Speculation Continues With Bin Laden Video

WASHINGTON -- White House officials this week continued to fuel speculation regarding a video where Saudi exile Osama bin Laden reportedly expressed satisfaction with the results of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on New York City.

Debate continues on whether government sources should allow the tape to be broadcast to America and other places around the world. Rumors speculate that the video proves the guilt of bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Other rumors speculate more gruesome details.

One source close to the government reports that the amateur video was taken at a bin Laden family birthday party. The terrorist leader is wearing a colorful cone-shaped party hat rather than his trademark turban, according to the source. Cake and party games are not visible in the film, likely because those pleasures are not permissible under the strict Taliban interpretation of Islam.

Many other sources dismiss the party theory as rubbish. Not so, said a senior military adviser to the White House. It's said that after bin Laden implicates himself in the terrorist activities, he, his lieutenants and others recited the lyrics of "Happy Birthday" because singing the song would violate the Taliban's no music policy.