CAIRO, Egypt — Osama bin Laden appeared for the first time in three years in a video Friday released ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end.
American officials said the U.S. government had obtained a copy even though the video had not been posted yet by al-Qaida — and intelligence agencies were studying the video to determine whether it was authentic and looking for clues about bin Laden's health.
Bin Laden also made comments and references to the anniversary events this August of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as to the French and British government leaders installed in May and June.
A U.S. official said an analysis of the videotape showed that it was bin Laden who was on the tape. This was the first video footage showing him since the one in the fall of 2004 in which he admitted to the terrorist attacks on the United States.
The release of the latest video is apparently intended to demonstrate bin Laden is alive and well ahead of the sixth anniversary of Sept 11 this year.
U.S. President George W Bush told reporters in Sydney, "The tape is a reminder of the dangerous world in which we live and it is a reminder that we must work together to protect our people."
The video footage, obtained by ABC and other major news outlets, runs for around 30 minutes.
According to ABC, bin Laden on the tape says, "...just a few days ago, the Japanese observed the 62nd anniversary of the annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by your nuclear weapons." The anniversary is Aug 6 for Hiroshima and Aug 9 for Nagasaki.
He also referred to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who assumed their posts in May and June respectively.
Referring to the American people, he also said, "You permitted Bush to complete his first term, and stranger still, chose him for a second term, which gave him a clear mandate from you — with your full knowledge and consent — to continue to murder our people in Iraq and Afghanistan."
The footage gives a rare look at the al-Qaida leader, who has likely avoided appearing in videos as a security measure. His emergence comes at a time when terrorism experts believe his terror network is regrouping in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region — and it underlines the U.S. failure to catch him.
In the video, a short excerpt of which was broadcast to the Arab world by Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden wears a white robe, a white circular cap and a beige cloak seated behind a table while reading an address to the American people from papers in front of him.
His trimmed beard is shorter than in his last video, in 2004, and is fully black — apparently dyed, since in past videos it was mostly gray. He speaks softly, as he usually does, and has dark bags under his eyes, but his appearance dispelled rumors that he had died.
In the video, bin Laden makes no overt threats and does not directly call for attacks.
Instead, he addresses Americans, lecturing them on the failures of their leaders to stop the war in Iraq despite growing public opposition in the U.S.
He says there were two solutions to stopping the Iraq war. "One is from our side, and it is to escalate the fighting and killing against you. This is our duty, and our brothers are carrying it out," bin Laden said.
"The second solution is from your side. ... I invite you to embrace Islam," he said.
One result of that, bin Laden said, would be an end to the Iraq war. He said "warmongering owners of the major corporations" would rush to appease voters who showed they are looking for an alternative, "and this alternative is Islam."
He derided Bush, saying events in Iraq have gotten "out of control" and the American leader "is like the one who plows and sows the sea: He harvests nothing but failure."
Bin Laden frequently criticized capitalism, calling its leaders the real terrorists and threats to human freedom.
"This is why I tell you: as you liberated yourselves before from the slavery of monks, kings and feudalism, you should liberate yourselves from the deception, shackles and attrition of the capitalist system," he said.
Bin Laden also showed a grasp of current events, dropping mentions of global warming and saying Americans are "reeling under the burdens" of a mortgage crisis.
And he praises author Noam Chomsky, an early critic of the Iraq war, as well as Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit, who has said poor U.S. leadership was losing the war against terrorist groups.
Bin Laden "knows Bush has low approval ratings, knows the significance of a growing awareness of global warming," said Thomas Sanderson, deputy director of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "He's trying to capitalize on what he sees as a shift back to the middle in American politics."
Views of different people...
I had a chance to read the text to Osama's latest video. And I have to say the world's most wanted terrorist seems to have undergone a bit of a change. I was disappointed not to find the usual fire and brimstone, revenge and divine purpose in this year's message. Instead it seems that Bin Laden has become a hippie.
Perhaps somewhere in the hills of Western Pakistan his little clan have captured a hippie back packer from Berkeley who lost his way on the road to Nepal. And instead of killing this poor backpacker, it seems perhaps their captive has converted brother Osama and his gang to a new way of thinking. And perhaps some new ways of smoking too.
