Free Republic

Excerpt - DUBAI (AFP) - Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is still alive but keeping a low is still alive but keeping a low profile, notorious Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said in a video released on Arab television. "According to my information I think that Osama is still alive," Hekmatyar said in the video broadcast by Al-Arabiya television late Sunday. He said Bin Laden, wanted by the United States over the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, would be better off "not multiplying his appearances in the media or in publishing statements and videos." Hekmatyar earlier this...

Al-Qaida No. 2 berates moderate Arabs By OMAR SINAN, Associated Press Writer 15 minutes ago The deputy leader of al-Qaida accused moderate Arab leaders of being traitors for cooperating with the United States in a message posted on the Internet Saturday to mark the most important Islamic holiday. Ayman al-Zawahri's wished the Palestinian people a happy Eid al-Adha, but lashed out at moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement. "Those who had sold Palestine, the secular traitors, cannot be your brothers. Do not recognize their legitimacy. ... And don't sit with them," al-Zawahri said in a 15-minute audiotape...

AL-QAEDA in Iraq has said in response to remarks by Pope Benedict XVI linking Islam with violence that it will wage jihad until the West is defeated, in a statement posted on the Internet today. "We say to the servant of the cross (the Pope): wait for defeat ... We say to infidels and tyrants: wait for what will afflict you. "We continue our jihad. We will not stop until the banner of unicity flies throughout the world," said the statement attributed to the Mujahideen consultative council. "We will smash the cross ... (you will have no choice but) Islam...