Bin Laden ‘invites jihad’ for Gaza in purported message
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has apparently released a new audio message calling for a jihad, or holy war, against Israel for its Gaza campaign.
The message is “an invitation” from bin Laden to take part in “jihad to stop the aggression against Gaza.”
The audio message was posted on a radical Islamist Web site known for posting statements from bin Laden.
CNN could not independently confirm the authenticity of the message, but the speaker’s voice was similar to recordings that bin Laden has made in the past.
The last time bin Laden released an audio message was in mid-May, timed to coincide with Israel’s 60th anniversary. That message urged his followers to liberate Palestine.
Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza on December 27 to stop rocket strikes on southern Israel. The death toll in Gaza was nearing 1,000, including more than 300 children, according to Palestinian medical sources.
The Israeli toll stood at 13, including three civilians.
Bin Laden, whose approximate age is 51, is the head of al Qaeda terrorist network which was responsible for the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States that killed 2,751 people.
Bin Laden has been in hiding since the U.S. assault on Afghanistan that followed the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. government is offering a $25 million reward for information leading to bin Laden’s capture.
President Bush, whose term ends next week, told CNN’s Larry King on Tuesday that he remains optimistic that bin Laden would be found.
King asked Bush, “Are we ever going to find bin Laden?”
“Yes, of course, absolutely,” Bush replied. “We’ve got a lot of people out there looking for him, a lot of assets. You can’t run forever.”
Bin Laden ‘invites jihad’ for Gaza in purported message – CNN.com
Just a thought, and hindsight is 20/20, but at the rate we are spending money in this country it would have been far cheaper and easier if we had offered up a one billion dollar bounty on Bin Laden.
My guess is he would have long since been given up. You can only have so many truly devote followers that would never give you up, but you have to do business through a network of individuals, any government does, even terrorist networks need a certain infrastructure to manage the operation. There are a lot of semi-followers that would certainly give up Bin Laden if the money were right. Heck, I could find about 250 million people in this country that would give up Bush for less.
Set the money levels high enough on the targets you really want to take out and all you have to do is sit back and wait for the intelligence to start pouring in. Cheaper to drop smart bombs from drones than to risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of our men and women from the armed services.
Because they are terrorists, it doesn’t mean we have to play this out on their terms, it’s time to put technology to the task and go back to focusing on the security of this country. If the World wants peace in the Middle East and other parts of the globe than countries need to work together. There are certain countries America should stand up for, the British, Canada, Israel, and many others. But we should only involve ourselves when it becomes a matter of their security. The Gaza issue is classic, here we have a problem that is solvable unfortunately mostly through force. Diplomacy has failed for years and will continue to fail. This is a problem that military force can solve. If there are problems in Gaza that cannot be addressed than an invasion of that area and a security force should be used to weed out the militant groups. If that means long term occupation than I’m sorry but countries have an obligation to the rest of the World to control groups that operate from within their borders. if they cannot than it becomes time for neighboring countries to provide that. If that means the loss of national identity, meaning that area becomes absorbed into another country, well forks, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but this is the history of the World.
Pakistan is another country that should work very hard to control elements that operate from within the country, if not, sorry but don’t bitch when people start dropping bombs within your borders, either you control these groups, or someone else will.
bin laden is DEAD!… been dead for years. there would be video messages if he were alive. video is no more dangerous than audio tape. i dont understand why the authorities experts dont at least challenge this notion. what’s the worst that could happen if there was such a challenge. at worst it may force him to release a believable video tape. great psychological warfare on him. undermines his power, legitimacy.
I have yet to hear any discussion of something that, to me at least, is a very obvious observation, but intriguing and perhaps important: WHY have bin Laden’s messages, in recent years, only been via audio?
I can recall around about the time of 9-11, and for a while afterwards, his messages were usually videotaped. Now it’s just as easy to videotape as to audiotape something (and detection surely can’t be the reason). So why no video?? And why don’t I ever hear or read any discussion of the possible reason for this? One possible reason comes to mind: that is that he may be very ill and doesn’t want to show himself perhaps looking ill.
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