WASHINGTON - The flurry of messages from Osama Bin Laden and his deputy this year suggests the pair is regaining control over Al Qaeda operations for the first time since the U.S. toppled the Taliban, two top experts told the Daily News.

"It means their command and control over Al Qaeda is probably stronger than we thought it was," said Michael Scheuer, who ran the CIA's Osama Bin Laden unit and is the author of "Imperial Hubris."

Bin Laden has issued five audiotapes since he ended a 14-month silence in January. His deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has released eight audio- or video-taped anti-Western speeches this year.

Few believe anymore that Al Qaeda tapes signal terror cells to strike, or otherwise foreshadow an impending attack.

But the messages do suggest Al Qaeda leaders are probably able to communicate as easily with henchmen plotting attacks as they are with operatives putting the tapes on the Internet, according to Scheuer and Peter Bergen, two of the foremost American experts on Bin Laden.

"It shows they're extremely unconcerned about releasing them" as a risk to their own security, said Bergen, author of "The Osama Bin Laden I Know" and one of the first Western journalists to interview the Al Qaeda founder in 1997.

"The heat is not on," Bergen said.

Al Qaeda's media wing, As Sahab ("The Cloud"), has posted recent tapes directly on Web sites instead of sending them to Arab TV channels to selectively edit. Plus, Bergen said, "It's hard for the CIA to watch every Internet cafe in Pakistan..."

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