Bin Laden’s messages

CAIRO, Egypt Osama bin Laden appeared for the first time in three years in a video Friday released ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end.

American officials said the U.S. government had obtained a copy even though the video had not been posted yet by al-Qaida and intelligence agencies were studying the video to determine whether it was authentic and looking for clues about bin Laden’s health.

The 30-minute video was obtained by the SITE Institute, a Washington-based group that monitors terrorist messages.

The footage gives a rare look at the al-Qaida leader, who has likely avoided appearing in videos as a security measure. His emergence comes at a time when terrorism experts believe his terror network is regrouping in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region and it underlines the U.S. failure to catch him.

In the video, bin Laden wears a white robe, a white circular cap and a beige cloak and is seated behind a table while reading an address to the American people from papers in front of him. His trimmed beard is shorter than in his last video, in 2004, and is fully black apparently dyed, since in past videos it was mostly gray. He speaks softly, as he usually does, and has dark bags under his eyes, but his appearance dispelled rumors that he had died.

Bin Laden makes no overt threats and does not directly call for attacks.

Instead, he addresses Americans, lecturing them on the failures of their leaders to stop the war in Iraq despite growing public opposition in the U.S.

He says there were two solutions to stopping the Iraq war. “One is from our side, and it is to escalate the fighting and killing against you. This is our duty, and our brothers are carrying it out,” bin Laden said.

“The second solution is from your side. … I invite you to embrace Islam,” he said.

One result of that, bin Laden said, would be an end to the Iraq war. He said “warmongering owners of the major corporations” would rush to appease voters who showed they are looking for an alternative, “and this alternative is Islam.”

He derided Bush, saying events in Iraq have gotten “out of control” and the American leader “is like the one who plows and sows the sea: He harvests nothing but failure.”

Bin Laden frequently criticized capitalism, calling its leaders the real terrorists and threats to human freedom.

“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,” he said.

The video appeared to have been recently made. At one point, bin Laden mentions that “several days ago” Japan marked the 62nd anniversary of the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. He also refers to the Democratic Party’s congressional victory in last fall’s election and to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was elected in May.

He also shows a grasp of current events, dropping mentions of global warming and saying Americans are “reeling under the burdens” of a mortgage crisis.

Al-Qaida annually uses the anniversary of the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as a propaganda opportunity, issuing videotapes to rally supporters and mock the United States.

But the appearance of bin Laden this year makes a bigger splash. The al-Qaida leader had not appeared in new video footage since October 2004, and he had not put out an audiotape in more than a year, his longest period without a message.

The United States intercepted the video before it was released on Islamic Web sites where al-Qaida usually posts its messages, a U.S. counterterrorism official said in Washington. U.S. officials had analyzed the video for hours before transcripts and videos were leaked, the official said.