Bin Laden condemns Blair in 'clear threat'

Terror leader Osama bin Laden has warned Europe of a “severe” reaction to come, in a recording which condemns former British prime minister Tony Blair as well as drawings seen as insulting to the Prophet Mohammed.

The audio message was posted late last night on a militant website that has carried al-Qaida statements in the past and bore the logo of the extremist group’s media wing al-Sahab. It showed a still image of Bin Laden aiming an assault rifle.

Ben Venzke, the head of IntelCentre, a US group that monitors militant messages, called last night’s video a “clear threat against EU member countries and an indicator of a possible upcoming significant attack”.

Bin Laden attacked Tony Blair alongside his long-time nemesis, the King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, whom he described as the “crownless king in Riyadh” and said he could have ended the entire dispute over the cartoons because of his influence with European governments.

“(He) ordered your legal institutions to stop their investigations into the embezzlement of the billions from the al-Yamamah deal and Blair carried this out and he is today your representative in the Quartet,” he said, referring to Mr Blair and his role in quashing a corruption investigation into a British arms deal.

In December, the British Guardian newspaper printed documents showing how Mr Blair persuaded the attorney general to cancel a fraud investigation in 2006 into an agreement under which Britain supplied Tornado fighter jets and other military equipment to Saudi Arabia.

“The response will be what you see and not what you hear and let our mothers bereave us if we do not make victorious our messenger of God,” said a voice believed to be Bin Laden’s in reference to the Prophet cartoons, without specifying what action would be taken.

The five-minute message, bin Laden’s first this year, made no mention of the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion in Iraq.

It came as the Muslim world marks the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday today and amid the reigniting of a two-year-old controversy over some Danish cartoons deemed by Muslims to be insulting. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the Prophet, even favourable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

On February 13, Danish newspapers republished a cartoon showing Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban to illustrate their commitment to freedom of speech after police said they had uncovered a plot to kill the artist.

Danish intelligence service said the reprinting of the cartoon had brought “negative attention” to Denmark and may have increased the risk to Danes at home and abroad.

The original 12 cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper triggered major protests in Muslim countries in 2006. There have been renewed protests in the last month.

In the message, Bin Laden described the cartoons as taking place in the framework of a “new Crusade” against Islam, in which he said the Pope has played a “large and lengthy role” .

“You went overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings,” he said, according to a transcript released by the SITE Institute, another US group that monitors terror messages.

“This is the greater and more serious tragedy, and reckoning for it will be more severe.”

Adam Raisman, senior analyst at the SITE Institute, said that the tape’s release coincides with an increased buzz in online jihadi forums calling for revenge against Europe over the cartoons.

However, Mr Raisman noted that bin Laden’s message did not specifically mention the republishing of the cartoons, only the publishing, and it did not give any other time landmarks to prove it had been recorded since then.

Mr Raisman also noted bin Laden’s silence on the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

“The tape doesn’t give any specific evidence that would allow us to determine when it was recorded,” Mr Raisman said.