New Osama Laden Tape

[Super Christ]

I hate to say it, the man may be a murderer, but he brings up some valid points in that video. I mean, what good reason do we really have for being in the middle east anyway? (Hint: Cheap oil is not a good reason.) Seriously, why do we still even have troops in Japan, and I think still Germany? What good reason do we have for having troops stationed all over the world in places we don't need to be, and in some cases, have no business being. I would not mind if we got the hell out of Dodge, I mean the middle east. Well, with the obvious caveat that he give himself up to us first. He may have raised valid points, but he is still, after all, a murderer.

Granted, he could very well be BSing the whole thing as well. But a valid point remains a valid point: what good reason do we have for mucking about in the middle east?

You know what'd have been really cool? Just before we went to war with Iraq, he said that he hates Saddam too and the only reason he's siding with Iraq is because it's full of muslims. It would've been cool if he'd have taken care of Saddam for us. Then Saddam would still be out of power, and the whole world wouldn't hate us. Granted, that'd mean shifting ourselves away from being his main source of resentment.

[Skogs]

No, I think bin Laden would vote Nader...

[Faith Chama]

- Osama bin Laden in a statement directed to the American people days before the presidential election, says the United States must stop threatening the security of Muslims if it wants to avoid another Sept. 11-style attack.

In the video aired Friday, the al-Qaida leader acknowledges for the first time that he ordered the Sept. 11 attacks and said he did so because of injustices against the Lebanese and Palestinians by Israel and the United States.

Bin Laden refrained from directly warning of new attacks in the video, his first in more than a year, although he said "there are still reasons to repeat what happened.

Your security is not in the hands of Kerry, Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands," bin Laden said, referring to the president and his Democratic opponent. "Any state that does not mess with our security has naturally guaranteed its own security." *Translation:Any state that doesn't stand against the american policy in the middel east -i.e war on Iraq & Palestinian- will be targeted... *

In what appeared to be conciliatory language, bin Laden said he wanted to explain why he ordered the suicide airline hijackings that hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon so Americans would know how to act to prevent another attack.
To the American people, my talk to you is about the best way to avoid another Manhattan," he said. "I tell you: Security is an important element of human life and, free people do not give up their security."

After the video was aired, President Bush said that "Americans will not be intimidated by bin Laden.' *what about THIS!!! *:rolleyes2
Sen. John Kerry criticized Bush for failing to capture bin Laden earlier and said that "I can run a more effective war on terror." *Take a number buddy :rolleyes2*


The political impact of the tape could cut both ways. It bolsters Bush's argument that the world is a dangerous place and plays to his strength as commander in chief in fighting the war on terror, but it also underscores that his administration has failed to capture or kill America's No.1 enemy more than three years after the terror attacks on New York and Washington.

Bin Laden is thought to be hiding in the mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The video, broadcast on Al-Jazeera television, showed him with a long, gray beard, wearing traditional white robes, a turban and a golden cloak, standing behind a table with papers and in front of a plain, brown curtain.

His hands were steady and he appeared healthy.

The Bush administration said it believes the videotape is authentic and was made recently, noting that bin Laden referred to 1,000 U.S. military deaths in Iraq which happened in early September.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the administration did not plan to raise the nation's threat level for now. The U.S. official said the 18-minute tape — which has English subtitles, though not in the portion shown on Al-Jazeera — lacks an explicit threat and repeats well-worn themes. *lacks an explicit threat...yeah right!*

Al-Jazeera, which is based in Qatar, broadcast about seven minutes of the tape. The station's spokesman, Jihad Ali Ballout, said Al-Jazeera aired what was "newsworthy and relevant" and refused to describe the unaired portions, including whether they included any threats. Ballout said the station received the tape Friday but would not say how.

Before the tape was aired, the State Department asked the government of Qatar to discourage Al-Jazeera from broadcasting it, a senior State Department official said.

In the video, bin Laden accused Bush of misleading Americans by saying the attack was carried out because al-Qaida members "hate freedom." The terrorist leader said his followers have left alone countries that do not threaten Muslims.

"We fought you because we are free ... and want to regain freedom for our nation. As you undermine our security we undermine yours," bin Laden said.

He said he was first inspired to attack the United States by the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon in which towers and buildings in Beirut were destroyed in the siege of the capital.

"While I was looking at these destroyed towers in Lebanon, it sparked in my mind that the tyrant should be punished with the same and that we should destroy towers in America, so that it tastes what we taste and would be deterred from killing our children and women," he said.

"God knows that it had not occurred to our mind to attack the towers, but after our patience ran out and we saw the injustice and inflexibility of the American-Israeli alliance toward our people in Palestine and Lebanon, this came to my mind," he said.

Bin Laden suggested Bush was slow to react to the Sept. 11 attacks, giving the hijackers more time than they expected. At the time of the attacks, the president was listening to schoolchildren in Florida reading a book.

"It never occurred to us that the commander in chief of the American armed forces would leave 50,000 of his citizens in the two towers to face these horrors alone," he said, referring to the number of people who worked at the World Trade Center.

"It appeared to him (Bush) that a little girl's talk about her goat and its butting was more important than the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers. That gave us three times the required time to carry out the operations, thank God," he said.

