Posted on 12/27/2001 5:12:25 AM PST by jordan8
DUBAI (Reuters) - Following is a transcript of the videotaped comments of Osama bin Laden as broadcast by Qatar's al-Jazeera television on Wednesday.
Bin Laden, shown dressed in a camouflage combat smock and with a submachinegun at his side, spoke in Arabic:
"Three months after the blessed attacks against the international infidels, against the main infidel America, and after almost two months have passed since the start of the vicious Crusade against Islam, we would like to talk about some of the facts that these events have revealed.
"These events have revealed a lot of very important issues to Muslims. It is very clear that the West in general, spearheaded by America, holds an indescribable amount of Crusader loathing for Islam, and that those who have lived all these months under the constant bombing by different types of U.S. planes know this for a fact.
"How many villages were annihilated without committing any crime? How many, if we calculate, millions of people were made homeless during the biting cold, and how many of these oppressed men, women and children are now sheltering in tents in Pakistan? They have not committed any crime. America launched this campaign based on a suspicion.
"Those who claim to uphold humanitarian values and freedom, we saw their true criminal nature. A shell weighing seven grams is sufficient and actually more than sufficient (to kill) a human being but America, because it loathes the Taliban and Muslims to such an extent, used on our brothers on the frontlines projectiles weighing as much as seven tonnes and those who can calculate know that this is equivalent to seven million grams when seven grams are sufficient for a human being.
"When the youths, may Allah accept them as martyrs, detonated (the bomb) in Nairobi less than two tonnes, America said this is a terrorist strike and this is a weapon of mass destruction. (But) when it uses two bombs each weighing seven million grams, there is no shame in that.
"And the (U.S.) Minister of Defence comes out after they bombed whole villages without just cause, just to terrorise people and to make them fear hosting or coming near Arabs... and he says that this is our right. It is their right to annihilate people as long as they are Muslims and not Americans. This is crime in its clearest form. All you hear about (them) making a mistake, that is a clear lie. A few days ago, they hit what they claimed were al Qaeda targets in Khost and they directed a missile at a mosque, although they said they made a mistake. Investigations proved that Muslim ulema (scholars) were praying Taraweeh (special Ramadan prayers) and that they had a meeting after the prayers with the hero... Sheikh Jalal al-Din Haqqani who was one of the most senior mujahideen against the Soviet occupation and who rejected the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan.
"They hit the mosque while the Muslims were in prayer, killing 150 of them but Sheikh Jalal survived, may Allah bless his life.
"This is the Crusader loathing, so let those who repeat words without thinking about its consequences and they say we denounce terrorism. Our terrorism against the United States is blessed, aimed at repelling the oppressor so that America stops its support for Israel."
I beg your pardon. The daisy cutter weighed 1070 stone...;-)
He's just admitted specific knowledge of the Nairobi bombing.
Gee Usama, last time I checked, YOU were the one who was perverting Islam and making it look bad.
We will not forget...
He has cast this as religious war, as indeed it is from his point of view. The US has nothing against Islam per se, rather against those committed to perpetrating acts of violence; Islam as a religion is a non-issue, Islam as a political entity is.
He regards his own acts as 'holy', and defines the US as 'demonic'. In this way no act of violence against the US can be regarded as excessive, nor can any act by the US be regarded as justified. In fact, acts of violence against the US are good because they are blood sacrifices 'pleasing' to his 'deity'. He has reverted to an atavistic primeval religion of human sacrifice, which seems to be a human norm regardless of the nomimal religion at issue.
You know, it really makes no difference at all to me whether he just started saying it recently, or if the first words out of Baby Osama's mouth at age one were "Death to Israel". Makes no difference in my personal assessment of him, makes no difference in the danger he and his fan club represent to Western civilization, makes no difference in what has to be done to them now. It just doesn't matter.
It doesn't take a psychologist to figure out that this would probably be the majority reaction, so the "agenda" behind the claim (false or true) that Bin Laden has only recently begun to bring Israel into the equation remains a mystery. Are you sure you want me to believe that this is more about Israel than about a megalomaniac tyrant's grab for power?
Hmm, maybe our government doesn't want us to believe that either. They may still be envisioning peace one day in that region, and the truth (if that is the truth) would blow that possibility into atoms.
After the Gulf War, I read a column about how our pols had ALWAYS calculated that Americans would not allow their government to continue supporting Israel at the cost of American lives. That was 10 years ago and that columnist was talking about American soldiers' lives. Now, we know it is American civilians lives at risk.
We've already seen Congresscritters who have prided themselves on being strong for civil liberties go along with granting broad new powers to the government without a peep (and I'm not arguing the policy; I, personally, would be tossing people out of the US left and right). The Congress is wary because they know the American people are scared, and rightfully so. 25 years ago, we did a 180 on Vietnam after investing 58,000 American lives. If US civilians come to see our policy about Israel putting their lives at risk so horribly - which I think is happening despite the bravado - Congress will heed that shift of opinion. The "bin Laden never cared about the Palestinians before" is kind of a delaying tactic for the inevitable, IMO.
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