A new tape from terrorist-mastermind-in-hiding, Osama bin Laden, surfaced yesterday.
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden urged his followers to prepare for a drawn-out conflict with the Western world in a new audiotape broadcast Sunday, blaming what he called “a Crusader-Zionist war” for a long list of attacks on Islam in places from Darfur to Denmark.
“Your aircraft and tanks are destroying houses over the heads of our kinfolk and children in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Pakistan. Meanwhile, you smile in our faces, saying: ‘We are not hostile to Islam; we are hostile to terrorists,’ ” bin Laden said, according to excerpts of the audiotape attributed to him and broadcast by the al-Jazeera network.
It was the first time bin Laden had been heard from since Jan. 19, when he offered “a long-term truce” if the United States and its allies withdrew their forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and allowed Islamic fundamentalists to rebuild those countries instead.
Before that, the 49-year-old Saudi had been publicly silent for more than a year. His face has not been seen since he appeared in a video recording broadcast a few days before the 2004 U.S. presidential election.
The Counterterrorism Blog‘s Walid Phares does a solid job of narrowing Osama’s ramblings down to ten key bullet points. Of course the overblown Islamist talking point of the Danish Mohammed cartoons is on the list, as are the following:
1. Hamas: Despite the fact that we (including Ayman Zawahiri) warned (Muslim Palestinians) not to take part in elections in general, the victory of Hamas shows that there is a “Crusader Zionist War against Islam.” Cutting foreign aid to the Palestinians because of Hamas victory proves that war.
[…]
3. Sudan: The Bashir Government is failing in stopping the Crusader War in Sudan. The Crusaders (Britain) has pushed the southerners (Blacks) to separate. The US has armed them and is supporting them. And now, because of tribal tensions in Darfour, the Crusaders are planning on intervening there. We are calling on the Jihadists to fight them in Darfour and Southern Sudan.
Today, Sudan and Hamas rejected Osama’s accusations.
The Sudanese Government and Hamas have rejected Osama bin Laden’s criticism of the West for waging war against Islam.
In a tape broadcast on al-Jazeera TV, which US intelligence believes is authentic, bin Laden criticised the Sudanese Government for agreeing to a US-backed peace deal for the troubled south of the country.
He also inveighed against the Palestinians’ Hamas-led Government for breaking what he said was a taboo against “joining infidel assemblies” and entering Parliament.
Despite moves taken by Sudan and Hamas that might be seen as in step with Washington’s stated goal of peace and democracy for the region, bin Laden said the US was planning to send troops to southern Sudan “to steal its oil”.
The West’s rejection of Hamas showed it was waging “a Crusader-Zionist war” against Muslims.
[…]
A Hamas spokesman said: “We are interested in good relations with the West.” In Sudan, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sudan was not concerned with mujahideen or any crusade.
Polimom, Too‘s Daryl Hooper looks at these and other negative reactions from the world of Islam after making the following observation:
Perhaps Polimom’s missing something (won’t be the first time), but from where I’m sitting this morning, the biggest reaction to Osama bin Laden’s latest tape is from the West. Polimom wonders whether Osama has spent just a tad too long in his cave – because he’s looking somewhat out of step.
Besides the obligatory Crusader references and unsurprising cartoon squawking, Osama had to mention Israel. I mean, he just had to — it’s in the radical Islamist handbook. This time, though, Chad Evans over at In the Bullpen fears there may be more than just hot air and checking off an Osama-tape requirement behind this Israel reference.
This latest audio tape is in a long line of Al Qaida communications that speak about Israel, but the group has always treated the Israeli situation like a red headed step-child only pulling it out when it needs support. As I have stated in regards to previous communications pertaining to the increased rhetoric over Israel, I think Al Qaida is making inroads into attack Israel and I think their first real hit will be a large one. We already know Al Qaida is in Gaza, and AQ in Iraq did launch a rocket into Northern Israel. Because the Hamas-run government won’t do anything about it, AQ will likely hit Israel. The group needs the support such an attack would garner.
Here’s hoping Chad is wrong about this, though unfortunately it does pass the sniff test. And that dovetails in nicely with my initial reaction to the tape — Osama has seen the focus in the war against radical Islamist expansionism shift away from him as events of late have elevated the stories of Hamas’ attempt to take the political reins of the Palestinian Authority and Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Iraq recently appears to have been a break-even, as the terrorists, Saddamites and insurgent Sunnis plod along (hat tip to the western media who have facilitated this appearance) against the fledgling Iraqi government, its Coalition military allies, a determined American president and an majority of the Iraqi people growing sick of the bloodshed.
As I have often stated, our war is against far more than Osama bin Laden; rather, it is against the twisted aspects of his civilization that allowed his likes to fester. Osama, however, needs the concentration to be on him, meaning the both attentions of the West and the world of Islam, for the war to be the brand of jihad he desires. Of late, his organization has been unable to pull off anything of substance, and even the lesser accomplishments have only been small but bloody strikes by affiliates such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi that, while effective in many western news reports, may be actually backfiring locally. No, bin Laden built his biography on fighting the great fights, be they as part of the efforts against the Soviets in Afghanistan or dramatic strikes against the United States. A large stab at Israel might suffice to rekindle Osama’s importance in the Islamist world and return the war to the jihad of his choice … until Iran counters.