OSAMA BIN LADEN AUDIO TAPE WARNS U.S
In an 11-minute audio tape released on an internet site, a voice purporting to be of Osama bin Laden says US President Barack Obama is "powerless" to stop the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The voice also says that the attacks of September 11, 2001, came about because of American "support to your Israeli allies who occupy our land of Palestine".
Source: The Agencies
The voice also says that the attacks of September 11, 2001, came about because of American "support to your Israeli allies who occupy our land of Palestine".
- There was no independent confirmation that the voice on the tape addressing the American people was that of Bin Laden.
- Reports on Monday from two separate monitoring groups spoke of Bin Laden blaming the wars on the "pro-Israel" lobby and corporate interests.
- "The time has come for you to liberate yourselves from fear and the ideological terrorism of neo-conservatives and the Israeli lobby," the voice says.
- "The reason for our dispute with you is your support for your ally Israel, occupying our land in Palestine."
- The release of the audio tape comes two days after the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, carried out by al-Qaeda operatives, in which nearly 3,000 people died.
- Bin Laden typically addresses the US in a message around September 11. The 11-minute video shows a still picture of bin Laden while the audio of the address plays.
- The voice says there has been little change in the White House under Obama and that Obama is "powerless" to stop the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
- It also appears to refer to criticisms that Jimmy Carter, a former US president, made in June of Israel's Gaza invasion earlier this year.
- The tape makes reference to Obama's speech in Cairo in June, suggesting the message was recorded afterwards.
- The website where the message was posted had earlier said it would carry a "present" to Muslims from Bin Laden on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan.
- Bin Laden's last apparent message was issued just before Obama's speech, where the US leader talked of a "new beginning" between the US and the Muslim world.
OSAMA BIN LADEN ACCUSES ARAB LEADERS
Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, has said in an audio tape obtained by Al Jazeera that some Arab leaders were "complicit" with Israel during its offensive in Gaza.Bin Laden said in the tape aired on Saturday that Arab leaders were "hypocrites", and that "liberating Jerusalem needed honest Arab leadership" to fight and liberate the Arab people.
"It has become clear that some Arab leaders were complicit with the crusade zionist alliance against our people. These are the leaders that America calls moderate," bin Laden said.
He said that "Gaza's holocaust" was a "historic event and a tragedy" adding that the Arab world needed a "devoted committee of scholars from the Islamic world to establish an advisory body" on the future of the region, "not leadership that is formed by hypocrites".
Al-Qaeda's leader also called for support for the mujahidin in Iraq
and said that his network of fighters would "go to Jordan from the sea to the river to liberate Palestine".The tape, whose authenticity could not be verified, was the second by the al-Qaeda leader in two months in which he has focused on the Gaza offensive.
In an audio tape posted on an internet site on January 14, he called on Muslims across the world to take revenge against Israel for the war on the coastal territory.
He said that the onslaught had been timed to take advantage of the dying days of the presidency of George Bush, the former US president.
The 22-day Israeli offensive on Gaza over the new year, killed more than 1,300 Palestinians.
Courtesy: Al Jazeera and Google
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