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Robertson: Timing of message no coincidence
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- On Friday, an Arabic-language satellite TV network broadcast an audiotape it said was from Osama bin Laden. The speaker refers to attacks in European capitals during his speech, apparently giving clues to the time frame during which the tape was recorded. While CNN cannot confirm when the speech was recorded, CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson said he wasn't surprised by the day the tape was released. He talked about the timing with CNN Anchor Daryn Kagan. KAGAN: Nic, since this news broke over a couple of hours ago, you've had a chance to look at some things and listen in. Tell us any new nuggets you've been able to bring to us. ROBERTSON: I think really the analysis has to be here that it seems to be no coincidence that after a week where the news has all been negative against al Qaeda, particularly in the Afghanistan region, that -- that a new message should be released which has as part of that message that al Qaeda is winning -- winning in Afghanistan. So that attack in Pakistan last week that was targeting bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, it appears not to have gotten him but may have gotten some other key al Qaeda leadership figures. It appears as if al Qaeda wants to get the message back on its terms and has pulled out its biggest gun to do that, Osama bin Laden. We haven't heard from him in over a year. And now he's back on the airwaves at the end of a week where the news for them has been particularly disastrous. So whether or not it was recorded for this, or was it sitting on a shelf somewhere waiting to be released, I think perhaps that's the biggest clue that the battle, perhaps, to catch bin Laden is heating up. We've heard from [CNN Correspondent] David Ensor over the last couple of hours saying that the CIA does appear to be ratcheting up its targeting and efforts to catch bin Laden ad Zawahiri. And perhaps this is a bonus for intelligence officials. Every time bin Laden or Zawahiri break cover with a message, this is another opportunity for intelligence officials perhaps to trace where that message came from and perhaps get to one of these two people. 
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