U.S. confirms bin Laden audiotape

UPI ^ | February 11, 2003

[Indy Pendance]

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- White House and State Department officials Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of an audiotape with Osama bin Laden's voice aired on the al Jazeera network in which the al Qaida leader urges the Iraqi people to engage in martyrdom operations against American "crusaders."

On the tape, bin Laden says: "Those who attack your brothers cannot be your friend. Fight with them, even if it means sacrificing your life for defending your brothers. Iraq is not an aggressor, America is." He went on to say, "We hope that our brothers in Iraq will learn from our martyrs to fight them as we did before. ... It is not us but our martyrs that they fear. We need martyrs to defeat the enemies and instill fear in their hearts as they did against the Americans and the Israelis before."

In the 16-minute tape, bin Laden predicts a great battle between Iraq and the United States and urges the Iraqis to remain strong and hold their military positions. He also says a U.S. war against Iraq is meant to expand a greater Israel. "It is the infidel who is attacking you. And in this war we are with you. Fight in the name of God and you will win," bin Laden says in a section directed at the Iraqi people.

On the tape, bin Laden also threatens numerous Arab and Islamic nations that have recently cooperated with the United States including Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen -- whom he refers to as "American agents among the Muslims." "Beware your time has come. Decide whether you are with the Muslims or with their enemies," bin Laden says.

U.S. officials said Tuesday that they believed the voice to be bin Laden's. Responding in an interview on al Jazeera following the network's airing of the tape, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said bin Laden "threatens everybody in the Arab world except (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein. He says he wants to fight with Saddam Hussein." Boucher later said this "confirmed that Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have common cause."

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said earlier Tuesday at a Senate hearing that the new tape is believed to bear the voice of bin Laden and that the transcript of the tape shows the al Qaida leader is "in partnership with Iraq." "I read the transcript of what bin Laden, or who we believe to be bin Laden, will be saying on al Jazeera during the course of the day, and you will be seeing this as the day unfolds, where once again he speaks to the people of Iraq and talks about their struggle and how he is in partnership with Iraq," Powell told the Senate Budget Committee.

Boucher said the new tape helped bolster the case that Iraqi has cooperated to some degree with al Qaida. Last week, Powell laid out before the United Nations the U.S. intelligence showing high-level meetings between al Qaida officials and Iraqi intelligence dating to the early 1990s in Sudan. Powell also said Iraq opened its borders to al Qaida operatives fleeing Afghanistan last year and displayed aerial photographs of a poisons- and explosives-training camp near the Iran-Iraq border operated by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a senior operative in bin Laden's organization. Powell said last week that al-Zarqawi had sought and received medical treatment in Baghdad last spring.

Neither Boucher nor the White House offered information on exactly how the United States obtained knowledge of the tape. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, "These tapes float around from time to time, and there's conversation about them, information is provided or shared about them, and indeed al Jazeera plays them."

The tape is the first broadcast to the world from bin Laden since an audiotape of what U.S. officials believe to be his voice was released in November in which he claims credit for the bombing of a hotel resort in Bali and an attack on a movie theater in Moscow.

[VRWC_minion]

Remind me: why don't we know where bin Laden is?

The battery in his tracking device went dead. Gov't was too cheap to buy an energizer battery. Cutbacks.

[IoCaster]

"I see you make your checks out to the same people I do."

Yes, indeed. I'm in a particularly foul mood tonight as a result.

[okie01]

There are three possible provenances for this tape:

1. It's genuine. Osama bin Laden has come out of hiding and recorded a tape to stir the troops in the fight against The Great Satan and, in particular, in support of Iraq.

I doubt it, but it could be...

2. It's a product of Iraqi intelligence. Trying to stir up the Arab world against The Great Satan, frighten the appeasers and, hopefully, get al-Qaeda and its minions moving in support of Iraq.

Could be...but the previous bin Laden audio tape pointedly specified there were no connections between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Officially, the US government said its experts believed the tape "authentic", but didn't make an issue of it. A Swiss firm specializing in such matters dubbed the tape a fake, without qualifications. Likely source of this tape, given the subject matter: Iraqi intelligence. This new tape, though, is telling another story about cooperation between al-Qaeda and Iraq -- one which isn't favorable to Iraq's case.

3. It's a product of the CIA. Osama climbs out of the electronic grave and volunteers to prove our point -- al-Qaeda and Saddam are buddy-buddy partners in terrorism. At the same time, the fact that we knew about the tape before it arrived at its intended destination strongly suggests that US intelligence has penetrated the inner circle of al-Qaeda and stands next to Osama himself. Might that give Achmed pause before he puts on his bomb vest to visit the local airport?