Excluding the hijackers, the Sept. 11 attacks killed 2,749 people at the World Trade Center, 184 at the Pentagon and 40 in Pennsylvania.

In planning the attacks, bin Laden said he told Mohammed Atta, one of the hijackers, that the strikes had to be carried out "within 20 minutes before Bush and his administration noticed."

Bin Laden compared the Bush administration to repressive Arab regimes, "half of which are ruled by the military and the other half are ruled by the sons of kings and presidents."

He said the resemblance became clear when Bush's father was president and visited Arab countries.

"He wound up being impressed by the royal and military regimes and envied them for staying decades in their positions and embezzling the nation's money with no supervision," bin Laden said.

"He passed on tyranny and oppression to his son, and they called it the Patriot Act, under the pretext of fighting terror. Bush the father did well in placing his sons as governors and did not forget to pass on the expertise in fraud from the leaders of the (Mideast) region to Florida to use it in critical moments."

The image of bin Laden reading a statement was dramatically different from the few other videos of the al-Qaida leader that have emerged since the Sept. 11 attacks.

In the last videotape, issued Sept. 10, 2003, bin Laden is seen walking through rocky terrain with his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, both carrying automatic rifles. In a taped message issued at the same time, bin Laden praises the "great damage to the enemy" on Sept. 11 and mentions five hijackers by name.

In December 2001, the Pentagon released a videotape in which bin Laden is shown at a dinner with associates in Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2001, saying the destruction of the Sept. 11 attacks exceeded even his "optimistic" calculations.

But in none of his previous messages, audio or video, did bin Laden directly state that he ordered the attacks.

U.S. authorities have long said they believe bin Laden is hiding in a rugged, mountainous tribal region of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan, but there has been no firm evidence of his whereabouts for three years.

The last audiotape purportedly from bin Laden came in April. The speaker on the tape, which CIA analysts said likely was the al-Qaida leader, offered a truce to European nations if they pull troops out of Muslim countries. The tape referred to the March 22 assassination by Israel of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
Yahoo News.
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more news t here.

[The Captain]

You honestly can't take what Osama Bin Laden has to say seriously, or at face value anyway. Don't you think he'd rather HAVE Bush another four years since it strengthens his growing masses thanks to global American resentment? Besides, does anyone really think he's going to be reasonable about suddenly stopping his attacks on America even if Kerry gets re-elected? If you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you...

Take care all.

[Super Christ]

Like I said, there's a good chance he was BSing. Just saying, getting the hell out of the middle east does sound reasonable. I've never heard a single good reason for us to be mucking about over there, except for hunting him down.

So in a world of reasonable people, which yes, I do realize many people aren't, us leaving the middle east and him turning himself in sounds like a reasonable compromise. It's something that'd never happen, but it's nice to imagine everybody could be reasonable about it.

[DMKA]

No, I think bin Laden would vote Nader...

[eestlinc]

Bin Laden says, "Kerry can't protect you, Bush can't protect you...only you can protect yourselves" Basically he's saying, if the US voters stop electing politicians who support Israel and prop up oppressive Arab governments like the Sauds, then Arab people will stop feeling the need to attack the US. Basically, Bin Laden is trrying to evolve Al Qaeda into a political group, a la the PLO or Sinn Fein.

Also, Bin Laden is only 47, so he's not exactly about to keel over, although he does have some helath problems, and probably a bit of stress as well.

[Endless]

Like I said, there's a good chance he was BSing. Just saying, getting the hell out of the middle east does sound reasonable. I've never heard a single good reason for us to be mucking about over there, except for hunting him down.

So in a world of reasonable people, which yes, I do realize many people aren't, us leaving the middle east and him turning himself in sounds like a reasonable compromise. It's something that'd never happen, but it's nice to imagine everybody could be reasonable about it.

Sadly, as you said, it'll never happen. In a world of reasonable people, there wouldn't be an Israel-Palestine conflict, there wouldn't have been a 9/11, etc...

Anyway, as to why sta there, there's a reason, which you may or may not find good: it lets Iran know it's being watched. Afghanistan on one side, Iraq on the other, and Turkey up North.

Oh, regarding your previous post, as far as I know, most troops are going to be pulled out of Germany and Japan over the next few years and redeployed in other areas (like continental Asia I think).

[CloudSquallandZidane]

Oh, regarding your previous post, as far as I know, most troops are going to be pulled out of Germany and Japan over the next few years and redeployed in other areas (like continental Asia I think).

I dont know if the Pres. in 2005 doesnt draft im pretty sure those soliders will be redeployed to Iraq. I mean with the Marines missing their quota for the first time in over a decade.

This bin laden tape changes nothing the one responsible for 9/11(him) will die on the run or in U.S. custody. And thats all there is.

[Lubasha]

I read an article saying that OBL would actually be interested in Bush's reelection. The reason? With Bush's inflexibility and stubborn policy of preventive wars it is not going to be long (or so OBL hopes) before the people of the Middle East rise against Americans and kick them out of the region. If Kerry and the Democrats win, all they are going to give is the same BS disguised as civilization and placate the Middle East into obedience. The article was on Yahoo!News on Friday. I simply can't remember what site exactly, AsiaOnline or something like that.