BIN LADEN ENDORSES BUSH
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More reasons to oust the emperor chimp...
SEE: BIN LADEN FOR BUSH
CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin
Laden (news - web sites), injecting himself into the campaign four days
ahead of presidential elections, said in a videotape aired Friday that the
United States can avoid another Sept. 11 attack if it stops threatening
the security of Muslims.
AP Photo
Slideshow: Osama bin Laden & al-Qaida
In the segment broadcast, the al-Qaida leader refrained from directly
threatening new attacks, although he said "there are still reasons to
repeat what happened."
"Your security is not in the hands of Kerry, Bush or al-Qaida. Your
security is in your own hands," bin Laden said, referring to the president
and his Democratic opponent. "Any state that does not mess with our
security, has naturally guaranteed its own security."
Admitting for the first time that he ordered the Sept. 11 attacks, bin
Laden said he did so because of injustices against the Lebanese and
Palestinians by Israel and the United States.
In what appeared to be conciliatory language, bin Laden said he wanted to
explain why he ordered the suicide airline hijackings that hit the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites) so Americans would know
how to act to prevent another attack.
"To the American people, my talk is to you about the best way to avoid
another Manhattan," he said. "I tell you: Security is an important element
of human life and free people do not give up their security."
It was the first footage in more than a year of the fugitive al-Qaida
leader, thought to be hiding in the mountains along the
Pakistan-Afghanistan (news - web sites) border. The video, broadcast on
Al-Jazeera television, showed bin Laden with a long gray beard, wearing
traditional white robes, a turban and a golden cloak, standing behind a
table with papers and in front of a plain, brown curtain.
His hands were steady and he appeared healthy.
The Bush administration said Friday it believes the videotape was
authentic and had been made recently. White House press secretary Scott
McClellan said the administration did not plan to raise the nation's
threat level for now.
A U.S. official in Washington said the 18-minute tape lacks an explicit
threat and repeats well-worn themes.
Al-Jazeera broadcast about one minute of the tape. The station's
spokesman, Jihad Ali Ballout, said they aired what was "newsworthy and
relevant" and refused to describe the unaired portions, including whether
they included any threats.
There was no way to determine exactly when the tape was made — but it
offered evidence that bin Laden was alive and following events. Sen. John
Kerry (news - web sites) emerged as the Democratic candidate in the
spring.
In Florida, Kerry said all Americans are united against bin Laden, adding
he would "stop at absolutely nothing to hunt down, capture or kill the
terrorists wherever they are, whatever it takes, period."
Bin Laden accused President Bush (news - web sites) of misleading
Americans by saying the attack was carried out because al-Qaida "hates
freedom." Bin Laden said his followers have left alone countries that do
not threaten Muslims.
"We fought you because we are free ... and want to regain freedom for our
nation. As you undermine our security we undermine yours," he said.
He said he was first inspired to attack the United States by the 1982
Israeli invasion of Lebanon in which towers and buildings in Beirut were
destroyed in the siege of the capital.
"While I was looking at these destroyed towers in Lebanon, it sparked in
my mind that the tyrant should be punished with the same and that we
should destroy towers in America, so that it tastes what we taste and
would be deterred from killing our children and women," he said.
"God knows that it had not occurred to our mind to attack the towers, but
after our patience ran out and we saw the injustice and inflexibility of
the American-Israeli alliance toward our people in Palestine and Lebanon,
this came to my mind," he said.
Bin Laden suggested Bush was slow to react to the Sept. 11 attacks, giving
the hijackers more time than they expected. At the time of the attacks,
the president was listening to schoolchildren in Florida reading a book.
"It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American armed
forces would leave 50,000 of his citizens in the two towers to face these
horrors alone," he said, referring to the number of people who worked at
the World Trade Center.
"It appeared to him (Bush) that a little girl's talk about her goat and
its butting was more important than the planes and their butting of the
skyscrapers. That gave us three times the required time to carry out the
operations, thank God," he said.
In planning the attacks, bin Laden said he told Mohammed Atta, one of the
hijackers, that the strikes had to be carried out "within 20 minutes
before Bush and his administration noticed."
Bin Laden also said the Bush administration was like repressive Arab
regimes "in that half of them are ruled by the military and the other half
are ruled by the sons of kings and presidents."
The image of bin Laden reading a statement was dramatically different from
the few other videos of the al-Qaida leader that have emerged since the
Sept. 11 attacks.
In the last videotape, issued Sept. 10, 2003, bin Laden is seen walking
through rocky terrain with his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, both carrying
automatic rifles. In a taped message issued at the same time, bin Laden
praises the "great damage to the enemy" on Sept. 11 and mentions five
hijackers by name.
In December 2001, the Pentagon released a videotape in which bin Laden is
shown at a dinner with associates in Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2001, saying
the destruction of the Sept. 11 attacks exceeded even his "optimistic"
calculations.
But in none of his previous messages, audio or video, did bin Laden
directly state that he ordered the attacks.
U.S. authorities have long said they believe bin Laden is hiding in a
rugged, mountainous tribal region of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan,
but there has been no firm evidence of his whereabouts for three years.
The last audiotape purportedly from bin Laden came in April. The speaker
on the tape, which CIA (news - web sites) analysts said likely was the al-Qaida
leader, offered a truce to European nations if they pull troops out of
Muslim countries. The tape referred to the March 22 assassination by
Israel of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
Al-Zawahri, bin Laden's Egyptian deputy, has spoken on three recent
audiotapes that emerged on June 11, Sept. 9 and Oct. 1 this year. In the
latest, he called on young Muslims to strike the United States and its
allies.