Bin Laden Claims Airline Bomb Attempt

Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas in a new audio message released Sunday threatening more attacks on the United States.

The message suggests the al-Qaida leader wants to appear in direct command of the terrorist group's many affiliates around the world at time when some analysts have suggested he is mostly a figurehead.

In the minute-long recording carried by Al-Jazeera Arabic news channel, bin Laden addressed President Barack Obama saying the Christmas attack was meant to send a message similar to that of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"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 the Sept. 11," he said. "America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine," he added.

"God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support for the Israelis continues."

On Christmas Day, Nigerian Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up his Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit Metro Airport. But the explosive powder he was hiding in his underwear failed to detonate.

He told federal agents shortly afterward that he had been trained and given the explosives by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, an al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula originally claimed responsibility for the failed plot. But bin Laden suggested he was the one who ordered attacks, rather than just put his seal of approval on events afterward.

"The training and the definition of the attack was by the local leaders of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, so in many ways you can say bin Laden is exploiting for his benefit this particular attack," said Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror."

"It gives a clear demonstration that bin Laden is still alive and continues to make ideological impact on the global jihad movement," the analyst said from Kuwait.

Of all the various offshoots and branches of al-Qaida around the world, Gunaratna said the group in Yemen is one of the closest to bin Laden since it is made up of bodyguards and associates of the organization's top ideologues. Yemen is bin Laden's ancestral homeland.

"Today the operational relationship has somewhat suffered, but the ideological relationship is very strong and that is why bin Laden claimed this attack," Gunaratna said.

Analysts have long debated how much control bin Laden, who is believed to be somewhere in Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, really has over the various organizations using his group's name.

There was no way to confirm the voice on the audio message was actually that of bin Laden, but it resembled previous recordings attributed to him.

In the past year, bin Laden's messages have concentrated heavily on the plight of the Palestinians in attempt to rally support from Muslims around the world.

Some analysts say bin Laden is focusing on the close U.S.-Israeli relationship because he is worried about Obama's popularity across the Middle East with his promises to withdraw from Iraq and because his father was a Muslim from the African nation of Kenya.

The suffering of the Palestinians, especially in the blockaded Gaza Strip where 1,400 were killed in an Israeli offensive a year ago, angers many in the Arab world.

"The Palestinian conflict was never part of the al-Qaida original mandate, but Osama is clearly exploiting it," Gunaratna said.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Andy David, dismissed the latest al-Qaida message and its attempt to link Israel with attacks on the U.S.

"This is nothing new. He has said this before," he said. "Terrorists always look for absurd excuses for their despicable deeds."

The last public message from bin Laden appears to have been on Sept. 26, when he demanded that European countries pull their troops out of Afghanistan. The order came in an audiotape that also warned of "retaliation" against nations that are allied with the United States in fighting the war.