On December 28, 2009, Obama, in his first address after the incident, said that the event "demonstrates that an alert and courageous citizenry are far more resilient than an isolated extremist". On the same day, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) announced that it was responsible for the attempted bombing. AQAP said that the attack, during "their [Americans'] celebration of the Christmas holidays", was to "avenge U.S. attacks on the militants in Yemen". On January 24, an audio tape said to be from Osama bin Laden praised the bombing attempt and warned of further attacks against the United States, but did not claim responsibility for it. The short recording, which was broadcast on Al Jazeera television, said: "The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of the September 11." An adviser to the U.S. President said he could not confirm whether the voice was that of bin Laden. In the past, the CIA has usually confirmed Al Jazeera reports on tapes attributed to bin Laden. While in custody, Abdulmutallab told authorities he had been directed by al-Qaeda. He said he had obtained the device in Yemen, and was told to detonate it when the plane was over the United States. Abdulmutallab said he had contacted al-Qaeda through a radical Yemeni imam (who according to "The New York Times" on December 26 was not believed to be al-Awlaki) whom he had reached through the internet. "The New York Times" reported on December 25 that a counter-terrorism official had told them Abdulmutallab's claim of connection with al-Qaeda "may have been aspirational". But U.S. Representative Jane Harman (D-Calif.), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment, said the following day that a federal official briefed lawmakers about "strong suggestions of a Yemen-al Qaeda connection" with the suspect. On January 2, 2010, President Obama said that AQAP trained, equipped, and dispatched Abdulmutallab, and vowed retribution. In reaction to suggestions that the U.S. launch a military offensive against the alleged terrorists' sanctuary in Yemen, "The Washington Post" noted that Yemeni forces equipped with U.S. weapons and intelligence had carried out two major raids against AQAP shortly before the bombing attempt, and that the terror group may have lost top leaders in a December 24, 2009 airstrike.