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Subject: Bin Laden slams West over Israel, vows to fight on
Time: 2:23:00 PM EDT
Author: ddawncrawford71
Mood: Chillin'
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Is the face of Al Qaeda turning Black?
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Isolated and in hiding, Osama bin Laden's taped messages no longer have the power to send shivers through the Western world.
The release overnight of his third audiotape message of 2008, timed to the 60th anniversary celebration of the founding of Israel, provided proof the al Qaeda leader is alive but also showed his desperate attempt to remain relevant.
"He's definitely found himself on the back burner," said former FBI agent Brad Garrett, an ABC News consultant. "It's a case of measured irrelevance. We used to do back flips when one of his tapes would arrive but no longer," Garrett said.
Apparently tailoring his message to the mainstream Muslim world, bin Laden defined the issue of Israel and Palestine as "the most important reason of the conflict between our civilization and yours."
In the late 1990s, bin Laden defined the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia as the principal reason for his jihad against the West.
The plight of Palestinians remains the major grievance shared by a majority of people across the Islamic world, and bin Laden seems eager to retake center stage by championing the issue.
In a voice that seemed robust and calm, bin Laden says, "We will not give up any tiny piece of Palestine, God willing, as long as there is one true Muslim left on earth."
Unlike his No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahri, bin Laden avoided criticizing Hamas.
In an apparent reference to President Bush, bin Laden said, "In our time now, the real terrorism and armed robbery is done by the leader of the strongest military power humanity has ever known."
"It seems just more of the same," said ABC News consultant Garrett. "He has an opinion, sure, but nothing he says surprises anyone anymore."
The authenticity of the tape was not immediately confirmed by U.S. officials, but people familiar with bin Laden's voice said there was no doubt it was his.
He is more dangerous to Pakistan than Osama bin Laden, analysts say. He may be the single most important person in Pakistan's fight for its future. And for the first time, he has described the goals and the details of the network of militants responsible for the most violent time in Pakistan in 60 years.
During a 25-minute sit-down with al Jazeera, Baitullah Mehsud, the man Pakistan blames for killing former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, claims he is fighting a "defensive" jihad with the goal to destroy the White House, New York and London.
"Our main aim is to finish Britain, the United States and to crush the pride of the non-Muslims," he told Admad Zaidan, al Jazeera's bureau chief in Islamabad from an undisclosed location in northwest Pakistan. "We pray to God to give us the ability to destroy the White House, New York and London. And we have trust in God. Very soon, we will be witnessing jihad's miracles."
In his first ever television interview, Mehsud also called Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf a tool of President George Bush and says he isn't interested in Pakistan's nuclear weapons.Mehsud was recently chosen as the leader of a militant coalition known as the "Taliban Movement of Pakistan," a collection of 26 groups that have come together to battle the Pakistani army and, he claimed in the interview, fight the United States and Britain on their home soil.
The interview takes place in the mountains. Mehsud's face is obscured, but you can see his long jet-black hair and you get the sense that he is quite tall. He has been described by Pakistani authorities as a brutal and able leader.
The government here accused him of orchestrating Bhutto's assassination and, not long after she died, released an audiotape in which a voice praises "brave boys" for accomplishing a "mission." Through a spokesman, Mehsud has denied to local media that he was involved in Bhutto's death.
But Musharraf has publicly pointed to Mehsud as one of the leading militants behind the spate of violence that has hit Pakistan in the last year. Almost 60 suicide attacks killed more than 3,000 people in 2007, the most violent span since 9/11 and, depending on how it's measured, the most violent time since Pakistan was created in 1947.
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