New Bin Laden video taunts anti-terror coalition
Osama bin Laden today continued to taunt the United States-led coalition ranged against him with a new video message accusing the allies of ‘‘exterminating’’ innocent Afghan civilians.
The al Qaida terrorist leader said the Afghan people were not to blame for the September 11 attacks and he denounced Arab leaders who co-operated with the United Nations as ‘‘infidels’’.
The latest video appeared to be aimed particularly at those Arab Governments which have been pressing for an international resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
It was not clear when the video - once again released to the Kabul office of the Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite television station - was actually recorded.
It comes two days after British Prime Minister Tony Blair completed his latest diplomatic mission to the Middle East to try to revive the crumbling peace process.
Tomorrow in London, Mr Blair is was due to brief the French President Jacques Chirac and prime minister Lionel Jospin and Germany’s Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on his talks with Israeli and Arab leaders.
Bin Laden, who is blamed by America and Britain for the September 11 attacks, appeared in his video in his familiar white turban and camouflage combat jacket with an automatic rifle by his side.
Unlike previous videos however, this time he was shot against a plain brown backdrop, offering no clues as to his location.
In it, he said the UN had been responsible for the 1947 partition of Palestine, which led to the creation of the state of Israel, and that Arab leaders who sought peace through it were ‘‘infidels’’.
‘‘Those who claim they are the leaders of Arabs and are still in the United Nations have renounced the message of Muhammad. Those who take things to international legislation have renounced the legislation of the holy book,’’ he said.
‘‘Those who take our tragedies today and want to solve them in the United Nations are hypocrites, deceiving God and his prophet and deceiving the believers.’’
He also condemned the ‘‘unjust, ferocious campaign’’ that America, with the support of most Western nations, was waging against Afghanistan.
‘‘No evidence proves that what happened in America (is related to) the people of Afghanistan, and the people of Afghanistan have nothing to do with this, but the campaign is going on, exterminating civilians from children, women and innocents,’’ he said.
The video’s release comes amid fresh signs of nervousness in the Muslim world at the bombing campaign, about to enter its fifth week with, apparently, no end in sight.
The Pakistani leader, General Pervez Musharraf, a key coalition ally in the campaign against Afghanistan, said ‘‘very serious consideration’’ should be given to a bombing cessation during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
US President George Bush has ruled that out, but General Musharraf warned the Americans: ‘‘One should be very clear, it will have its negative fallout.’’
He was expected to press the point over the coming days when he meets US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was today in Russia and Tajikistan on his latest coalition-building tour.
The US Joint Chiefs of Staff director of operations, Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem, admitted on Friday that they still did not know where bin Laden is hiding but insisted he would eventually be found.
‘‘The noose is tightening. The country is getting smaller. We have the means. It is a matter of time,’’ he told a Pentagon news conference.
‘‘Do we see when we are going to get him? No. Do we know how close we are? That is a very difficult question to ask. I am sure there are times we feel very close, other times it is a shadow.’’
