Transcript of bin Ladin's speech
Saturday 30 October 2004, 16:53 Makka Time, 13:53 GMT
Bin Ladin directed his message at the American people
Following is the English transcript of Usama bin Ladin's speech in a videotape aired by Aljazeera on Friday 29 October. In the interests of authenticity the transcript, which appeared as subtitles at the foot of the screen, has been left unedited.
To begin: Peace be upon he who follow the Guidance.
People of United States, this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent another Manhattan and deals with the war and its causes and results.
Before I begin, I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar in human life and that free men do not forfeit their security contrary to Bush's claims that we hate freedom.
If so, then let him explain why did not strike - for example - Sweden.
And we know that freedom haters do not possess defiant spirits like those of the 19 may Allah have mercy on them.
No, we fight because we are free men who do not sleep under oppression.
We want to restore freedom to our Nation and just as you lay waste to our Nation so shall we lay waste to yours.
But I am amazed at you. Even though we are in the fourth year after the events of September 11, Bush is still engaged in distortion, deception and hiding from you the real cause and thus the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred.
So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and I shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken for you to consider.
I say to you Allah knows that it had never occurred to us to strike towers.
But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the America/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind.
The events that affected my soul in a difficult way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American 6th fleet helped them in that.
And the whole world saw and heard but did not respond.
In those difficult moments many hard to describe ideas bubbled in my soul but in the end they produced intense feelings of rejection of tyranny and gave birth to a strong resolve to punish the oppressors.
And as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressors in kind and that we destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children.
We have not found it difficult to deal with the Bush administration in light of the resemblance it bears to the regimes in our countries, half of which are ruled by the military and the other half of which are ruled by the sons of kings and presidents.
Our experience with them is lengthy and both types are replete with those who are characterised by pride, arrogance, greed and misappropriation of wealth.
This resemblance began after the visits of Bush Senior to the region at a time when some of our compatriots were dazzled by America and hoping that these visits would have an effect on our countries. All of a sudden he was affected by these monarchies and military regimes and became jealous of their remaining decades in their position to embezzle the public wealth of the Nation without supervision or accounting.
So he took dictatorship and suppression of freedoms to his son and they named it the Patriot Act under the pretences of fighting terrorism.
In addition, Bush sanctioned the installing of sons as state governors and did not forget to import expertise in election fraud from the regions presidents to Florida to be made use of in moments of difficulty.
All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke and bait this administration.
And for the record, we had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Ataa, Allah have mercy on him, that all the operations should be carried out within 20 minutes before Bush and his administration notice.
It never occurred to us that the Commander in Chief of the armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone at a time when they most needed him.
But because it seemed to him that occupying himself by talking to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers we were given three times the period required to execute the operations. All praise is due to Allah.
Aljazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/79C6AF22-98FB-4A1C-B21F-2BC36E87F61F.htm
UBL is using the Skerry talking points!
(Re: allusion to Bush reading to the kids while the towers were burning.)
UBL is using the Skerry talking points!
(Re: allusion to Bush reading to the kids while the towers were burning.)
I think this is only the transcript of the 5 minutes which was aired, not the full 18 minutes.
On TV people were referring to other things that are not in any of the released transcripts, such as specific threats to Bush and family and much more against Bush, than the released portion would lead people to believe.
That doesn't even make sense.
Thanks for posting that transcript. But I still find it hard to believe it is the entire transcript--if it is true as reported, that the tape runs for 18 minutes.
Unless UBL is a very slow talker, I bet they are still editing things out.
There is more to it than that... I've heard a few times now about the threats to Bush & Cheney - and that it was at the end of the tape, and part of what ABC withheld from the CIA initially...
I just wish they would release a transcript, but if they can't for national security - code word embedded in a sentence referring to Laura for example and not knowing what it was - I get it.
As opposed to the hundreds of thousands of people that the Arab League that holds your leash have put into mass graves after having them them tortured, gassed, and shot.
Ironic coming from an animal who got his jollies from oppressing everyone and murdering women and children...especially women and especially female children.
Ping to another translation of OBL video
Oops - that includes you, UBL.
I hope they capture Osama alive.
Then, they behead him and broadcast it all over the world.......
Utter BS. You are striking Sweden but in a different way. You are taking advantage of their weakness and small size and simply infiltrating their cities. Living among them and building your mosques from where you preach your hatred.
Sweden will cease to exist by the end of this generation.
This is not the full 18 minutes' worth though.
Whoahh! I'm late in reading the transcript, but yesterday when I heard "Manhattan" quoted, it seemed extremely odd. Who uses the term "Manhattan" in reference to 911? I know it's technically correct, but the normal name for the attacks is 911, spoken as "nine eleven". Did Osama choose his words as intentionally as he did the timing of his appearance? What does he really mean when he says "Manhattan"?
A "Manhattan Project"?
We want to restore freedom to our Nation and just as you lay waste to our Nation so shall we lay waste to yours.
And why mention Sweden? Code for travel plans? That is, if you Google Manhattan Project + Sweden, you'll see that Niels Bohr had an interesting itinerary:
"In 1943 rejected an offer to work on the German atomic bomb and escaped to Sweden and then London eventually ending up in the United States to work on the Manhattan project. He was considered by many of his fellow scientists to be the sage of the Manhattan project.
http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us/cur/mp/whos_who.html
Sweden - London - US - Manhattan Project
Hmmm. Maybe I'm just over-imaginative, but considering the above, the first line of Osama's rant takes on an ominous tone.
To begin: Peace be upon he who follow the Guidance.
It looks like he was giving directions.
Sorry if this is a repeat of what others may have posted.
Bookmarking to read later.
Is this the transcript of OBL's speech, or one from John Kerry on the campaign trail? The messages are so similar, it's hard to distinguish between them.