‘Continue holy war actions’

By Tarek Issawi

Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The world’s most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, appeared in a videotape Thursday calling for the destruction of the U.S. economy as the surest way to bring down America.

The terrorist leader looked gaunt but smiled occasionally during his 33-minute discourse. His voice was strong and clear and he spoke deliberately, often leaning into the camera.

“I concentrate on the importance of continuing holy war actions against America, militarily and economically, and America is retreating with God’s help,” he said in a videotape sent anonymously by air courier from Pakistan to Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television, which aired it in full Thursday night.

“This economic hemorrhaging continues until today, but requires more blows. And the youth should try to find the joints of the American economy and hit the enemy in these joints, with God’s permission.”

Bin Laden repeatedly referred to the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as martyrs. He said they “struck deep in the heart of America’s economy.”

The tape has raised new questions about where bin Laden is or if he is alive. A spokesman for Afghanistan’s new defense ministry said bin Laden was in a border area of Pakistan. Other Afghan officials said his whereabouts were unknown.

In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said experts would examine the tape for intelligence information.

He added that he hoped people watching would not believe what bin Laden says. “Here’s a man who has killed thousands of innocent people, so using him as the oracle of all truth clearly would be a mistake,” Rumsfeld said. “He has lied repeatedly over and over again. He has hijacked a religion. He has hidden and cowered in caves and tunnels while sending people off to die.”

The defense secretary also said the United States did not know where the al-Qaida leader was. “We hear six, seven, eight, 10, 12 conflicting reports every day” on bin Laden’s location, he said.

U.S. forces have been searching caves in the mountainous Tora Bora area of eastern Afghanistan, where bin Laden’s al-Qaida fighters made their last stand.

It was not clear where or when the tape from bin Laden was made. His references indicated it could have been made in the past few weeks. Al-Jazeera began broadcasting excerpts of it Wednesday night and aired it in full Thursday.

Bin Laden gestured often with his right hand and kept his left arm at his side. He is believed to be left-handed and it wasn’t clear if he avoided using that hand because of a problem or injury.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, quickly issued a statement in the United States saying the tape “contains the usual rhetoric we have seen before from a deviant and cowardly criminal. Bin Laden is deluding himself if he believes that his criminal acts are justified by any religion or principle of humanity.”

Saudi Arabia stripped bin Laden of his citizenship nearly a decade ago, when his anger with warm Saudi-U.S. relations grew loud enough to become a potential threat to the stability of the monarchy.

Aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, which is launching airstrikes on bin Laden’s suspected hideouts from the Arabian Sea, the crew watched footage aired by CNN in ship lounges, mess halls and work spaces.

“It is clearly propaganda aimed at trying to show that America is anti-Islamic,” Lt. John Oliveira, the ship’s spokesman, said. “I think over the last three months of this campaign, the United States has shown it is not anti-Islamic. We are anti-terrorism.”

The videotape was filled with Islamic parables and words dedicated to the hijackers.

Bin Laden praises the Sept. 11 attacks and defends what even he calls terror against the United States.

“Our terrorism is against America. Our terrorism is a blessed terrorism to prevent the unjust person from committing injustice and to stop American support for Israel, which kills our sons,” he said.

Associated Press