[b]Bin Laden mocks US as "weak" in new video [/b]

By Dan De Luce

AFP - September 8, 2007

Elusive Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden mocked the United States as "weak" and vowed to escalate fighting in Iraq in a new video, his first such appearance in nearly three years.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070908/ts_afp/usattacksbinladen_070908094029

I find it very strange that CIA has not managed to find Al Qaeda leader.
I suspect they are not even looking for him. He is so far serving their purpose. He seems to be a good excuse to continue to invade Muslim countries.

Quote:

[b]Bin Laden says U.S. vulnerable in new video [/b]

By Lin Noueihed and Randall Mikkelsen
REUTERS - Fri Sep 7, 2007 8:16 PM ET

Osama bin Laden said in a new video marking the sixth anniversary of al Qaeda's September 11 attacks that the United States was vulnerable despite its military and economic power, but he made no specific threats.

In his first video appearance in almost three years, the al Qaeda leader said U.S. President George W. Bush was repeating the mistakes of the former Soviet Union by refusing to acknowledge losses in Iraq.

Bush said in Australia, "The tape is a reminder of the dangerous world in which we live and it is a reminder that we must work together to protect our people."

"I found it interesting that on the tape, Iraq was mentioned, which is a reminder that Iraq is a part of this war against extremists," Bush told reporters in Sydney after a meeting with close ally Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The video shows bin Laden sitting at a table dressed in white and cream robes and wearing white headgear. Beneath him, a banner on the screen reads in English: "A message from Sheikh Osama bin Laden to the American people."

Bin Laden appears tired and sallow, although his beard is much shorter and darker than in his last appearance, when it was streaked with gray.

A U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in Washington, "Initial technical analysis suggests that the voice on the videotape is indeed that of Osama bin Laden." The official said he had no analysis of the al Qaeda leader's physical appearance on the tape.

"Despite America being the greatest economic power and possessing the most powerful and modern military arsenal, and despite it spending on this war and its army more than the entire world spends on its armies, and being the major state influencing the world's policies ... 19 young men were able ... to change the direction of its compass," bin Laden said in the tape.

"The subject of the mujahideen has become an inseparable part of the speech of your leader and the effects and signs are not hidden. Since the 11th, many of America's policies have come under the influence of the mujahideen."

In a sign the almost 30-minute tape, acquired by Reuters Television from a web trawler in Europe, was made recently, bin Laden mentions new French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Bush said al Qaeda was seeking to establish a safe haven in Iraq to launch attacks against the United States and its allies.

"Therefore it's important that we show resolve and determination to protect ourselves and deny al Qaeda safe haven."

REPEATING MISTAKES

Bin Laden was last seen in a video statement issued on the eve of the November 2004 U.S. presidential election. Since then, he has issued several audio messages, the last in July 2006 when he vowed al Qaeda would fight the United States worldwide.

Some intelligence officials and security analysts suggest bin Laden has limited his appearances to maximize their impact, perhaps saving his next one to coincide with a dramatic attack.

Others say bin Laden, aged 50 and believed to suffer from a serious kidney ailment, may be too sick or too tightly pinned down in his hiding place to smuggle out a tape.

U.S. CIA Director Michael Hayden said he had not seen the tape, but he said earlier in a New York speech that al Qaeda had regained strength and its leadership continued to plot a "high-impact" attack on the United States.

Asked after the speech if he believed bin Laden was alive, Hayden said, "I have no reason to believe he's not."

U.S.-led forces have been searching for bin Laden since they toppled Afghanistan's Taliban government after it refused to hand over the mastermind of the September 11 attacks.

Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding in the border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan, a mountainous, inaccessible region that U.S. intelligence has described as a safe haven for al Qaeda and the Taliban.

According to a transcript issued by U.S. officials, bin Laden compares the U.S. situation in Iraq with the Soviet Union's operations in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

"The mistakes of Brezhnev are being repeated by Bush, who -- when asked about the date of his withdrawing of force from Iraq -- said in effect that the withdrawal will not be during his reign, but ... that of the one who succeeds him," bin Laden said.

[b]Excerpts from bin Laden video [/b]

Excerpts from an Osama bin Laden video released Friday:

Bush talks about his working with (Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri) al-Maliki and his government to spread freedom in Iraq, but he is fact working with the leaders of one sect against another sect .... And thus, what is called civil war came into being, and matters worsened at his hands before getting out of control and him becoming like the one who plows and sows the sea: he harvests nothing but failure.

___

Iraq shows the failure of your democratic system, despite its raising of the slogans of justice, liberty, equality and humanitarianism. It has not only failed to achieve these things it has actually destroyed these and other concepts with its weapons — especially in Iraq and Afghanistan — ... to replace them with fear, destruction, killing, hunger illness, displacement and more than a million orphans in Baghdad alone, not to mention hundreds of thousands of widows.

___

The vast majority of you want war stopped. Thus you elected the Democratic Party for this purpose, but the Democrats haven't made a move worth mentioning. On the contrary, they continue to agree to the spending of tens of billions to continue the killing and war there, which has led to the vast majority of you being afflicted by disappointment.

