Skip to comments.
'Prof' Osama delivers US foreign policy critique
The Times of India ^
| 08SEP07
| Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN, The Times of India
Posted on 09/08/2007 4:57:15 PM PDT by familyop
WASHINGTON: In a videotaped message replete with references that indicate he is up to speed with contemporary events and debates, Osama bin Laden has delivered a political broadside against the United States while calling on Americans to abandon capitalism and embrace Islam.
The 30-minute videotape, which arrived in public domain earlier than anticipated, contains a leftist-sounding political and foreign policy critique of the American system while being free of any terrorist threat except for a broad eye-for-an-eye warning. Instead, an almost placatory "Professor" bin Laden beseeches Americans to ditch their political system controlled by big corporations that profits from war. They are the real terrorists, he says.
The six page transcript extracted from the videotape could well have been written by a leftist academic, except for the panacea of Islam that bin Laden offers. Indeed, bin Laden cites Noam Chomsky, the eminent American leftist and trenchant critic of U.S policies, including the war in Iraq.
"Among the most capable of those from your side who speak to you on this topic (the war in Iraq) and on the manufacturing of public opinion is Noam Chomsky, who spoke sober words of advice prior to the war," bin Laden says, adding, "but the leader of Texas doesn't like those who give advice."
There are many startling references in the latest bin Laden message to contemporary events, including to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nikolai Sarkozi, that suggest that the world's most wanted fugitive has access to news media, and taped the message very recently.
In one passage, he refers to Japan's commemoration on August 6 of the 62nd anniversary of nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In another, he refers to CIA analyst Michael Schauer's book Imperial Hubris (saying it can help Americans understand why they are losing the war). In yet another passage, he talks of the America's current economic woes.
Bin Laden addresses his message almost entirely to the American people, chiding them for embracing what he suggests is a dead end political system that has only brought them misery. Remarkably, he refers to "the reeling of many of you under the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes and real estate mortgages; global warming and its woes..."
Suggesting Americans have only themselves to blame for the current situation, he says "you made one of your greatest mistakes, in that you neither brought to account nor punished those who waged this war, not even the most violent of its murderers, [former Defence Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld..."
"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! The innocence of yours is like my innocence of the blood of your sons on the 11th -- were I to claim such a thing."
Bin Laden also takes a swipe at the "compliant" American media and the Democrats. He tells Americans that though they voted for Democrats to stop the war, the Democrats "haven't made a move worth mentioning" because the entire American system is controlled by war-mongering corporations. In one reference that may have well come from an American radical moonlighting for him, he says, "And you are the one who have this saying which goes 'Money Talks'."
US officials have authenticated the voice and image to be that of bin Laden and are scrambling to get a better idea of his coordinates. Many things in the tape suggest the world's most wanted fugitive is living comfortably in a setting with access to books, journals, and other media.
TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bin; binladen; chomsky; iran; laden; leftists; osama; videotape
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-38 last
To: supremedoctrine
...We are going to find out the bin Laden has been dead a long time, and someone like Adam Gadahn is behind this , cobbling a voice over of “binLaden” onto an old never-used or distributed tape... IMO we have seen this tape before: See Video stills from 2004:
Comparison:
Same background, same desk and he's still wearing the same clothes? How many left handed people gesture with their right hand? After a few minutes the video freezes and the voice drones on and on...
I'm almost convinced I can see the shadow of the 2004 beard on the shirt of the supposed 2007 image. Methinks the original beard has been erased and a new one photo-shopped on...?
does anyone actually see the lips moving and forming the Arabic words?
only in the section of the video that 'works' - where he's talking about allah blah blah blah...
someone like Adam Gadahn is behind this...
I agree.
21
posted on
09/08/2007 6:12:10 PM PDT
by
Fred Nerks
(Fair dinkum!)
To: supremedoctrine
"What does Iran and Iranian businesses have to do with this thread or binLaden, and why do you keep harping on it throughout this thread?"
Oh, you do have a temper and some insults when it comes to arguing with Americans from your keyboard. It's saddening that about half of our fellow Americans don't have the will to direct such temper against the enemy (as shown by the frequent denials that the enemy is alive, that Iran is a threat to us, and so on).
The answers to your questions (even to the insult in the form of a begged question) are obvious. And you've been posting your opinion in several threads about Bin Laden being dead.
Duncan Hunter for President.
22
posted on
09/08/2007 6:36:00 PM PDT
by
familyop
(cbt. engr. (cbt.)--has-been, will write Duncan Hunter in)
To: RS_Rider
Why act as this tape is creditable? Think about it for a minute... Osama speaks, and endorses the Moonbats' agenda. Osama ticks off their talking points, one-by-one. The man who masterminded the September 11, 2007 terrorist attack has put his lot in with the cut and run crowd.
