Now this is really interesting. Last night, this appeared on Brian Ross’ Blotter:

A new Osama bin Laden audio is expected to be released within three days. On the tape, bin Laden will talk about the death of Abu Musab Zarqawi. More details to come.

The audio is about 5 minutes in length. This is the fourth time we have heard an audio message from bin Laden this year. The last time we heard from him was following the sentencing of Zacarias Moussaoui for the 9/11 attacks. Bin Laden claimed that he had not assigned Moussaoui to be a part of the attacks.

That tape came 19 days after the sentencing of Moussaoui and was considered a quick turnaround for one of his tapes, which are believed to pass through numerous couriers on their way to Al Jazeera network.

The news of Zarqawi’s death came three weeks ago on June 8.

Now we got a breaking news story, that is just coming in:

A 19-minute videotaped message purportedly by Osama bin Laden paying tribute to slain al-Qaida in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was posted on a Web site Thursday.

The video, released by al-Qaida’s as-Sahab Institute for Media Production, is entitled “Elegizing the martyr of the nation and the Emir of the martyrs, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi (God bless his soul).”

The taping shows an old still image of bin Laden next to video of al-Zarqawi while the audio of bin Laden’s statement is played. The video did not contain any English subtitles, but an Arabic transcript of bin Laden’s statement was released.

How did ABC know about this tape 24 hours before it happened? Did someone in the administration tip them off that a new tape was coming? If they did, then how did the administration know that a new tape was coming out? These are extremely serious questions. I hope someone will ask them.