New Bin Laden Tape May Be Bid for Status

This image taken from a Web site frequently used by Islamic militants and made available from IntelCenter, shows al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in an undated photo that accompanied the posting of an audio tape with bin Laden speaking. Bin Laden purportedly said in the audio tape Tuesday May 23, 2006 that neither Zacarias Moussaoui _ the only person convicted in the U.S. for the Sept. 11 attacks _ nor anyone held at Guantanamo had anything to do with the al-Qaida operation. (AP Photo/IntelCenter) (AP)

Bin Laden also said none of the hundreds of suspected terrorists held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Our brothers in Guantanamo ... have no connection whatsoever to the events of Sept. 11," he said, claiming they were jailed to justify the cost of the U.S. war on terrorism.

That may be an attempt to stoke the debate on Guantanamo, which some Americans and others have said should be closed, Kohlman said.

The new tape shows the steep increase in al-Qaida's volume of propaganda since August, said Ben Venzke, head of IntelCenter, a private U.S. company that monitors militant message traffic and provides counterterrorism intelligence services to the American government.

"Al-Qaida messaging volume levels are at the highest now than at any point since the group's inception."

Rohan Gunaratna of Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies said the increase in propaganda is bin Laden's attempt to compensate for his group's loss of ability to mount attacks as the United States captures his followers.

The head of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has stepped into the world terrorism spotlight watched by militant sympathizers, Gunaratna said.

"The jihadis are increasingly looking to al-Zarqawi, who is on the ground and every day is killing Americans in Iraq," Gunaratna said. "Al-Zarqawi is stealing the thunder of bin Laden."

By stepping up propaganda, Gunaratna said he believed "bin Laden is trying to maintain his eminence in the global jihad."

Pfaltzgraff said it was difficult to understand why bin Laden did not make threats in the tape, as he usually does.

"It may indicate he is not going to threaten until he has the ability to carry out threats, and he is regrouping for that purpose," Pfaltzgraff said. "It may be deception. He's saying: 'I'm not going to threaten. I'm just going to do it.'"

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Associated Press reporter Maamoun Youssef contributed to this report.