earlier this week determined the tape was probably of theal Qaeda leader, but it could not be determined to a greaterdegree of probability until the technical analysis wasconducted.
On the tape, bin Laden referred to the United States as"crusaders," called on Muslims in Iraq to fight, and labeledthe Iraqi government "socialists" and "infidels" but said theyhad common cause against America.
The US government recently raised its national alert tothe second-highest level of orange after it interceptedcommunications of suspected al Qaeda operatives and otherintelligence information suggested they were poised to strikeUS interests, US officials have said.