His friends in the intel community are saying that the garb UBL was wearing on the video is particular to the local dress in Mashad in NE Iran (near Afghan border). It was a signal that they are working hand in glove.
"to provoke and bait this administration. All that we have to do is to send two Mujahideen to the furthest point East to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaida, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer"
The UBL tape was two years in coming because it contained a specific nuclear threat.
"permitted the wronged one to retaliate against the oppressor in kind. To proceed:"
Translation: this is my justification for using mass casualties as reciprocity
"another Manhattan (project)"
Translation: this is how you can avoid eating the fruits of our labors
"as you lay waste to our nation. So shall we lay waste to yours."
Translation: reciprocity for the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians killed
"the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred"
Translation: my justifications for 9/11 remain and you have just added to them
"many were killed and injured and others were terrorized and displaced. I couldn't forget those moving scenes, blood and severed limbs, women and children sprawled everywhere. Houses destroyed along with their occupants and high rises demolished over their residents"
Translation: this is the scene from the Arab world I am about to recreate in reciprocity just as I recreated the destroyed towers of Beirut on 9/11 in NYC
"death of millions as Bush Sr. did in Iraq in the greatest mass slaughter of children mankind has ever known"
Translation: I will also recreate in America what I perceive to have happened in Iraq
"the throwing of millions of pounds of bombs and explosives at millions of children"
Translation: kilotons
"the operations should be carried out within twenty minutes, before Bush and his administration notice."
Translation: the next operation will leave you no time to react
"It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces would abandon 50 000 of his citizens"
Translation: this is our target number of deaths - - maimed and wounded not included
'"over 15 000 of our people have been killed and tens of thousands injured, while more than a thousand of you have been killed and more than 10 000 injured."
Translation: I am keeping a separate count of military versus civilians casualties on both sides in Iraq. This reciprocity is a civilian matter.
"the same goes for your allies in Palestine. They terrorize the women and children, and kill and capture the men as they lie sleeping with their families on the mattresses, that you may recall that for every action, there is a reaction."
Translation: Israel and America are the only two nations threatened directly in this unique tape I have made - - think about it.
Hi everyone. Did a new osama video ever come out?
another Zarqawi tape
Joe I think you are farily close on all of the above points.
A little history on Mashal sounds like the prefect place for OBL...
The Shi'ite believe that he was murdered, and his tomb came to be known as Mashad, or the place of martyrdom.
http://www.kishtravelservice.com/mashad.htm
Today pilgrims pass through chambers of glittering mirror work and tiles to reach the tomb of Imam Reza. The chambers are always filled with hundreds of people praying and reciting the Koran.
Yes, it was Mashad. Thanks for taking better notes than I did. ;-)
Thanks too, for laying out the translation in a logical manner.
"The UBL tape was two years in coming because it contained a specific nuclear threat."
Any clue what the specifice nuclear threat was/is?