Still image of Osama bin Laden on the recording released by al-Qaida. Hmmm, that beard is less grey than it was in 2001!
Al-Qaida has used the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the spectre of Osama bin Laden to taunt the United States in a new audio message warning that Barack Obama is powerless to win the war in Afghanistan on his own terms.
The message - entitled a "statement to the American people", and purportedly recorded by the al-Qaida leader - says the US has failed to grasp why the attacks occurred, and its retaliatory wars have "cost you a lot without any result whatsoever".
Bin Laden messages are typically released around 11 September. The new 10-minute address has emerged two days after the eighth anniversary. It appeared on the as-Sahab website, which supporters of al-Qaida use. Earlier this month, as-Sahab said it would soon carry a "present" to Muslims from Bin Laden.
Site Intelligence Group, a monitoring firm that translated the address, said Bin Laden blamed the war on the "pro-Israel lobby" and corporate interests.
IntelCenter, another company that monitors terrorist propaganda, said the video showed a still picture of Bin Laden while the audio played.
According to the Site translation, the stated purpose of the address is "to remind you of the causes" of September 11, chiefly "your support to your Israeli allies who occupy our land of Palestine".
Bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding in the mountainous region along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, argued against claims that the war was necessary for US security.
He said White House officials were merely following the strategy of the Bush-Cheney administration to "promote the previous policies of fear to market the interests of big companies".
When Obama became president and retained many of the Bush administration's military leaders, such as the defence secretary, Robert Gates, "reasonable people knew that Obama is a powerless man who will not be able to end the war as he promised", the speaker said.
"If you end the war, so be it. But if it is otherwise, all we will do is continue the war of attrition against you on all possible axes.
"We have demonstrated and stated many times, for more than two and a half decades, that the cause of our disagreement with you is your support to your Israeli allies, who occupy our land of Palestine.
"The delay in your knowing those causes has cost you a lot without any result whatsoever.
"Ask yourselves to determine your position: is your security, your blood, your children, your money, your jobs, your homes, your economy, and your reputation dearer to you than the security of the Israelis, their children and their economy?
"If you choose your security and cessation of war, and this is what the polls have shown, this requires you to work to punish those on your side who play with our security. We are ready to respond to this choice on aforementioned sound and just bases.
"This position of yours, combined with some other injustices, pushed us to undertake the events [of September 11]."
In a previous message, in June, a speech attributed to Bin Laden said Obama had planted the seeds of "revenge and hatred" towards the US in the Muslim world. Those remarks were issued just before a speech by Obama in which the president said he sought a "new beginning" between the US and Muslims.
Comment: The Secret Team risk stretching credibility dangerously thin as public awareness of Bin Laden's death in December 2001 grows.
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