Voice Believed To Be Terrorist Leader Calls Confession "Void"

ANN REALTIME REPORTING 05.23.06 1830EDT: An audio tape believed to be the latest message from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden claims Zacarias Moussaoui was not involved with the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

"He had no connection at all with September 11," says a voice on the tape, believed to be that of the terrorist leader. "I am the one in charge of the 19 brothers and I never assigned brother Zacarias to be with them in that mission."

"Since Zacarias Moussaoui was still learning how to fly, he wasn't No. 20 in the group, as your government has claimed," the voice continued. The voice also says Moussaoui's confession that he helped plan the attacks -- and that he was originally meant to pilot a fifth airliner into the White House -- was "void," and was due to "pressures exercised against him during four and a half years" as a federal prisoner.

The tape was posted Tuesday, on a web site used in the past by al Qaeda.

Should the voice be proven to be that of the terrorist leader -- and there has never been a false bin Laden recording -- it will be the latest message from bin Laden to show that, despite US efforts to capture or kill him, he is still very much alive... and that he remains relevant on the world scene.

An anonymous US intelligence official told Fox News the tape is "propaganda plain and simple," but added that such a recording from bin Laden wasn't unexpected -- as the US government has been monitoring Islamic websites for such a response to the federal jury's decision, reached earlier this month, that Moussaoui was responsible for at least one death on 9/11.

As Aero-News reported, the jury in Moussaoui's death penalty trial could not reach a unanimous decision on death, so Moussaoui was instead given a life prison sentence -- which he recently started serving at a SuperMax prison in Colorado.

FMI: www.usdoj.gov