Osama Bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, has warned Barack Obama, the US president, that there will be further attacks on the United States unless he takes steps to resolve the Palestinian situation. In an audio tape obtained by Al Jazeera on Sunday, the world's most wanted man also praised the Nigerian accused of a failed attempt to blow up an airliner heading for Detroit on Christmas Day.
"The message I want to convey to you through the plane of the hero Omar Farouk [Abdulmutallab], reaffirms a previous message that the heroes of 9/11 conveyed to you," Bin Laden said. "America will never dream of living in peace unless we live it in Palestine. It is unfair that you enjoy a safe life while our brothers in Gaza suffer greatly.
"America will never dream of living in peace unless we live it in Palestine. It is unfair that you enjoy a safe life while our brothers in Gaza suffer greatly.
"Therefore, with God's will, our attacks on you will continue as long as you continue to support Israel," bin Laden said. "If it was possible to carry our messages to you by words we wouldn't have carried them to you by planes." Palestinian 'frontline' Phil Rees, the author of Dining with Terrorists, told Al Jazeera: "Bin Laden has a great sense of timing; it's a complete poke in the eye to President Obama at a time when Obama is domestically suffering.
"The reference to Palestine is possibly the most interesting part of this because he almost now becomes the al-Qaeda leader that speaks about Palestine.
| "One thing is very clear, Osama still has followers spread all over the world and such messages do reinvigorate the spirit in these people about their mission" Imtiaz Gul, chairman of the Centre for Research and Security Studies |
"I would say that al-Qaeda has not been able to set foot in many places in the Muslim world despite its rhetoric," he told Al Jazeera.
"In Palestine they failed miserably and that is why I understand this message as a return to the older strategy of waging war against America and the world order in the skies.
"It is very difficult to compete with an organisation like Hamas in Palestine."
Osama Hamdan, a spokesman for the Hamas movement, told Al Jazeera that the Palestinians were focused on ending the Israeli occupation. "All Arabs and Muslims support our cause. [But] the Palestinian position is clear, the resistance is against the occupation, the Israeli army who is occupying and killing our people," he said.
"Everyone knows that the policies of the US have created huge problems in the region. At this moment, we know who our enemy is - the Israeli occupation." 'Subjected to scrutiny' Imtiaz Gul, the chairman of the Centre for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad, questioned whether the tape was genuine.
"I think the validity of this tape should be subjected to scrutiny because we haven't heard from Mr Bin Laden for quite some time."
The audio tape is believed to have been recorded last month. In the attempted attack on Christmas Day, Abdulmutallab, who is now in US police custody, allegedly tried to ignite explosives sewn into his underwear as Northwest Airlines Flight 253 made its final descent to Detroit.
He had boarded the flight in Amsterdam, but purchased his tickets in Ghana on December 16.
Passengers on the flight were able to overpower the would-be bomber as he attempted to ignite the explosive's fuse.
After being taken into custody, Abdulmuttalab told police he had been directed by al-Qaeda and had obtained his explosive device in Yemen. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the organisation's affiliate in Yemen, has said it armed Abdulmutallab, describing the attempted attack as revenge for the US role in a Yemeni military offensive against al-Qaeda.
Obama has criticised his own intelligence agencies for failing to piece together information about the suspect which should have stopped him boarding the flight.
thanks : al jazeera
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