U.S. Weighs Bin Laden's Words

No Plan To Boost Nation's Threat Level Despite Tape Vowing More Attacks

(CBS/AP)  The U.S. has no plans to raise the security threat level because of a new tape of Osama bin Laden saying al Qaeda is planning attacks, counterterrorism officials said Thursday.

The officials said they have seen no specific or credible intelligence to indicate an upcoming al Qaeda attack on the U.S. Nor have they noticed an increase in terrorist communications "chatter" that sometimes precedes an attack, they said.

A senior security official says that the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI will send out a bulletin to state and local officials tonight, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr. It will be "simply a reminder to be vigilant" and state and local governments will be reminded to "review security measures."

The audiotape, released by the Arab television network Al-Jazeera, brought new attention to the al Qaeda leader after a yearlong lull in his public statements.

"We have recognized for some time that Osama bin Laden continues to be committed in his intent to strike the United States," said Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Michelle Petrovich. "This most recent tape continues to serve to highlight that sentiment."

“He is showing ‘we are still very much alive,’” said CBS News Consultant Jere Van Dyk. “It's a propaganda tape. He is addressing his people...He is saying ‘we are a muslim community. We are alive here. Certainly not hiding in caves. I know what is going on in the world.’”

Homeland Security is not planning to raise the national terror threat level from yellow, the middle of five grades signifying an elevated risk of attack, said spokesman Russ Knocke. The government has raised the alert level to orange, signaling a high threat risk, seven times since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

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Read a CBS News translation of the Osama bin Laden tape

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Michael Scheuer, a former CIA officer who tracked bin Laden for 10 years as part of a unit he created, told CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer that this latest threat should be taken "very seriously." (video)

The important thing about bin Laden, Scheur says, "is that the coordination between what he says he's going to do and what he does is very nearly 100 percent over the past decade. He's a very deadly serious man."

Scheuer said the offer of a truce is "very similar to one he made to the Europeans about two years ago. They paid no attention to what he said and then, thereafter, al Qaeda did attack twice in London. I think it would be foolish not to take this as a very serious threat to the United States."

The tape, which intelligence officials believe was recorded last month, represents bin Laden's first public communication since December 2004. Since then, al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, has served as the terror network's public face.

The recording was released only days after U.S missile attacks in Pakistan that Pakistani officials said killed four senior al Qaeda operatives.