Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 — U.S. intelligence has concluded that an audiotape of Osama bin Laden broadcast last week is real and was recently recorded, providing the first evidence in almost a year that the al-Qaida leader is alive, officials said Monday. The audiotape, broadcast on an Arab language TV network, does not appear to have been altered or edited, one U.S. official said, suggesting it is what it sounds like: bin Laden promising more terrorism.THE ANALYSIS of the tape was performed by technical experts, linguists and translators at the CIA and National Security Agency, who compared the message to previous...