Bin Laden makes new threats against West

Terrorist leader Osama bin Laden issued ominous new threats today, apparently seeking to justify attacks on civilians in the West and calling on his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed UN force in Darfur.

In his first new message in three months, the al Qaida chief also said in the audiotape that the West’s cut off of aid to the Palestinian Hamas-led government proved Washington and Europe were conducting “a Zionist (Jewish) crusaders (Christian) war on Islam”.

Israeli government spokesman Raanan Gissin said bin Laden had decided to attack Israel to deflect growing Arab animosity toward al Qaida.

“When he attacks Israel, this is something the Arab world can agree upon,” Gissin said. “He has been criticised for the destruction and carnage he’s causing the Muslim nation. He’s looking for another justification… . Criticising Israel sounds more politically correct.”

Al Qaida is believed to have no direct links to Hamas, which is an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood, but they share an anti-Israel ideology that calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

And recent reports in Middle East media outlets have said al Qaida is building cells in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Sudan.

Israel has indicted two West Bank militants for al Qaida membership and a Palestinian security official has acknowledged al Qaida is “organising cells and gathering supporters” although Israeli officials say the inroads appear preliminary.

The voice on the tape sounded strong and appeared the same as that on other recordings attributed to bin Laden. There was no way to independently verify the authenticity of the tape.

Al-Jazeera appeared to have had the tape long enough to make significant edits, with its news reader providing substantial transitional and background comments between excerpts from bin Laden.

“I call on Mujahedin and their supporters, especially in Sudan and the Arab peninsula, to prepare for long war against the crusader plunderers in Western Sudan. Our goal is not defending the Khartoum government but to defend Islam, its land and its people,” he said.

“I urge holy warriors to be acquainted with the land and the tribes in Darfur.” They should know the rainy season approaches and that will hamper their movement, he said.

Al Qaida has targeted Western forces in Africa before – including its attacks against US troops trying to bring peace to Somalia in 1993.

The Saudi-born al Qaida leader, who was based in Sudan before it expelled him under threats from the United States, moved to Afghanistan and is believed hiding in the rugged mountains on the Pakistani side of their common border.

In Washington, US intelligence officials said bin Laden is separated from his top deputy and, in a sign he has to be careful about whom he trusts, surrounded by fellow Arabs.

His No 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, is hiding in a more settled area along the border, also surrounded by al Qaida operatives from Egypt, the officials said.

The fighting in Darfur began when rebels from black African tribes took up arms in February 2003, complaining of discrimination and oppression by Sudan’s Arab-dominated government.

The government is accused of unleashing Arab tribal militia known as the Janjaweed against civilians in a campaign of murder, rape and arson.

At least 180,000 people have died – many from hunger and disease – and two million people have been displaced in the vast, arid region of western Sudan and as refugees in neighbouring Chad.

The US and other Western countries are pushing for the United Nations to send a peacekeeping force to the ravaged region.

The al Qaida chief, who last issued a message through the satellite television broadcaster on January 19, said citizens of Western countries were equally responsible with their governments for what he termed the “war on Islam.”

That message was later posted in a longer version on a website a month later and included a vow by the terrorist leader never to be captured alive.

“I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don’t want to die humiliated or deceived,” bin Laden said, in the 11-minute, 26-second tape.

At the time, bin Laden also offered the US a long-term truce but warned al-Qaida would soon launch a fresh attack on American soil. There have been no new attacks on the US in the three months since.

In today’s broadcast, bin Laden called for a global Muslim boycott of American goods similar to the recent ban on Danish products after the publication there of caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

He said the artists who drew the offending cartoons should be handed over to him for trial and punishment.

The Al-Jazeera news reader said bin Laden, in a portion of the tape not aired by the Qatar-based broadcaster, scoffed at Saudi King Abdullah for his calls for a “dialogue among civilisations” and blasted liberal Arab writers for taking part in the Western cultural invasion of Muslim lands.