New Message Reported From bin Laden

New Message Reported From bin Laden
By MARK McDONALD
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: September 14, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/world/15tape.html?_r=1&ref=global-home


A new audiotape, reportedly from Osama bin Laden, denounced President Obama on Monday as no different from his predecessor and warned that anti-American attacks would not stop unless the United States ended the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 11-minute, 20-second taped message, distributed online two days after the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, also said American support for Israel was the main underlying reason for anger in the Muslim world.

It was the first time in three months that a voice recording attributed to Mr. bin Laden had surfaced. Whether the voice was really that of Mr. bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda who is believed to be hiding somewhere in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, was not immediately clear.

The tape appeared on As-Sahab, the Arabic-language Web site used by Al Qaeda to deliver its messages. The recording was reported and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group and IntelCenter, two groups in the United States that monitor jihadist Web sites.

SITE said the message, which was released on Sept. 13, offered reasons for Al Qaeda’s attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001 and advised how the conflict between Al Qaeda and the United States might come to a close.

“The time has come for you to liberate yourselves from fear and the ideological terrorism of neoconservatives and the Israeli lobby,” the voice attributed to Mr. bin Laden said. “The reason for our dispute with you is your support for your ally Israel, occupying our land in Palestine.”

The voice on the tape also said that the White House had shown no real shift in policy under the Obama administration because it is “occupied by pressure groups” that control it. And it warned that unless the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were ended, “we will have no choice but to continue our war of attrition on every front.”

SITE said the message consisted of a still image of Mr. bin Laden with a voice track underneath. It was not possible to verify that the recording was actually made by Mr. bin Laden.

The last tape attributed to Mr. bin Laden was issued June 3. That message, which came as President Obama was embarking on a tour of Muslim countries, warned the United States about its policies in Pakistan.

It said the new American administration had sowed new seeds of hatred among Muslims.

“I think the reports we’ve seen are consistent with messages we’ve seen in the past from Al Qaeda threatening the U.S. and other countries that are involved in counterterrorism efforts,” the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said at the time. “But I don’t think it’s surprising that Al Qaeda would want to shift attention away from the president’s historic efforts and continued efforts to reach out and have an open dialogue with the Muslim world.”