- DUBAI (Reuters) - The Arabic
television channel Al Jazeera aired an audio tape on Sunday purported to
be from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in which he mentioned the arrest
of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein by U.S. troops last month.
-
- Saddam was captured on December 13. If authenticated,
the tape would prove that the man being hunted by the United States for
masterminding the attacks on U.S. cities on September 11, 2001, is still
alive.
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- In Washington, a Central Intelligence Agency spokesman
said it might take a couple of days to determine whether the tape, which
sounded like previous broadcast recordings by the al Qaeda leader, was
genuine.
-
- The voice said Muslim and Arab leaders had reason to
fear the precedent of letting foreigners topple a Muslim government, "especially
after they saw the capture of their former comrade in treachery and collaboration
with America" -- meaning Saddam.
-
- The recording, which rambled like a sermon between a
myriad of topics, urged Muslims to fight U.S. occupation forces in Iraq
and criticized Gulf Arab governments for supporting Washington's invasion
of an Arab country.
-
- It said the fall of Baghdad would be a precursor to a
U.S. occupation of Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Gulf Arab states.
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- "There should be no dialogue with the occupiers
except with arms, and this is what we should strive for," the voice
said.
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- "The West is trying to kill whoever carries the
banner of Islam under the pretence of combating terrorism because they
all know that jihad (holy struggle) is the effective power to foil all
their conspiracies...
-
- "Gulf Arab states know that their turn (for a U.S.
invasion) is coming and they don't have the will to make the difficult
decision to confront the aggression."
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- The voice also criticized Middle East peace moves, singling
out the U.S.-backed "road map" for an Israeli-Palestinian peace
and a symbolic peace accord signed in Geneva as an "attempt to destroy
(Jerusalem's) al-Aqsa mosque and to vanquish jihad and mujahideen (holy
warriors) in Palestine."
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- The tape also attacked recent efforts by Gulf Arab countries
to remove references from school books that might be seen as encouraging
militancy.
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- The voice lashed out particularly at the rulers of bin
Laden's birthplace, Saudi Arabia, which has been battling a wave of militant
attacks since May 2003 that it believes to be linked to al Qaeda.
-
- At least 50 people have been killed in suicide bomb attacks
in Riyadh since May. © Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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