Osama bin Laden issued new threats in an audiotape broadcast on Arab
television Sunday and accused the United States and Europe of supporting a
"Zionist" war on Islam by cutting off funds to the Hamas-led Palestinian
government.
This is an undated
file photo of Osama bin Laden. The terror suspect purportedly said in an
audio tape broadcast by Al-Jazeera television that the West's decision to
cut off funds to the Palestinians proved that the United States and Europe
were at war with Islam. [AP] |
He also urged
followers to go to Sudan, his former base, to fight a proposed UN peacekeeping
force.
His words, the first new message by the al-Qaida leader in three months,
seemed designed to justify potential attacks on civilians — something al-Qaida
has been criticized for even by its Arab supporters.
He also appeared to be trying to drum up support among Arabs by accusing the
West of targeting Hamas, a militant group that fights against Israel and now
heads the Palestinian government.
Citing the West's decision to cut off aid to the Hamas-led government because
it refuses to renounce violence or recognize Israel, bin Laden said Washington
and Europe were waging war on Islam.
"The blockade which the West is imposing on the government of Hamas proves
that there is a Zionist, crusaders' war on Islam," bin Laden said.
President Bush was told about the tape Sunday morning. The intelligence
community has informed the White House that it believes the tape is authentic,
said Bush's spokesman, Scott McClellan.
"The al-Qaida leadership is on the run and under a lot of pressure,"
McClellan said at a Marine base in Twentynine Palms, Calif., where Bush was
having lunch with military families.
"We are on the advance. They are on the run."
Al-Qaida is not believed to have direct links to Hamas, which is an outgrowth
of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri was quick to distance
the group from bin Laden, declaring that "the ideology of Hamas is totally
different from the ideology of Sheik bin Laden."
The groups do, however, share an anti-Israel ideology that calls for the
destruction of the Jewish state. And recent reports in Middle East media have
said al-Qaida is trying to build cells in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon
and Sudan. Israel has indicted two West Bank militants for al-Qaida membership.
Israeli government spokesman Raanan Gissin said it appeared bin Laden decided
to issue the verbal assault to deflect growing Arab animosity toward al-Qaida.
That criticism peaked in December when the leader of the al-Qaida in Iraq
group, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the bombings of Jordan
hotels that killed many Arabs.
"This is something the Arab world can agree upon," Gissin said.
Bin Laden "has been criticized for the destruction and carnage he's causing
the Muslim nation. He's looking for another justification," Gissin said.
"Criticizing Israel sounds more politically correct."
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad — a former ambassador to
Afghanistan — said the tape was another attempt by bin Laden to gain attention
for his cause.
"He wants to be relevant to the situation, wants to get attention that he
still is a player," Khalilzad said on CNN's "Late Edition."
The voice on the tape sounded strong and resembled that on other recordings
attributed to bin Laden, but its authenticity could not be verified
independently.
Al-Jazeera television appeared to have had the tape long enough to make
significant edits, with its news reader providing background comments. The
network broadcast about five minutes of the tape in all.
Bin Laden's remarks touched on the full range of issues that anger militant
Arabs and other Muslims. Many of them see a renewal of a Christian- and
Jewish-inspired Western "crusade" to dominate the Islamic world and to
confiscate Muslim lands and resources — particularly oil.
Bob Ayers, a security expert with the Chatham House think tank in London,
said the tape may be bin Laden's way of playing cat-and-mouse with those hunting
him.
"It's when people have kind of forgotten about him, when he's not been on the
news, that the tapes emerge," Ayers said. "It's kind of his way of thumbing his
nose at the U.S. and saying, 'Hey, I'm still out here, and you haven't caught me
and you can't.' That's what he's saying."
Concerning Sudan, bin Laden called on "mujahedeen and their supporters,
especially in Sudan and the Arab peninsula, to prepare for long war again the
crusader plunderers in Western Sudan. Our goal is not defending the Khartoum
government but to defend Islam, its land and its people."
"I urge holy warriors to be acquainted with the land and the tribes in
Darfur," he said, adding they should be aware that the rainy season approaches
and that will hamper their movement.
Al-Qaida has targeted Western forces in Africa before — including its attacks
against U.S. troops trying to bring peace to Somalia in 1993.
The fighting in Darfur began when rebels from black African tribes took up
arms in February 2003, complaining of discrimination and oppression by Sudan's
Arab-dominated government.
The government has been accused of unleashing Arab tribal militia known as
the Janjaweed against civilians in a campaign of murder, rape and arson — a
charge it denies. At least 180,000 people have died — many from hunger and
disease — and 2 million people have been displaced in the vast, arid region of
western Sudan and as refugees in neighboring Chad.
The United Nations has described the conflict as the world's gravest
humanitarian crisis. The United States has described it as genocide.
Negotiators are trying to broker a peace deal between warring factions by an
April 30 deadline. Members of the African Union have agreed in principle to hand
over peacekeeping duties to the United Nations this fall.
The Saudi-born bin Laden set up headquarters in Sudan after he was forced to
leave his homeland, but Khartoum expelled him under threats from the United
States. He moved to Afghanistan, where he trained fighters and organized the
Sept. 11 attacks.
He is believed hiding in the rugged mountains on the Pakistani side of that
country's long border with Afghanistan.
In Washington, U.S. intelligence officials said bin Laden was living
separately from top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri and, in a sign he has to be careful
about whom he trusts, surrounded by fellow Arabs.
The al-Qaida chieftain, who last issued a message broadcast by Al-Jazeera on
Jan. 19, also made a point of trying to justify attacks on civilians. He said
citizens of Western countries were equally responsible with their governments
for what he termed the "war on Islam."
"I say that this war is the joint responsibility of the people and the
governments. While the war continues, the people renew their allegiance to their
rulers and politicians and continue to send their sons to our countries to fight
us," bin Laden said.
In his last message, bin Laden offered the United States a long-term truce
but warned that al-Qaida soon would launch a fresh attack on American soil. But
no new attacks on the United States have occurred.
In the Sunday broadcast, bin Laden called for a global Muslim boycott of
American goods similar to the recent ban on Danish products after the
publication of caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad that outraged the Muslim
world.
The Al-Jazeera news reader said bin Laden, in a portion of the tape not aired
by the Qatar-based broadcaster, also scoffed at Saudi King Abdullah for his
calls for a "dialogue among civilizations" and blasted liberal Arab writers for
participating in the Western cultural invasion of Muslim
lands.