Bin Laden Says He Ordered 9/11 Attacks

[thedrifter]

Bin Laden Says He Ordered 9/11 Attacks

By MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), addressing the American public four days ahead of presidential elections, said in a video aired Friday that the United States can avoid another Sept. 11 attack if it stops threatening the security of Muslims.


Reading a statement, the al-Qaida leader refrained from threats of new attacks and instead appealed to Americans.


"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. "Each 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.


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.


He gestured and his hands were steady as he spoke.


The FBI (news - web sites) and Justice Department (news - web sites) had no immediate assessment of the tape. Officials said one part of their analysis will be to discern whether there may be hidden messages or clues about a possible future attack against the United States. But they said it was too early to know that yet.


Al-Jazeera said it broadcast one minute of the five-minute tape. There was no way to determine when the tape was made — but it offered evidence that bin Laden was alive and actively following events. Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) emerged as the Democratic candidate in the spring.


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 avoid "another disaster."


"To the U.S. people, my talk is to you about the best way to avoid another disaster," he said. "I tell you: security is an important element of human life and free people do not give up their security."


He 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."

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.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20041029/ap_on_re_mi_ea/bin_laden_tape


Ellie

[yellowwing]

"...does not mess with our security..."

WTF? Mess? Eat it up! It's gotta be true I read it in the newspaper.

[HardJedi]

Man, see? NOW! NOW he has admitted what he did, instead of just being a suspect.

I hope that the American government will NEVER rest untill this murderer is caught and executed.

[yellowwing]

"I don't know where he is. I have no idea and I don't really care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." - George Bush. March 13, 2002

You set yourself up for that one, HardJedi! :)

That's almost as good as "I actually voted for the 87 billion for the Military, right before I voted against it" said by my candidate.

[Osotogary]

I suspect that even an imbecile could have figured out that Bin Laden had something to do with 9/11. My problem is with getting the bastardo! I can't believe that with our resources and even with our flawed intelligence we haven't been able to bag the guy. Maybe I am taking a very uneducated and simplistic approach to this topic but this failure to find , secure and capture or elliminate Osama Bin Laden by any means (dirty or diplomatically) is totally unacceptable. Something is terribly amiss and my patience has gotten very thin. (Like who really gives a flying squirrel about how I feel in these matters? Politicians? I don't really know.) I am not into political correctness in these matters, I am into positive results by any means.
My opinion.

[Sparrowhawk]

by Bin Laden for John Kerry.

[yellowwing]

Like I said, Eat it up! It's gotta be true I read it in the newspaper. Karl Rove would be proud of you.

[ivalis]

Kerry doesn't need bin laden's endorsement.

any rational analysis of the present administration is an endorsement for Kerry.

[Sparrowhawk]

Originally posted by yellowwing
Like I said, Eat it up! It's gotta be true I read it in the newspaper. Karl Rove would be proud of you.



http://vvakerry.bizland.com/666.jpg

It's gotta be true both Kerry and Bin Laden have said it! LMAO

I just want to know, how the Kerry people got Bin Laden to endorse Kerry?

I had heard that Kerry sent Teresa to negotiate with Bin laden, she promised him to donate money to his non-profit organization if he would support Kerry...

What is surprising is that Bin Laden thinks like Kerry and uses in his tape statements the same statement that Kerry was already using that the president was attending an Elementary school while Bin Laden was attacking the twin towers, and faulting that as a weakness in the president.

Evil and weak minds, think alike.

Hey, if Bin Laden supports Kerry, maybe we should vote for Kerry...

[yellowwing]

No really, think about how much time and money you have spent reading and purchasing anti-Kerry material?

How many right leaning people have spent how much money on anti-Kerry material?

With just 1 week to go, officially both parties have spent just over 1 billion dollars in election campaign spending.

That does not take into account all the books, articles, 527s groups, and related movies created by third parties.

The left leaners spent $100 million plus on Michael Moore's 95% hype and speculation.

I'm thinking about getting out of the Internet business, and positioning myself into the 2008 election business!

Think about it. We could make 7 figures easily of we start positioning ourselves now. Are you with me?

[thedrifter]

Bin Laden: U.S. Can Avoid Another Attack


By MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), publicly 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.


In the portion of the tape that was broadcast, the al-Qaida leader refrained from directly warning of 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."


After the video was aired, President Bush (news - web sites) said that "Americans will not be intimidated" by bin Laden. Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) criticized Bush for failing to capture bin Laden earlier and said that "I can run a more effective war on terror."


