New Bin Laden Tape

Two days after the eighth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, a 10 minute audio tape of al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, was released on an Islamist website. The message, entitled "a statement to the American people", was about 10 minutes long and was accompanied by a still image of Bin Laden but no video. In the message, a voice tells the US president that he is "powerless" to stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, that Obama is failing to fundamentally change foreign policy because of his decision to retain key figures from the previous administration, including Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

Here are some excepts from the tape:

"The time has come for you to liberate yourselves from fear and the ideological terrorism of neo-conservatives and the Israeli lobby,"

"The reason for our dispute with you is your support for your ally Israel, occupying our land in Palestine."

"If you stop the war, then fine. Otherwise we will have no choice but to continue our war of attrition on every front [...] If you choose safety and stopping wars, as opinion polls show you do, then we are ready to respond to this."


UPDATE: Bin Laden is still believed to be hiding somewhere in the mountainous terrain of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.


[Link: BBC News]