Bin Laden Claims Credit for Christmas Day Bomb Attempt, but Officials Doubt It

Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner, but an intelligence official and other terrorism analysts believe it was only an effort on his part to show he is still in command of worldwide al-Qaeda and not just a figurehead.

In a minute-long tape "Osama to Obama" message carried on the Al-Jazeera Arabic news channel, bin Laden said, "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. America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine."

The Associated Press quoted a senior U.S. intelligence official as saying there is "no evidence whatsoever" that bin Laden had any involvement in the bombing plot or even know about it in advance. Abdulmutallab told federal agents after his capture that he had been equipped with the explosives and trained by an al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Pensinsula.

Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, told AP: "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. Bin Laden still wants to claim leadership for the global jihad movement."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Fox News Sunday that "nobody's had a chance to authenticate that tape," but others said it sounded similar to previous recordings by bin Laden.