The political impact of the tape could cut both ways. It bolsters Bush's argument that the world is a dangerous place and plays to his strength as commander in chief in fighting the war on terror, but it also underscores that his administration has failed to capture or kill America's No. 1 enemy more than three years after the terror attacks on New York and Washington.


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 it believes the videotape is authentic and was made recently, noting that bin Laden referred to 1,000 U.S. military deaths in Iraq (news - web sites) — which happened in early September.


White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the administration did not plan to raise the nation's threat level for now. The U.S. official said the 18-minute tape — which carries English subtitles, though not in the portion shown on Al-Jazeera — lacks an explicit threat and repeats well-worn themes.


Al-Jazeera, which is based in Qatar, broadcast about seven minutes of the tape. The station's spokesman, Jihad Ali Ballout, said Al-Jazeera aired what was "newsworthy and relevant" and refused to describe the unaired portions, including whether they included any threats. Ballout said the station received the tape Friday but would not say how.


Before the tape was aired, the State Department asked the government of Qatar to discourage Al-Jazeera from broadcasting it, a senior State Department official said.


In the video, Bin Laden accused Bush of misleading Americans by saying the attack was carried out because al-Qaida "hates freedom." The terrorist leader 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," bin Laden 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.

Excluding the hijackers, the Sept. 11 attacks killed 2,749 people at the World Trade Center, 184 at the Pentagon and 40 in Pennsylvania.

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 compared the Bush administration to 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."

He said the resemblance became clear when Bush's father was president and visited Arab countries.

"He wound up being impressed by the royal and military regimes and envied them for staying decades in their positions and embezzling the nation's money with no supervision," bin Laden said.

"He passed on tyranny and oppression to his son, and they called it the Patriot Act, under the pretext of fighting terror. Bush the father did well in placing his sons as governors and did not forget to pass on the expertise in fraud from the leaders of the (Mideast) region to Florida to use it in critical moments."

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.

___

Associated Press writer Katherine Pfleger Shrader in Washington contributed to this report.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041030/ap_on_re_mi_ea/bin_laden_tape&cid=540&ncid=716

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Bush, Kerry Spar Over Bin Laden Video

By MARY DALRYMPLE and TERENCE HUNT, Associated Press Writers

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - John Kerry (news - web sites) criticized President Bush (news - web sites) on Friday for failing to capture Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) as a new videotape of the terrorist leader surfaced just before the election. Bush accused the Democrat of "shameful" second-guessing in the face of threats by America's deadly foe.


The broadcast of the bin Laden tape jolted the campaign's closing days, accentuating the terrorism theme with a reminder of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and Kerry revived his contention that Bush missed an opportunity to capture or kill bin Laden during the Afghan war.


"I believe I can run a more effective war on terror than George Bush (news - web sites)," Kerry asserted.


Bush told an Ohio rally: "My opponent continues to say things he knows are not true." He said, "It's especially shameful in light of the new tape from America's enemy."


Bush and Kerry both made hurried TV appearances after the tape emerged.


"Let me make this very clear," Bush said in Toledo, Ohio, standing next to Air Force One. "Americans will not be intimidated or influenced by an enemy of our country. I'm sure Senator Kerry agrees with this."


Kerry, too, said, "My reaction is that all of us ... are completely united." But he criticized Bush for not capturing bin Laden earlier, and he added pointedly, "I believe I can run a more effective war on terror than George Bush."


Kerry has asserted throughout the campaign that U.S. forces could have run down bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains in late 2001 if they had gone after him on the ground, and he has blamed Bush for the decision to let Afghan forces lead that chase.


"He didn't choose to use American forces to hunt down Osama bin Laden," Kerry said in an interview with WISN in Milwaukee. "He outsourced the job."


Bush responded, at a rally in Columbus, Ohio: "It's the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking," and he quoted his Afghan war commander, the now-retired Gen. Tommy Franks, as saying intelligence reports at the time were unclear about bin Laden's whereabouts.


Kerry's account "does not square with reality," Bush said.


It was unclear what if any impact bin Laden hoped to have on the U.S. election. While Bush vowed four years ago to get bin Laden "dead or alive," he now rarely mentions the terrorist leader, speaking mostly about deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, blamed for beheadings and other violence in Iraq (news - web sites).


On the videotape, aired by the Arab television station Al-Jazeera, bin Laden addresses Americans: "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands."


Bush said intelligence officials continued to analyze the tape. The administration said it believed the tape was authentic and had been made recently.


The president said, "We are at war with these terrorists and I am confident that we will prevail."


"As Americans, we are absolutely united in our determination to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden and the terrorists," Kerry said in Florida, standing next to his campaign plane. "They are barbarians, and I will stop at absolutely nothing to hunt down, capture or kill the terrorists wherever they are, whatever it takes, period.


