Osama's Coiled For Strike, Says Terror Expert: "WASHINGTON - Recent tapes from Al Qaeda's top kingpins could mean that a spectacular strike against the U.S. is imminent, a former CIA counterterrorism official warns.

Michael Scheuer, the former chief of the CIA's Osama Bin Laden unit and author of 'Imperial Hubris,' a book arguing that the West is losing the war on terrorism, said he is alarmed by recent statements by Bin Laden and his deputy, Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

'I think what [Bin Laden] has done is clearly set the stage for a large attack,' Scheuer told Time magazine.

But other terror experts disputed that tapes always precede attacks. 'There's simply not enough consistent data at this point to be able to draw that conclusion,' defense analyst John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org told the Daily News yesterday.

Pike said there is much evidence that Al Qaeda has been disrupted to the point where it may be incapable of mounting a spectacular attack in the U.S."

(Via GlobalSecurity.org.)