This year's message sounded like a combination of Michael Moore, WTO protesters, California new age hippies, stoner drummers from Yoyogi park and radical Islamist fundamentalist terrorists all tossed into a pot infused blend of neo-hippie extremism. Next thing he'll be suggesting we all hang out together, meditate, do a bit of yoga and all come into the divine light of Islamic hippie-ism to see the error of our corrupt ways. Or at least have an afternoon being baked together and work things out over some light snak food.
Maybe Osama is spending much too much time in the hills these days. Getting old and mellow and maybe regretting that whole 911 thing. Maybe those prior suggestions that a college speaking tour would have been a better avenue for change than getting his dudes to fly jets into things made sense after all.
Check out the transcript online and see for yourselves. The world's greatest terrorist seems to have become a politically correct hippie. Or was at least very baked when he wrote this latest speech. Reality is indeed stranger than fiction.
"His basic idea: We (al qaeda) played the neocons like a fiddle, and continue to do so."
Seems to me he is playing the Democrats like a fiddle. In case you missed it, his latest production is a standard lineup of Democrat arguments; might as well have been written my Michael Moore.
(Which is not to say that the Republicans have a clue; the idea that Iraq would spontaneously turn into a democracy was patently ludicrious.)
But OBL in his latest tape is clearly talking to the Democrat base. One has to be blind not to see that.
Unlike all the liberal posters here at JT, it will be a cold day in hell before I lay out a rug to pray on.
Perhaps the only relevant thing this poster has ever gibberd.
Here's why:
Rodeney King enjoined us to all get along. How do we? OBL wants Americans to embrace Islam. Fat chance. Americans will tolerate Islam, but never embrace it.
Now, turn it around. GWB has wanted Iraqis to embrace democracy... And how's that been working for us? Not well. The US simply does not possess the power to refashion Iraq in her image. US failure in Iraq thus far is a result of the lunatic Right inability to accept this. But that don't deter the Americans from the conceit that we should continue along this Democracy Rah Rah line with Iran, with DPRK. And with China.
And it will be a cold day in hell before Iran embraces democracy. Though its pure fantasy to think so. It aint gonna happen. The US simply does not possess the power to refashion Iranian society. But that dont stop the Right. Soon, the US will lack the power to even push around the nuclear armed Iran. Thank you W.
And so with China. Chinese leader will not wake up tommorrow, slap their foreheads and proclaim: "What on earth were we thinking?!? All men are created equal. Of course!! Lets model our society on Western Principles, and refasion our entire domestic structure. That's the ticket!!"
Aint gonna happen. Just as tommorrow W and Cheyney, Obama and Bill Gates aint gonna wake up tommorrow, slap their forheads, and proclaim: "What were we thinking!?! This Liberal Democratic Capitalism thing is all wrong. Or course!! Lets totally refashion our country on Chinese Priciples...blah blah blah"
Aint gonna happen. We live in an increasingly interdependant, but non-convergent world. The US may be the lone super power, but she does not possess the power to refashion the entire globe in her image. We just do not have the power. And we will have to learn to deal with other civilizations on their terms as well as ours.
Most the world does not want to be like us. Those that possess the power to resists will. They are motivated by same nationalism of RR's " It will be a cold day in hell..."
And that is what the ideologues of all flavors just dont get. I dare say, that is what Americans on the whole do not want to get.
now turn it back around. Bin Ladin and his fellow radical believers (and that includes the governments of Saudi and Iran) want to re-fashion the whole world in the image or radical islam.
And unlike the US, they don`t have any democratic and constitutional limits on what they can do. Remember, the jihad is ordained by god and forever.
Now what do you think you should worry about?
Next time I hear *anybody* beating the drums for war in Iran, we will all know they are (1) either extremely foolishly misled by the simplest of Al Quaida plans, or (2) they are in fact happy devout followers of Al Quaida.
Your conclusions are simply wrong. Think man! Let's see. A wants B to Attack C. You are saying then that if B does in fact think about attacking C, the only conclusions you can see are that either B is fooled by A, or is in fact a follower of A? Sorry for using As and Bs but I'm trying to make this simple.
Think about it for a while. There are in fact other possibilities... If you still can't understand that your conclusions are not necessarily true, then I will come up with some real world scenarios for you later.
Amazing. Ahaaaaaa Chibu Holmes has found a secret document on the internet!! So, I suppose if you send this precious document to the CIA and they ignore it, then you will conclude that the CIA are Al Quaida disciples. Did you go to school?
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