Convert to Islam, Bin Laden tells Americans

Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden marked the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks by urging the American people to “embrace Islam”.

The al-Qaida leader also accused former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of a “flagrant disregard for the intellects of human beings” in his first video appearance for almost three years.

The terror chief made “no overt threat” against the US in the video, which appears to have been made as recently as this summer, US officials said.

President George Bush said it was “a reminder about the dangerous world in which we live, and it is a reminder that we must pull together to protect our people against these extremists who murder the innocent in order to achieve their political objective.”

In the video, bin Laden compared the Iraq war to American blunders in Vietnam and urged the American people to join Islam.

“I invite you to embrace Islam,” he said.

“It will also achieve your desire to stop the war as a consequence, because as soon as the war-mongering owners of the major corporations realise that you have lost confidence in your democratic system and have begun to look for an alternative, and this alternative is Islam, they will run after you to please you and achieve what you want to steer you away from Islam.”

In the translation, released by the Washington-based Site intelligence group, the terror chief also named Mr Blair, Mr Brown, Mr Bush and French president Nicolas Sarkozy as he criticised the leaders of the West.

He said that capitalism and democracy had caused problems not only for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan through war, but also for people in Africa through displacement and mankind through global warming.

“This greatest of plagues and most dangerous of threats to the lives of humans is taking place in an accelerating fashion as the world is being dominated by the democratic system, which confirms its massive failure to protect humans and their interests from the greed and avarice of the major corporations and their representatives,” he said.

“And despite this brazen attack on the people, the leaders of the West - especially Bush, Blair, Sarkozy and Brown – still talk about freedom and human rights with a flagrant disregard for the intellects of human beings.

“So is there a form of terrorism stronger, clearer and more dangerous than this? This is why I tell you: as you liberated yourselves before from the slavery of monks, kings, and feudalism, you should liberate yourselves from the deception, shackles and attrition of the capitalist system.”

A short excerpt of the video was broadcast to the Arab world by Al-Jazeera television and showed the al Qaida leader wearing a white robe and turban and beige cloak, sitting as he talked behind a table while reading an address to the American people from papers in front of him.

His trimmed beard was shorter than in his last video, in October 2004, and was fully black. He spoke softly, as he has done in the past, and had dark bags under his eyes but appeared healthy.

The video also featured bin Laden speaking at length about an American failure in Iraq, but uses it as a means to focus on his main point, the “problem” of capitalism and its effect on the global platform, to which he later offers a “solution”, Site said.

In the video, bin Laden said the war in Iraq was doomed to continue due to the greed of capitalists and corporations.

The “solution”, as bin Laden presented it, was for the American people to embrace and join Islam.

Bin Laden added: “The greatest mistake one can make in this world and one which is uncorrectable is to die while not surrendering to Allah.”

The videotape appeared to have been made recently as the terror chief refers to Mr Sarkozy, who was elected in May, and to the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which occurred on August 6, as occurring only a few days prior to his speech in the video.