Message #203164

[Jenna Bluehut]

Bin Laden's message came four weeks after the Yemen-based group made its own claim of responsibility for the bomb plot with a different justification – linking it to Yemeni military attacks on al-Qaida targets with the help of U.S. intelligence.

There was no way to verify the voice on the audio message was actually bin Laden's, but it resembled previous recordings attributed to him. U.S.-based IntelCenter, which monitors militant messages, said the manner of the recording's release, its content and other factors indicated it was credible.

White House adviser David Axelrod told CNN's "State of the Union" that whatever the source, the message "contains the same hollow justification for the mass slaughter of innocents."

On Friday, Britain raised its terror threat alert to the second-highest level, one of several recent steps the country has taken to increase vigilance after the Christmas Day bombing attempt. The online edition of Britain's The Sunday Times reported that the heightened alert was prompted in part by an Islamic terrorist plot to hijack an Indian passenger jet and crash it into a British city.

Since the Christmas Day attempt, the Yemeni government, at the U.S.'s urging has stepped up its attacks on the group's hide-outs in the rugged country's remote hinterland.

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

"There's definitely communication, there's definitely a process of seeking approval and swearing allegiance, but I don't think that means they go to bin Laden every time they have a question," Kohlmann said.

The al-Qaida offshoot in Iraq demonstrated such independence, carrying out a frenzy of bombings, beheadings and kidnappings targeting foreigners and Shiite Muslims.