___

You permitted Bush to complete his first term, and stranger still, chose him for a second term, which gave him a clear mandate from you — with your full knowledge and consent — to continue to murder our people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then you claim to be innocent!

___

It would benefit you to listen to the poignant messages of your soldiers in Iraq, who are paying — with their blood, nerves and scattered limbs — the price for these sorts of irresponsible statements.

___

There are two solutions to this war. One is from our side and it is to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you. This is our duty, and our brothers are carrying it out, and I ask Allah to grant them resolve and victory. And the second solution is from your side.

___

I invite you to embrace Islam .... It will also achieve your desire to stop the war as a consequence, because as soon as the warmongering owners of the major corporations realize that you have lost confidence in your democratic system and have begun to look for an alternative, and this alternative is Islam, they will run after you to please you and achieve what you want to steer you away from Islam.

___

The leaders of the West — especially Bush, Blair, Sarkozy and Brown — still talk about freedom and human rights with a flagrant disregard for the intellects of human beings. So is there a form of terrorism stronger, clearer and more dangerous than this? This is why I tell you: as you liberated yourselves before from the slavery of monks, kings, and feudalism, you should liberate yourselves from the deception, shackles and attrition of the capitalist system.

[b]Bin Laden messages since Sept. 11 [/b]

Messages from Osama bin Laden since Sept. 11, 2001:

• Sept. 7, 2007: Osama bin Laden appears for the first time in three years in a 30-minute video, released to mark the 6th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. He tells Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end. Bin Laden is seen seated in a white robe and turban and beige cloak, and with a trimmed beard, which in previous videos was mostly gray, now entirely dark.

• July 1, 2006 — Bin Laden issues a 19-minute audiotape, posted on the Web, endorsing the new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, and denouncing Iraqi Shiite leaders as traitors.

• June 30, 2006 — Bin Laden issued an audiotape praising al-Muhajer's predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who had been killed in a U.S. airstrike. The message, also 19 minutes, was packaged with an old still photo of bin Laden as well as images of al-Zarqawi taken from a previous video.

• May 23, 2006: Bin Laden purportedly says in an Internet audio tape that Zacarias Moussaoui had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks.

• April 23, 2006: In an audiotape on Arab TV, bin Laden says the West is at war with Islam and calls on his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed U.N. force.

• Jan. 19, 2006: Bin Laden warns that his fighters are preparing new attacks in the United States but offers the American people a "long-term truce" without specifying the conditions, in an audiotape broadcast on Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite channel.

_Dec. 28, 2004: In an hourlong audiotape, he endorses al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and calls for a boycott of Iraqi elections.

• Dec. 16, 2004: An audiotape posted on an Islamic Web site shows a man identified as bin Laden praising militants who attacked a U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia earlier that month and calling on militants to stop the flow of oil to the West.

• Oct. 29, 2004: Al-Jazeera airs a video of bin Laden saying the United States can avoid another Sept. 11 attack if it stops threatening the security of Muslims.

• May 6, 2004: In an online audiotape released on Islamic forums, bin Laden offers rewards of gold for the killing of U.S. and U.N. officials in Iraq.

• April 15, 2004: A man identifying himself as bin Laden offers a "truce" to European countries that do not attack Muslims, in an audiotape broadcast on Arab TV stations.

• Jan. 4, 2004: A speaker thought to be bin Laden says on an audiotape broadcast on Al-Jazeera that the U.S.-led war in Iraq is the beginning of the "occupation" of Persian Gulf states for their oil. He calls on Muslims to keep fighting a holy war in the Middle East.

• Sept. 10, 2003: In the first video image of bin Laden in nearly two years, he is shown walking through rocky terrain with top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri. In an accompanying audiotape, a voice purporting to be bin Laden's praises the "great damage to the enemy" on Sept. 11 and mentions five hijackers by name.

• April 7, 2003: In an audiotape obtained by The Associated Press in Pakistan, bin Laden exhorts Muslims to rise up against Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other governments it claims are "agents of America," and calls for suicide attacks against U.S. and British interests. The CIA determines the 27-minute tape is likely authentic.

• Feb. 13, 2003: An audiotape purported to be of bin Laden reads a poetic last will and testament in a recording first obtained by the British-based Islamic Al-Ansaar news agency. Bin Laden says he wants to die a martyr in a new attack against the U.S.

• Feb. 11, 2003: Bin Laden tells his followers to help Saddam Hussein fight Americans in an audiotape broadcast on Al-Jazeera. U.S. officials say they believe the tape to be authentic.

• Nov. 12, 2002: Al-Jazeera broadcasts a brief audiotape in which a voice attributed to bin Laden threatens new terrorism against the U.S. and its allies, and calls the Bush administration "the biggest serial killers in this age." U.S. experts say the tape can't be authenticated because of its poor quality.

• Dec. 13, 2001: U.S. Defense Department releases videotape of bin Laden in Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2001, saying the destruction of the Sept. 11 attacks exceeded even his "optimistic" calculations.

Without help from Iran these terrorists cannot be defeated.

Only the Ayatollah can help US beat these devils.