But he went on, in the radio interview, to question Bush's judgment in the Tora Bora chase and to say he would do a better job keeping the United States safe.





"Democrat, Republican, there's no such thing," Kerry said. "There's just America and we are all united in hunting down and capturing or killing those who conducted that raid and we always knew that that was Osama bin Laden."

"My policy is there's no such thing as negotiation with terrorists," the Democratic candidate said. "And terrorists, terrorism are going to be hunted down and killed, we are united on that."

"I am absolutely confident I have the ability to make America safer," he said.

Americans are divided on whether bin Laden is likely to be captured — ever. Four in 10 say no. People are also split on whether it is essential to capture him to successfully conclude the war on terrorism.

Bin Laden's remarks quickly overshadowed the scripted campaign events of the day for both the president and his Democratic rival, injecting new uncertainty into a race already difficult to predict.

With Bush and his wife Laura behind him on the stage in Ohio, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) told the spirited rally that the president was is "defending this country with all his heart and soul."

"America is back," he said. "America's back from the attack on our homeland, we are back from the attack on our economy, and we are back from the attack on our own way of life."

Increasingly, both sides have turned their attention to mobilizing for Election Day, hoping that intense voter registration drives would swell Tuesday's turnout to record levels. In Ohio, Republicans lost a court appeal to block tens of thousands of voter registrations.

Candidates for 34 Senate seats and all 435 House seats campaigned through the final few days of their races, as well. Republicans are favored to retain their majority in the House. Aides to Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle in South Dakota said they had identified all of the estimated 10,000 undecided voters in his state by name, underscoring the closeness of his campaign for re-election.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041030/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_bin_laden&cid=694&ncid=716

Ellie

[MillRatUSMC]

How did we go for a mass murderer to politics?
Our failure to get him has brought more into the ranks of terrorism.
As long as he alive, many look to him, as one that can lead them.
I puzzled by his words "our nation" pray God what nation is he referring to.
Have all the nations of the Middle East become one nation?
Or is he referring to the idealogy that many are following...
I hate seeing anyone threating us, this action might back-fire on him.
He has also place many arabs here in danger.
Many might take action against arabs here because of his threat...

Semper Fidelis/Semper Fi
Ricardo

[greensideout]

Bin Laden is probably holed up in Paris and films these clips in front of a blue screen, Afgan background added.

By the read on this you might think that bin Laden and Kerry talk each day about the election.

Isn't Paris the place where Kerry talked to his North Vietnam buds while we were fighting them too?

[yellowwing]

And now Arafat is in Paris. Bin Laden, Kerry, and Arafat in Paris, Throw in Fonda and you have a party of four at the Moulin Rouge.
Its Christmas for the GOP spin doctors!

'Fer Chr*stsakes just make sure you vote. And be sure to patronize Yellowwing Election Consultants for 2008. :)

[Sparrowhawk]

Originally posted by MillRatUSMC
How did we go for a mass murderer to politics?
Our failure to get him has brought more into the ranks of terrorism.
As long as he alive, many look to him, as one that can lead them.
....

He has also place many arabs here in danger.
Many might take action against arabs here because of his threat...

Semper Fidelis/Semper Fi
Ricardo

Bin Laden made it political when he chose to blame Bush by using the same words Kerry has been using about where the president was when the attacks occurred.

That statement reveals how, worthless an Arab leader like Bin Laden sees spending time with children and education, compared to the strength of arms and of war.

Did not Kerry and Edwards ridicule the president for not responding right away after being informed that the towers had been struck?

Bin Laden used Kerry's finger-pointing to blame Bush for not reacting quickly enough to prevent the second plane from striking the second tower. But, there was nothing the president could have done by that time, it was only then that we realized we were under attack. Yet, Yet, Kerry has repeatedly blamed the president for not reacting right away.

Michael Moore did the same thing in his film, and Bin Laden may have used that information from that film to develop the statements he released. They are identical.


Terror and murderous acts like 9-11 are political, and that is one of the things we forget that the Muslim religion is political more so then religious as we see it.

Arabs place themselves in danger when "they" do not expose the terrorist supporters among their midst in our own country, where this hatred for America is still often preached from their pulpits and we are blamed continiously for the troubles in the Middle East. This happens in their temples almost in every meeting, and the Arabs sit there while their children listen to those words and yes the enemy is among us. Bin Laden does not place them at risk, they do themselves by remaining silent about what they know.

