Thanks to caseyb at It's Happening for the FBI provided translation ...
Al-Zawahiri Audio Recording Reacts to Bush State of Union; Vows Attacks on US
24 Feb 2004
FBIS
Doha: Al-Jazirah Satellite Channel Television in Arabic 1102 GMT 24 Feb 04 [Corrected version -- Announcer-read report; re-wording last sentence of graf eight ]
Ayman al-Zawahiri, second-in-command in the Al-Qa'ida Organization, has launched a scathing attack on US President George Bush, accusing him of engaging in deception and spreading what he described as subjugation and fear in the region and installing corrupt rulers.
In an audio tape, a copy of which Al-Jazirah has obtained, Al-Zawahiri ridiculed what he called US claims about promoting freedom and security in the world. Al-Zawahiri denied that the US troops eliminated two thirds of the Al-Qa'ida Organization. He also strongly attacked former Iraqi President Saddam Husayn without mentioning him by name, saying that Iraq moved from the tyrannical control of a secularist despotic anti-Islam ruler to an occupation that fights Islam. Al-Zawahiri also threatened the United States with fresh attacks at the hands of the death brigades, as he put it.
At the beginning of his audio recording, Al-Zawahiri noted the State of the Union Address Bush delivered last month. It is worth noting that the US President delivers the State of the Union Address on 20 January every year, which shows that the tape was recorded after this date.
[Begin Al-Zawahiri recording] O brother Muslims everywhere: May God's peace, mercy, and blessings be upon you.
After greetings, Bush has delivered his State of the Union Address before the Congress. He filled this address with lies and deception. One wonders how the leader of the most powerful state on the face of the earth does not feel shame due to all this charlatanism and falsehood, and how he found in the midst of his country's leaders and elite groups people who admire and applaud him. This is a phenomenon that requires a great deal of contemplation and pondering. Has this Bush reached the level of holding his listeners in such contempt?
In his address, Bush made four broad claims -- claims that are broader than the distance between east and west. The first claim is that his forces are spreading freedom and security in the world. The second claim is that Iraq has obtained its freedom thanks to his coalition forces. The third claim is that his government has arrested more than two thirds of the Al-Qa'ida personnel. The fourth claim is that the situation in Afghanistan is stable.
The first thing that we would like to recall is that his troops are not spreading freedom and security, but rather spreading subjugation and fear, installing corrupt rulers, protecting them, teaching them how to bite their peoples' flesh, and ensuring that the rule is bequeathed to their descendants so that the descendants of tyrants may inherit their fathers' dynasties. A quick look at the Muslim world from Morocco to Indonesia shows the kind of rulers backed by the United States -- the rulers whose efforts in its war against Islam, which it calls the war on terror, it is blessing.
The second thing we would like to remind Bush is that Iraq does not enjoy freedom and security. All that has happened is that Iraq moved from the tyrannical control of a secularist despotic anti-Islam ruler to a Crusader occupation that fights Islam, that kills, arrests, and tortures whomever it wants, and that steals whatever it wants from Iraq under the false pretext that the US troops in Iraq are looking for the elusive mirage of weapons of mass destruction. Why did you not mention in your speech one single word about the hundreds of your dead, killed in the crematory of mujahid Iraq?
The third thing which we would like to remind Bush is that he did not destroy two thirds of Al-Qa'ida. On the contrary, Al-Qa'ida -- thanks to God -- is still in the field of jihad, raising the banner of Islam confronting the Zionist-Crusade campaign against its Islamic nation.
Bush, fortify your positions and defenses and tighten your security measures, for the mujahid Muslim nation, which had sent you the brigade [Sarriyah] of New York and Washington, has made up its mind to send you brigades one after the other, carrying death and seeking paradise.
The fourth thing we would like to remind Bush is that the situation in Afghanistan is not settled. Or else, from where do we launch -- with God's help and strength -- the attacks on your forces and agents, the highway robbers and traitors? From where do we send you our messages, defying you and exposing your lies and fabrications? The strange thing is that in his speech, Bush did not utter one single word about the losses that are inflicted upon his economy by the impact of the New York and Washington attacks and by the consequences of his war against Islam, from which the US economy is bleeding endlessly. Bush is like the losing gambler, who gambles more when his losses increase, running after the mirage of impossible gain.
We would like to say a few words to the American people, whom Bush addressed: The fathers and mothers of the US soldiers should remember the crimes of America in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kashmir, Guantanamo, and in the prisons of the US friends each time they receive a coffin returning to the homeland. They should remember that those who plant thorns cannot harvest flowers. [end recording]