RIYADH: The White House said Wednesday that Al-Qaeda was trying to distract the Muslim world from President Barack Obama's "historic" outreach effort, with the release of a new Osama bin Laden tape.White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Obama administration has not yet had the opportunity to review the audio tape by the Al-Qaeda leader, aired on the Al-Jazeera satellite network.But he said it appeared to be consistent with messages in the past in which Al-Qaeda has threatened the United States and other countries.Gibbs said he didn't think it was "surprising" that Al-Qaeda would want to shift attention away from the president's "historic efforts" to have an open dialogue with the Muslim world.The tape was issued as Obama flew into Saudi Arabia at the start of his debut Middle East mission designed to kick-start the Middle East peace process and build bridges to the Muslim world with a speech on Thursday in Egypt.
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