Now, how many middle-of-the-road people will stick with the squishy idea that leaving Iraq will make the Islamofascists' not want to crash some more of our planes into more buildings. How many Lutheran grandmas from Nebraska (who go to church on Sudays and pray that "our boys and girls come home safe and soon," and that "little Iraqi children will have the same idyllic childhoods" that their own grandkids have in Nebraska) will be energized to vote for Obama or Edwards, knowing that the man who orchestrated the September 11th attacks has endorsed the 'Rat platform?
They should have a press conference and explain that the raghead on the tape is an impostor and explain that binny boy has been dead for quite some time.
Osama "alive" may be worth more to us in the war on Islamofascists. Afterall, now he's working for the Defeatocrat party.
Just a thought.
To: supremedoctrine
FOX NEWS"...American officials said the U.S. government had obtained a copy even though the video had not been posted yet by Al Qaeda — and intelligence agencies were studying the video to determine whether it was authentic and to look for clues about bin Laden's health.
In the video, a short excerpt of which was broadcast to the Arab world by Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden attacked capitalism, multinational corporations and globalization.
"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," he said.
Several current and former government officials said they believed an American — 28-year-old Adam Gadahn — may have written at least part of the speech.
Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and supporting terrorism for serving as an Al Qaeda propagandist, has appeared in several past Al Qaeda-produced videos, lecturing against capitalism and globalization and making insider references to American culture.
"It has Adam Gadahn written all over it," one former senior intelligence official said of bin Laden's tape, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue..."
24
posted on
09/08/2007 6:43:48 PM PDT
by
Fred Nerks
(Fair dinkum!)
To: familyop
Get up to speed on our enemies. Al Qaeda is Sunni; Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is gleefully blowing up Shi’ite shrines and murdering Shi’ites with way more efficiency than they kill our troops.
The Iranian Shi’ites and their proxies in Iraq (Al Sadr’s crew) are another set of enemies, but if we left Iraq, they and Al Qaeda would be going at it tooth and nail, but initially our main allies (among Iraqi Arabs, as opposed to Kurds) in the wake of the overthrow of the Ba’athists were also Shi’ites. Only now that they conclude that the Al Qaeda Salafist variant of Sunni Islam is oppressive lunacy are we picking up Sunni allies in Iraq.
25
posted on
09/08/2007 6:58:09 PM PDT
by
The_Reader_David
(And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
To: supremedoctrine
26
posted on
09/08/2007 6:58:19 PM PDT
by
Fred Nerks
(Fair dinkum!)
To: The_Reader_David
...yet another denial. The Shiites are training Al Qaeda guerrillas in Iran and sending them to Iraq and Afghanistan along with Shiite guerrillas.
Next!
27
posted on
09/08/2007 7:09:27 PM PDT
by
familyop
(cbt. engr. (cbt.)--has-been, will write Duncan Hunter in)
To: familyop
You assert this. Any credible evidence? The Quds officers we’ve been picking up in Iraq have all been liasons between the Iranians and Shi’ite militias.
There is about 1300 years of bad blood between Sunni and Shia, and Al Qaeda has regularly issued statements making it clear they do not regard Shi’ites as Muslims.
28
posted on
09/08/2007 7:18:24 PM PDT
by
The_Reader_David
(And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
To: Fred Nerks
Did Bin Laden ever cite Chomsky before?
To: scrabblehack
Did Bin Laden ever cite Chomsky before? that's a hoot!
How about: 'Lend me your ears...'?
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred ...
Osama's been reading Shakespeare?
30
posted on
09/08/2007 8:06:06 PM PDT
by
Fred Nerks
(Fair dinkum!)
To: The_Reader_David
31
posted on
09/08/2007 8:08:44 PM PDT
by
familyop
(cbt. engr. (cbt.)--has-been, will write Duncan Hunter in)
To: The_Reader_David
32
posted on
09/08/2007 8:30:19 PM PDT
by
familyop
(cbt. engr. (cbt.)--has-been, will write Duncan Hunter in)
To: The_Reader_David
33
posted on
09/08/2007 8:47:39 PM PDT
by
familyop
(cbt. engr. (cbt.)--has-been, will write Duncan Hunter in)
To: familyop
I was impressed. He seems much better informed than the current leadership in the House and Senate.
34
posted on
09/08/2007 9:47:40 PM PDT
by
TigersEye
(This is the age of the death of reason.)
To: Fred Nerks
Thanks for the link-—I’ll watch the tape only when I’m in the mood to listen to my blood boil again.
To: familyop
No one denies that Iran is possibly the GREATEST THREAT to us, but once again, why introduce Iran and Iran “facts” in such an indirect offhanded way into another subject?
And where exactly did I show a “temper”???You seem to have a pretty thin skin....how many debates have you actually been in on FR?
I heard he's sleeping on this guy's couch:
37
posted on
09/08/2007 11:05:20 PM PDT
by
Califreak
(Go Hunter!)
To: Fred Nerks
Flying out of the country with a fond farewell.
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-38 last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson