Osama Bin Laden: Obama cannot end Afghanistan, Iraq wars
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has apparently released another message to Americans, rehashing his longstanding grievances against the United States for what he says are US injustices against the Muslim world.
The tape added little to the terrorist leader's previous addresses, the latest of which came June 3. Mr. bin Laden has released similar statements in previous years during the weeks surrounding 9/11.
Agence France-Presse reported that the tape was released on Sunday by Al-Qaeda's media group, As-Sahab.
It was translated by the SITE Intelligence Group and IntelCenter, "two groups in the United States that monitor jihadist Web sites," the New York Times reported.
In it, Mr. bin Laden called US President Barack Obama "powerless" to stop the war in Iraq and Afghanistan because the Israel lobby and corporate interests control US policy. The Associated Press reported:
In another part of the tape, bin Laden reminded Americans of the chief causes of the conflict between Al Qaeda and the US, especially US support for Israel.
The charge was nothing new. In Al-Qaeda's 1996 call for jihad against the U.S. (redistributed in 1998), the group cited as its primary justifications the deaths of Iraqi children it claimed resulted from US sanctions against that country; the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia, considered by Al-Qaeda an "occupation" of holy Muslim lands; and U.S. support for Israel's occupation of Jerusalem, mistreatment of Palestinians and invasion of Lebanon.
