Toronto Star: Bin Laden tape a fake, Swiss lab says

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The Toronto Star

 

http://www.thestar.com

 

 

Bin Laden tape a fake, Swiss lab says

Scientists compared recording to 20 other tapes of terror chief

 

 

PARIS (AP) - The latest audiotape statement attributed to accused

terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is not authentic, a Swiss

research institute said.

 

The Lausanne-based Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial

Intelligence said it is 95-per-cent certain the tape does not feature

the voice of the long-absent terrorist leader.

 

The review of the tape was commissioned by France-2 television and its

findings were presented by the institute's Professor Herve Boulard in

a special TV report shown late Thursday.

 

He said the institute compared the voice on the tape, first aired two

weeks ago on Al-Jazeera, an Arabic television network, with some 20

earlier recordings of bin laden.

 

U.S. experts maintain the tape will likely never be fully

authenticated because its poor quality defies complete analysis by

even the most sophisticated voice-print technology.

 

But U.S. experts who have heard it generally support the conclusion by

U.S. law-enforcement officials that it probably is bin Laden speaking.

 

In the tape, the speaker refers to recent terrorist strikes U.S.

officials believe are connected to bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. If

fully verified, it would provide the first evidence in a year that bin

Laden survived U.S. bombing in Afghanistan.