Bin Laden (in black) shortly before he "destroys America".
Posted on 12/29/2001 12:12:05 AM PST by kattracks
KABUL, Dec 28 (AFP) - Osama bin Laden has urged his followers to hit the US economy "with every available means" and an Afghan minister warned that the followers of the alleged terrorist mastermind still pose a global threat.
The world's most wanted man, in a videotape message aired by Qatar's Al-Jazeera television on Thursday, also hailed the 19 "students" who he said "shook the American empire" when they destroyed New York's World Trade Center and crashed into the Pentagon on September 11.
It was unclear when the video, showing a tired and gaunt bin Laden, was aired. Some analysts said it might date back to November.
There is also speculation that the Saudi dissident might have been killed in fierce US bombing of his al-Qaeda fighters at Tora Bora in early December.
The US economy is the basis of the country's military might, "and if their economy is finished they will become too busy to enslave oppressed people," bin Laden said in the video.
"I stress the importance of carrying on jihadi action (holy war or struggle) against America militarily and economically."
Bin Laden also gave details of the 19 men who launched the September 11 suicide attacks.
He said 15 of them including two brothers came from Saudi Arabia. Two more were from the United Arab Emirates, another from Egypt and the final one from the Levant, bordering the eastern Mediterranean.
Interior Minister Yunus Qanooni said Thursday that while the US-led war on terrorism had damaged al-Qaeda, and forced it to flee Afghanistan after the defeat of its Taliban protectors, its leadership remained in place.
"Al-Qaeda has only lost geography, not its leadership. Al-Qaeda is a very dangerous network. The incidents of September the 11th were not small incidents," he told AFP.
Bin Laden said the US air attacks which begam on October 7 in Afghanistan showed "that the West in general and America in particular have an unspeakable hatred for Islam."
But Afghanistan's Justice Minister Abdul Rahim Karimi said the new government rejected the "clash of civilisations" theory touted by bin Laden and wants to be part of the global community.
"We want to belong to the world, to develop friendly relations with everyone, with all the Muslim nations, with our neighbours, and we completely oppose terrorism," Karimi said.
Despite the new government's attempts to focus on reconstruction and security, the controversy over last week's deadly US bombing raid on a road convoy, which reportedly left 65 people dead, rumbled on.
US officials say they are convinced the vehicles contained Taliban leaders and al-Qaeda members who had fled the US bombing in nearby Tora Bora.
But an Afghan tribal official said were no al-Qaeda terrorists in the convoy, and that only a few former Taliban members were among the group of mostly tribal elders.
Residents of an eastern village said separately that some 40 civilians were killed and 20 injured early Thursday when US planes pounded the settlement.
This is a code for "we must elect more democrats"
Bin Laden (in black) shortly before he "destroys America".
Bin Laden in the middle of "destroying America".
And the end.
"Every available means".
Let's see what is available to them?
Camels, rocks, sand, videos, lice, opium -- oh, and some idiots stupid enough to blow themselves up . . .
1. Release of the 1st confession tape to the public on Dec. 13th, 2001 tainted any possible jury pool in the U.S.
2. The tape would not have been released if it were needed as admissible evidence for a court trial.
3. No court case is expected.
QED
OBL was DEAD Dec 13th, and remains so.
Any available means including exploding shoes. Where can I get my "Air Ladens"?
He said 15 of them including two brothers came from Saudi Arabia. Two more were from the United Arab Emirates, another from Egypt and the final one from the Levant, bordering the eastern Mediterranean."
Isn't it strange that except for Levant, we provide significant military hardware and/or military aid to the countries of origin of all of them?
The American taxpayer wishes that were true. Democrats will haplessly carry on what work OBL started.
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