Post by Steve Gardner on Dec 31, 2007 0:10:40 GMT
...to back Al Qaeda
And yet Benazir Bhutto claimed bin Laden was dead as recently as 2nd November. Pity we can't ask her to sustantiate this claim.
Source: International Herald Tribune
And yet Benazir Bhutto claimed bin Laden was dead as recently as 2nd November. Pity we can't ask her to sustantiate this claim.
Source: International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
Published: December 30, 2007
CAIRO: Osama bin Laden has warned the Sunni Arabs in Iraq against fighting Al Qaeda and vowed to expand the terror group's holy war to Israel in a new audiotape, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction."
Most of the 56-minute tape, which was released Saturday, dealt with Iraq, apparently Al Qaeda's latest attempt to keep supporters in Iraq unified at a time when the U.S. military says it has Al Qaeda's branch there on the run.
The tape did not mention Pakistan or the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on Thursday, though Pakistan's government has blamed Al Qaeda and the Taliban for her death. That suggested the tape was made before the assassination.
Bin Laden's comments offered an unusually direct attack on Israel, intensifying Al Qaeda's attempts to use the Israeli-Arab conflict to rally supporters. Israel has warned of growing Al Qaeda activity in Palestinian territory, though the terror network is not believed to have taken a strong role there so far.
"We intend to liberate Palestine, the whole of Palestine from the river to the sea," he said, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction."
"We will not recognize even one inch for Jews in the land of Palestine as other Muslim leaders have," bin Laden said.
In Iraq, a number of Sunni Arab tribes in western Anbar Province have formed a coalition fighting Qaeda-linked insurgents that U.S. officials credit for deeply reducing violence in the province. The U.S. military has been working to form similar "Awakening Councils" in other areas of Iraq.
Bin Laden said Sunni Arabs who have joined the Awakening Councils "have betrayed the nation and brought disgrace and shame to their people. They will suffer in life and in the afterlife."
A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, said bin Laden's tape showed that Al Qaeda's aim was to block democracy and freedom for all Iraqis. "It also reminds us that the mission to defeat Al Qaeda in Iraq is critically important and must succeed," he said.
In the audiotape, bin Laden denounced Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, the former leader of the Anbar Awakening Council, who was killed in a September bombing claimed by Al Qaeda.
"The most evil of the traitors are those who trade away their religion for the sake of their mortal life," bin Laden said.
Bin Laden said U.S. and Iraqi officials were seeking to set up a "national unity government" joining the country's Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. "Our duty is to foil these dangerous schemes, which try to prevent the establishment of an Islamic state in Iraq, which would be a wall of resistance against American schemes to divide Iraq," he said.
He called on the Sunni Arabs in Iraq to rally behind the Islamic State of Iraq, the insurgent umbrella group led by Al Qaeda. Besides the Awakening Councils, some Sunni insurgent groups that continue to fight the Americans have rejected the idea of an Islamic state.
Bin Laden said Sunnis should pledge their allegiance to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the little-known "emir," or leader, of the Islamic State of Iraq. U.S. officials have claimed that Baghdadi does not exist, saying Al Qaeda created the name to give its coalition the illusion of an Iraqi leadership. "Failure to give allegiance to the emir after he has been endorsed leads to great evils," bin Laden warned.