Personally, I would rate each one-in-three. But would lean toward the latter -- meaning a propaganda coup for the Bush administration.

[mrb1960]

Bin Laden has answered all our questions about whether or not Iraq is involved with terrorism once and for all. By him telling his operatives to stand together with Saddam and Iraq, he has forever linked Al Queida and Hussein.

THANK YOU OSAMA!!!!! You blumming idiot!

[Angelus Errare]

I agree with your analysis, but not your conclusion, for the following reasons:

- For all we know, the US simply has spies working at al-Jazeera or has the network's phones tapped in an effort to figure out how these damned tapes keep getting sent out.

- A second possibility would be that since al-Jazeera's broadcasts are examined by the Qatari government (to ensure they say nothing bad about Qatar), the Qataris, who are graciously hosting Centcom, passed the word along to the State Department.

- If the tape was a product of Iraqi intelligence, then assuming Iraq and al-Qaeda have simply a tenuous relationship at best, the al-Qaeda leadership might easily get pissed at Iraq for trying to take over the reins of the global jihad. Ignoring the fact that it makes a key US claim (Iraq's in cahoots w/ Osama) a LOT easier to prove.

- You are incorrect regarding the Swiss firm. They claimed that they were 50-60% certain that it was a fake, but they admitted that they were only working from a limited pool of data based on Osama's public statements. The NSA has thousands of minutes of bin Laden talking from them tapping his satellite phone from 1996 to 1998. More minutes means a greater pool of data to analyze from, which is why I tend to agree with the NSA on this one.

[chemicalman]

I think he's hiding inside the devils bricks.

[okie01]

Thanks for your response. I can see why you differ. New info always welcome...

If al-Jazeera has to vet everything thru the Qatari government, I'm betting the heads up came from there.

[Angelus Errare]

"If al-Jazeera has to vet everything thru the Qatari government, I'm betting the heads up came from there."

That's my opinion as well.

Al-Jazeera has a great deal of editorial integrity, but the network's broadcasts and programming format are all put through a strict review process to ensure that nothing bad is said about Qatari policies or House al-Thani. This is why al-Jazeera, despite its regular sleigh of anti-American guests, has never had any guest or news anchor suggest that Centcom be removed or that the Emir is a "heretic" for supporting the US on Iraq.

[MetalHeadConservative35]

um what is that??

[chemicalman]

Something I think called the Devil's pillar.... Muslems throw stones at it.

Here's the caption:
"The pilgrims in white seamless attire marched to Jamarat Bridge where each pilgrim threw seven pebbles at a pillar erected where Muslims believe the devil appeared to Abraham."

BTW...I think they meant to say Mohammad, but not for sure.

[Monitor]

Yeah, like maybe before the 1991 Gulf War.

Clever! The CIA digs up an old audio tape of Osama bin Laden, pre-1991 Gulf War, that links bin Laden and Iraq, and feeds it to al Jazeera. Being a genuine recording of bin Laden, it would pass all tests for authenticity.

It would explain how Powell knew al Jazeera had the tape even before al Jazeera knew they had the tape.

Man, I hate when I talk myself right into tinfoil territory. Should the shiny side face in, or out?

[DB]

He's dead.

If he were alive, there would be video. Audio is easy to fake where as video is not.

[justa-hairyape]

Yeah, like maybe before the 1991 Gulf War.

Usama Bin Laden gave a detailed account of his Mujahadeen fighters defending themselves from the American Air war onslaught at Tora Bora. If that was truely his voice, this is truely authentic and made after the US Afghan war.

The rubber is meeting the road and the truth is finally coming out.

[Once-Ler]

If we had OBL it would have been announced. I seriously doubt that the US is forging tapes either. I even doubt the possiblity the tapes are fake and we know it. If it ever came out that any of these conspiracy theories was true Bush could kiss his 80% honesty poll numbers good bye.

The risks are not worth the possible payoff. Most people with brains can make the connection between Saddam and the war on terror. The truth is damning enough without having to make up stuff. It may seem like Dubya is loosing support but I have confidence that Dubya, and the best administration in my lifetime, have everything thought out. They have a timeline and the events that transpire around us are mearly the moves to get us to checkmate.

[B-bone]

I agree with your assessment.

My theory is loony but, hey, it was a slow afternoon. I thought I'd stir up the troops. You never know where it might lead.