U.S. Pols React to Bin Laden Tape

WASHINGTON – Al Qaeda

Usama bin Laden

Also Sunday, President George W. Bush's spokesman, Scott McClellan, said the intelligence community told the White House that it believes the tape is authentic.

"The Al Qaeda leadership is on the run and under a lot of pressure," McClellan told reporters. "We are on the advance. They are on the run."

Republican Rep. Peter Hoekstra, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Al Qaeda's Internet techniques "would make a politician proud."

"The quality of the materials, the quality of the marketing — the message is very, very good," Hoekstra said on "FOX News Sunday."

Hoekstra said it "recognizes that much of this war, this battle that we're fighting, is about winning the hearts and the minds of moderate Islam, and they are focused on that. We need to be focused on it."

The tape, broadcast Sunday, purportedly says that the West is at war with Islam. There was no way to independently verify the authenticity of the tape.

Democratic Rep. Jane Harman said the tape is a reminder that bin Laden is still at large four years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"We haven't been able to find him. Part of the reason is because we've been bogged down in Iraq," Harman said in a joint appearance with Hoekstra on FOX.

Democratic Sen. John Kerry said the emergence of a new tape reflects the fundamental problems that the Bush administration faces in the fight against terrorism, including an insufficient effort to commit American troops.

"It underscores the failure of this administration to capture him," Kerry said on ABC's "This Week."