Update From the ABC website:

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1231364.htm
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Last Update: Saturday, October 30, 2004. 12:57pm (AEST)

Osama bin Laden appears in a video played on Al Jazeera television,
ahead of next week's US presidential election. (Al Jazeera)

Bush rejects bin Laden threat
US President George W Bush vowed the United States will not be
intimidated by a pre-election warning from Osama Bin Laden and called
Democrat John Kerry "shameful" for accusing him of bungling the search
for the al Qaeda leader.

The US will make no immediate change in its terrorism alert level
following the airing of the tape, a White House official said.

The bin Laden tape eerily offered a flashback to the September 11
events that changed the Bush presidency.

It also served to remind Americans that the man Bush once wanted "dead
or alive" is apparently alive and well and threatening new attacks.

Senator Kerry claims Mr Bush let bin Laden get away in the mountains
of Tora Bora in late 2001 by delegating the search for him to Afghan
warlords instead of US special forces.

"This is the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking," Mr Bush
said of Mr Kerry's attack.

"It is especially shameful in light of the new tape by America's
enemy."

White House communications director Dan Bartlett said the fact that
Kerry's advisers raised the Tora Bora issue shortly after the tape
appeared was a sign that "this race is slipping away" from Mr Kerry.

"You would think that somebody would maybe pause for a moment to let
the
American people absorb what is going on," Mr Bartlett said.

A Bush supporter, retired General Tommy Franks, who was head of US
forces in Afghanistan at the time, has rejected Mr Kerry's argument by
saying US intelligence indicated bin Laden could have been in several
countries at the time.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the tape, broadcast four
days before the US presidential election, was believed to be
authentic.

"Our intelligence community has said that they believe it is authentic
and that it was taped recently. The intelligence community continues
to analyse the tape. If there is actionable intelligence, we will act
on it," he said.

Mr McClellan said there were no immediate plans to elevate the US
terrorism alert level in response to the bin Laden tape.

"That is something that we analyse all the time. We are on a
heightened state of awareness already and there is no change in it at
this time," he told reporters.

A US official said the videotape did not appear to contain a specific
threat.

Mr McClellan said Bush was notified late on Friday morning about the
tape by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice while he was
travelling aboard Air Force One.

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well I can tell all the nitwit Arabs this: if you launch any type of
serious attack on the usa you can kiss Syria, Iran bye bye. they will be
nuked. no fucking about, within minutes most of dipshit Arabs will cease

exist.