Posted on 10/29/2004 2:57:50 PM PDT by TexKat
CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden, addressing the American public ahead of presidential elections, said in a video aired Friday that the United States can avoid another Sept. 11 attack if it stops threatening the security of Muslims.
Reading a statement, the al-Qaida leader refrained from threats of new attacks and instead appealed to Americans.
"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. "Each state that does not mess with our security, has naturally guaranteed its own security."
Admitting for the first time that he ordered the Sept. 11 attacks, bin Laden said he did so because of injustices against the Lebanese and Palestinians by Israel and the United States.
It was the first footage in more than a year of the fugitive al-Qaida leader, thought to be hiding in the mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The video, broadcast on Al-Jazeera television, showed bin Laden 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.
He gestured and his hands were steady as he spoke.
The FBI and Justice Department had no immediate assessment of the tape. Officials said one part of their analysis will be to discern whether there may be hidden messages or clues about a possible future attack against the United States. But they said it was too early to know that yet.
There was no way to determine when the tape was made _ but it offered evidence that bin Laden was alive and actively following events. Sen. John Kerry emerged as the Democratic candidate in the spring.
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 avoid "another disaster."
"To the U.S. people, my talk is to you about the best way to avoid another disaster," he said. "I tell you: security is an important element of human life and free people do not give up their security."
He accused President Bush of misleading Americans by saying the attack was carried out because al-Qaida "hates freedom." Bin Laden 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," he 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.
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."
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.
Al-Zawahri, bin Laden's Egyptian deputy, has spoken on three recent audiotapes that emerged on June 11, Sept. 9 and Oct. 1 this year. In the latest, he called on young Muslims to strike the United States and its allies.
If American voters who hear this are brave, and are angry about being threatened, Bin Laden has just given the election to Bush. If they let fear rule their hearts, they will vote for Kerry. It's that simple.
It's time to show the WHOLE WORLD that we Americans are made of the same stuff as our Founding Fathers, the Greatest Generation, and the heroes of 9/11. In the words of Red Sox hero Curt Schilling, "Be sure to vote, and VOTE BUSH!!!!"
Sounds like he's been watcing Farenheit 9/11.
I've always hated Michael Moore but after reading the OBL transcript, I am beyond sick to my stomach. His entire speech of hate parrots Michael Moore and I can only imagine the shrine they have for him in their cave.
"UBL sounds like the leftist democrats. "
True. Initially, I had thought maybe, just maybe this tape was fake.
But, given that OBL must, certainly, have to have watched Moore's 911, it actually makes sense. OBL has never understood who is really listening in america, and this tape reveals an utter 'tin' ear to what americans listen for.
Which suggests that this tape is indeed, not fake.
Within 8 weeks, an attack is very possible I think given this tape ... and the news networks tonight have absolutely blown off the threat associated w/ this tape.
Fine. We'll see what happens OBL, and Kerry you total flake.
LOL That's a classic in the making!!
Not surprising. Osama bin Laden incriminated himself a long time ago.
What, we're supposed to join him and attack our President now? Kerry is a fing tool!!
God, how I wish we could be rid of her. It doesn't look good at this point for Nethercutt, but we are all hopeing for an upset.
Patty Murry is dumber than a stump - and thats an unkind slam at stumps.
Ted Kennedy has been calling for it for months already. Can't bring diddly if you don't have the numbers to make it happen.
I think they want Cheney in the White House, but are afraid to admit it publicly. :o)
People are over analyzing this. No matter who wins, UBL will spin it to take credit for it.
Those pictures... George W Bush looks like he's carrying the weight of the world, while Kerry looks like he's already half dead.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US diplomats in Qatar were given a copy of a videotape in which Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatens new attacks on the United States before it aired on Al-Jazeera television and unsuccessfully sought to prevent the Arabic-language network from broadcasting it, a senior State Department official said.
"We got a copy of the tape a few hours before it aired," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "We asked them not to air it because we don't think they should give a platform to terrorists like this who call for the killing of innocents."
The official said the request for the Doha-based Al-Jazeera not to broadcast the tape was made to the Qatari government, the head of which, Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, is the main backer of the channel. Other Qatari officials sit on the Al-Jazeera board.
The official declined to characterize Doha's response but suggested there may have been more to the tape than the 18-minutes aired by Al-Jazeera in which bin Laden threatened the United States with attacks similar to those of September 11, 2001.
"They seem to have aired only excerpts," said the official, a fluent Arabic speaker who watched the complete broadcast on Al-Jazeera. "That may be their way of trying to be accommodating."
Al-Jazeera has frequently been accused by Washington of inciting violence by screening "exclusive" videotapes from Muslim extremists, including bin Laden and insurgents in Iraq, and has been the target of harsh US criticism in the past.
Qatar has shrugged off US complaints in the past, citing a desire to promote a free and vibrant press but earlier this year Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani pledged to act on Washington's concerns about Al-Jazeera's coverage.
In Friday's video, bin Laden accused US President George W. Bush of "misleading" the American people and told the American people that their security is in the hands of neither Bush nor his challenger in the November 2 vote, John Kerry, but depends on US policy.
Bin Laden also accused Bush of negligence during the September 11 attacks saying he was slow to react to the first strike on New York's World Trade Center
The tape showed a man resembling bin Laden standing at a pulpit in a white turban and beige cloak against a light background. Its authenticity or date of recording could not immediately be verified.
The tape was the first appearance of the world's most wanted man on video since September 10, 2003, when an undated tape, also broadcast by Al-Jazeera, showed bin Laden walking with his number two Ayman al-Zawahiri in a mountainous zone.
Wait a minute. I'm pretty sure we invaded Afghanistan to make some money for halliburton. A big fat slob named mikey told me so. Impossible that we invaded them because that's where the orders for the 911 attacks came from. sarcasm off.
One may as well say that the US President GWB is carrying the weight of the world.
Thank you TexKat for this thread.
Ping.
Dick Morris told John Gibson: Michael Moore provided aid and comfort to the enemy. No dispute with that here.
He sounds like them because they both are committed to the same thing: unrestrained use of power to silence all opposition. demonRATs are simply the National Socialists of the 21st century, and OBL is their natural ally. The USA is threatened by both.
He is, though I think part of him realizes he does not carrying it alone. It is why I pray for him. It is the reason a lot of people all around the world pray for him.
Most pictures of him do not show it, as he has good ways to charge up his batteries. You can see how he feeds off of the energy of the crowds he's been meeting on the campaign. When he talks about the spirit of the American people, you know he doesn't see us as just votes, a means to power. You can see how Laura gives him what no other in the world can give him. When he speaks of his faith, it too reflects in him.
That picture reflects a rare moment of his face reflecting a small amount of all that he bears. The world is so lucky to have him at the helm at this time in history.
Hi there nw_arizona_granny. Its been one hell of a week.
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