Purported Bin Laden Tape Talks Of September 11 Attacks

The September 11, 2001, attack on New York's World Trade Center towers (AFP) May 24, 2006 -- A man claiming to be Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden says in an audiotape posted on the Internet that he personally assigned the 19 hijackers who carried out the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

The speaker says that Zacarias Moussaoui, recently sentenced to life in prison in the United States in connection with September 11, had nothing to do with the attacks.

A U.S. counterterrorism official says U.S. intelligence agencies have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the audiotape.

The speaker also says that no one held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorist suspects was involved in the events of September 11.

(compiled from agency reports)