Very few cooperate with US government authorities. You would be surprised at the sophisticated network between the Muslim communities that exists in America. Within hours they can launch a network that can contact thousands of others by phone, cell phones, emails, the internet, chat rooms and use other means to raise funds, and stage protests and write letters of support for something that is happening in the Middle East or America.

Need a weapon? Dial 911 Muslim arms, Inc. but you first must be a practicing muslim.... of their "political" terror network.

We need to wake up!

Semper Fi

Cook

[thedrifter]

Experts: Bin Laden Courts Backers in Tape

By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s new videotape clearly targets American voters days before an extraordinarily tight presidential election, but also courts another constituency: young Arabs who are frustrated and disenchanted but not committed to radical Islam.


Al-Qaida's leader already has extremists on his side, who made it clear in their remarks posted Saturday on Islamic Web sites that they were elated to see him looking healthy and in control of the cause.


But analysts say he is trying to broaden his base and that his words were chosen for more secular young Muslims as well as Americans.


In the tape, parts of which were aired Friday by the Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera, bin Laden dropped the usual religious rhetoric and historical references in favor of plain language.


And he pointed to Israeli aggression as his inspiration for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. U.S. policy in the Israeli-Palestinian issue drives frustration among many Arabs, from moderates to radicals.


He struck a tone that was almost conciliatory — though tinged with threat, telling the American people only four days before the election between President Bush (news - web sites) and Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) that he wanted to explain why he ordered the Sept. 11 attacks so Americans can act to prevent a similar strike. Stop harming Muslims, he said, and an attack will be averted.


"Your security is not in the hands of Kerry, Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands," bin Laden said. "Americans' security is bound to the policy they adopt regardless of the winner."


Bin Laden said his decision to sanction the Sept. 11 bombings was motivated by the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which he said sparked "a strong feeling against injustice and a strong determination to punish the unjust."


Bin Laden's language, tone and explanation are out of character with his past, more vehement remarks. Analysts warn he's not a changed man, just changing with circumstances.


Lebanese writer and political analyst Saad Mehyo pointed to bin Laden's "new look" and said the tape reflected a "high degree of sophistication, which clearly meant he was following the U.S. presidential elections campaign with special attention."


"All those accusations that al-Qaida is a petrified and closed terrorist group that belongs to the 11th century are not true," he said.


Bin Laden and his followers "are showing a degree of maturity and development in order to bring their cause into the mainstream of (Arab-Islamic) causes," Mehyo said. "This is a very serious matter that should prompt us to stop and think."


Biographers of the al-Qaida leader have noted he first showed anger at the Americans during the last phase of the Afghan war against Soviet troops, a war in which "holy warriors" like bin Laden and the United States were on the same side fighting communism. Bin Laden's first signs of anger followed a 1989 massacre of dozens of his supporters by the communist-led Afghani government, which he blamed on the Americans.


But in the tape, bin Laden cites a cause more dear to all Arabs, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.


"He no longer needs to talk and address devout Muslims, they already support him," said Abdel Rahim Ali, an expert on radical Islamic groups and author of Alliance of Terror, Al Qaida Organization.


"What he wants is to enlarge the circle in order to mobilize more young Muslims among those who are not committed (to radical Islam). These young men feel deep frustration because of the daily Israeli practices and bin Laden is using their anger and frustration," Ali said.


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. Unlike in his previous tapes, a turbaned bin Laden, with a long, gray beard, was shown standing behind a lectern in white robe and golden cloak. His hands were steady, gesturing as he addressed the camera.





Despite reaching out to more moderate Muslims, bin Laden isn't ignoring his core support among fundamentalists.

On Islamic Web sites, where his followers post views and monitor al-Qaida's exploits, bin Laden's tape prompted excitement.

"God is Great, oh God bless our Sheik Osama and destroy the nation of infidels," wrote a person identifying himself as Abdel Fattah Ismail.

Abdul Khaleq Abdulla, a political analyst in the United Arab Emirates and professor at Emirates University in al-Ain, said the changed style is no indication bin Laden has changed his fundamental views and that it won't bother his supporters to see their hero tone down his rhetoric.

"It was a surprise he was in good health; it was a surprise he was in control of his thoughts," Abdulla said. "This will energize much of his followers."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041030/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_bin_laden_1

Ellie

[docsavage]

Bush Wins Bush Wins

and all you lifers get what you want

Four More Wars Four More Wars Four More Wars

get your kids ready to fight for this moron - cause mine won't

[Sparrowhawk]

Would not hesitate to Lock-N-Load, look for a Marine to be at their side, get on line with them and would move out to fight for what is right and for our way of life.

They like me, feel that like when Clinton was elected, if Kerry wins, this country will go into mourning.