[DMCForum] Bin Laden Says Vote for Kerry?

["Dave Stragand" <dave.stragand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Has anyone else seen this?  
 
http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SA1404
 
-Dave
 
The tape of Osama bin Laden that was aired on Al-Jazeera(1) on Friday,
October 29th included a specific threat to "each U.S. state," designed to
influence the outcome of the upcoming election against George W. Bush. The
U.S. media in general mistranslated the words "ay wilaya" (which means "each
U.S. state")(2) to mean a "country" or "nation" other than the U.S., while
in fact the threat was directed specifically at each individual U.S. state.
This suggests some knowledge by bin Laden of the U.S. electoral college
system. In a section of his speech in which he harshly criticized George W.
Bush, bin Laden stated: "Any U.S. state that does not toy with our security
automatically guarantees its own security." 

The Islamist website Al-Qal'a explained what this sentence meant: "This
message was a warning to every U.S. state separately. When he [Osama Bin
Laden] said, 'Every state will be determining its own security, and will be
responsible for its choice,' it means that any U.S. state that will choose
to vote for the white thug Bush as president has chosen to fight us, and we
will consider it our enemy, and any state that will vote against Bush has
chosen to make peace with us, and we will not characterize it as an enemy.
By this characterization, Sheikh Osama wants to drive a wedge in the
American body, to weaken it, and he wants to divide the American people
itself between enemies of Islam and the Muslims, and those who fight for us,
so that he doesn't treat all American people as if they're the same. This
letter will have great implications inside the American society, part of
which are connected to the American elections, and part of which are
connected to what will come after the elections."(3) 


Another interesting aspect of the speech is the fact that while bin Laden
made his specific threat to each U.S. state, he also offered an election
deal to the American voters, attempting to influence the election by these
means rather than influencing it through terrorist attacks.(4) This peace
offer is a theme that follows up on his April speech directed to Europe, in
which he offered a truce.(5) The Islamist website Al-Islah explains: "Some
people ask 'what's new in this tape?' [The answer is that] this tape is the
second of its kind, after the previous tape of the Sheikh [Osama bin Laden],
in which he offered a truce to the Europeans a few months ago, and it is a
completion of this move, and it brings together the complementary elements
of politics and religion, political savvy and force, the sword and justice.
The Sheikh reminds the West in this tape of the great Islamic civilization
and pure Islamic religion, and of Islamic justice..."(6) 


Another conspicuous aspect of the tape is the absence of common Islamist
themes that are relevant to the month of Ramadan, which for fundamentalists
like bin Laden is the month of Jihad and martyrdom. Noticeably absent from
the Al-Jazeera tape was his usual appearance with a weapon, and more
importantly the absence of references to Jihad, martyrdom, the Koran, the
Hadith (Islamic tradition), Crusaders, Jews, and the legacy of the Prophet
Muhammad on the duty to wage Jihad against the infidels. For the followers
of the Al-Qa'ida ideology, this speech sends a regressive and defeatist
message of surrender, as seen in the move from solely using Jihad warfare to
a mixed strategy of threats combined with truce offers and election deals. 


The following are the relevant excerpts from the speech; for the full
excerpts visit the MEMRI TV Project at www.memritv.org:(7) 


"Oh the American people, I address these words to you regarding the optimal
manner of avoiding another Manhattan, and regarding the war, its causes, and
its consequences. But before this, I say to you: Security is one of the
important pillars of human life, and free men do not take their security
lightly, contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom. Let him explain why
we did not attack Sweden, for example. Clearly, those who hate freedom have
no pride, unlike the 19 [suicide hijackers of 9/11], may Allah have mercy on
them. We have been fighting you because we are free men who do not remain
silent in the face of injustice. We want to restore our [Islamic] nation's
freedom. Just as you violate our security, we violate yours. 


"But I am amazed at you. Although we have entered the fourth year after the
events of 9/11, Bush is still practicing distortion and deception against
you and he is still concealing the true cause from you. Consequently, the
motives for its reoccurrence still exist... 


"We had no difficulty dealing with Bush and his administration, because it
resembles the regimes in our [Arab] countries, half of which are ruled by
the military, and the other half are ruled by the sons of kings and
presidents with whom we have had a lot of experience. Among both types,
there are many who are known for their conceit, arrogance, greed, and for
taking money dishonestly. 


"This resemblance began with the visit of Bush Sr. to the region. While some
of our people were dazzled by the U.S. and hoped that these visits would
influence our countries, it was he who was influenced by these monarchic and
military regimes. He envied them for remaining in their positions for
decades, while embezzling the nation's public funds with no supervision
whatsoever. He bequeathed tyranny and the suppression of liberties to his
son and they called it the Patriot Act, under the pretext of the war on
terrorism. 


"Bush Sr. liked the idea of appointing [his] sons as state governors.
Similarly, he did not neglect to import into Florida the expertise in
falsifying [elections] from the leaders of this region in order to benefit
from it in difficult moments. 


"We agreed with the general commander Muhammad Atta, may Allah have mercy on
him, that all operations should be carried out within 20 minutes, before
Bush and his administration would become aware. We never imagined that the
Commander in Chief of the American armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his
citizens in the twin towers to face this great horror alone when they needed
him most. It seemed to him that a girl's story about her goat and its
butting was more important than dealing with planes and their 'butting' into
skyscrapers. This allowed us three times the amount of time needed for the
operations, Allah be praised. 


"Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or Al-Qa'ida. Your
security is in your own hands, and any U.S. state that does not toy with our
security automatically guarantees its own security." 


* Yigal Carmon is the President of MEMRI. 



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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