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| Terror Networks |
| Osama tape blasts peace efforts? |
| 2004-01-04 |
| The Al-Jazeera satellite channel broadcast an audiotape Sunday purportedly from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, in which he urged Muslims to continue fighting a holy war in Iraq and the Middle East rather than co-operate with peace efforts. The speaker, who referred to recent events - including the December capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein - called on Muslims to "continue the jihad to check the conspiracies that are hatched against the Islamic nation." He said the U.S.-led war against Iraq was the beginning of the "occupation" of Persian Gulf states for their oil. C’mon...lacks originality. "My message is to incite you against the conspiracies, especially those uncovered by the occupation of the crusaders in Baghdad under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction, and also the situation in (Jerusalem) under the deceptions of the road map and the Geneva initiative," the speaker said... Ibrahim Hilal, Al-Jazeera’s editor-in-chief, told The Associated Press the network received the message Sunday. However, he declined to reveal how it was delivered. "’tis our little secret" The original message was 47 minutes long, but the network aired only 14, Hilal said. It was that boring huh? In those excerpts, the speaker urged Muslims to "liberate the Islamic world from the military occupation of the Crusaders." The speaker criticized leaders of Muslim nations for refusing to pressure the United States on the Palestinian issue and for not supporting the Palestinian resistance. He also criticized Persian Gulf countries for receiving members of the Iraqi Governing Council. "The deterioration of the situation of Arabs and Muslims is in ignoring Islam as a basic program for rule," the speaker said, while calling for establishing a council to replace the Arab rulers and unify Arab positions. He also called Middle East issues part of a religious and economic war, saying the "big powers" were trying to control the region for its oil. Again. C’mon guy, think of something new. "The occupation of Iraq is the beginning of the full occupation of the other Gulf states. . . . The Gulf is the key for control of the world in the point of view of the big powers because of the presence of the biggest deposits of oil Pathetic. What was it that Marshall McLuhan said, "the medium is the message" or something like that... |
| Posted by:RW2004 |
| #4 Perhaps there's one, long, 1440-minute master copy thet Al-jeez keeps on hand. Once in a while they release a segment to boost sagging ratings. |
| Posted by: RW2004 2004-1-4 9:16:13 PM |
| #3 One of the Iraqi bloggers has an interesting take - no "tirade" against the US - it's against muslims because they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing. |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-1-4 9:14:56 PM |
| #2 Perhaps the remaining 33 minutes addressed plans which never came to fruition, hence Al-Jazeera never aired them (don't want the sponsors looking bad). In this case they'd make interesting listening for our intelligence services (and I'd be very surprised if we didn't have some backdoor into Al-Jazeera by which a legit copy could be obtained). |
| Posted by: Lux 2004-1-4 9:03:51 PM |
| #1 The original message was 47 minutes long, but the network aired only 14, Hilal said. The missing 33 minutes probably consist of other people trying to imitate bin Laden's voice, and the occasional request to pass the Cheetos. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-1-4 8:36:00 PM |