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Osama bin Laden: Is it him? Almost certainly
By Robert Fisk
01/20/06 "The
Independent" -- -- So why only on audio? Why no
video tape? Is he sick? Yes, say the usual American
"intelligence sources". It's the same old story: Osama bin Laden
talks to us from the mouth of a cave, from within a cave, from a
basement perhaps, from a tape almost certainly recorded down a
telephone line from far away. Yesterday's message, broadcast as
ever by al-Jazeera television, was a reminder that security -
not sickness - decides his method of communication.
We invaded Afghanistan to find Bin Laden and we fight and die in
Iraq to kill his supporters - yet still he eludes us, still he
threatens us, still he taunts us.
How much longer can this nonsense go on? President Jacques
Chirac warns that France - of all countries - might use nuclear
weapons, if attacked. On whom, I wonder? America blows Pakistani
children to pieces and claims it has killed five wanted men,
including a bomb-maker. But there's absolutely no evidence. Bin
Laden says that America will be attacked again unless it accepts
a truce in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Weren't we supposed
to be winning the "war on terror"? Oh no, the "experts" tell us,
Bin Laden and al-Qa'ida are losing, that's why they want a
truce. Some hope.
It's a game. Bin Laden has no intention of calling an end to his
own war and nor has George Bush and nor has Tony Blair. The Bin
Laden offer, almost certainly, is intended to be rejected. He
wants Bush and Blair to refuse it. Then, after the next attack,
will come the next audio tape. See what happens when you reject
our ceasefire? We warned you. And we'll ask: is it him? So why
no video tape? Never before in history have so many wanted men
sent pictures and messages and video tapes out of the dark.
The irony, of course, is that Bin Laden is now partly
irrelevant. He has created al-Qa'ida. His achievement - that
word should be seen in context - is complete. Why bother hunting
for him now? It's a bit like arresting the world's nuclear
scientists after the invention of the atom bomb. The monster has
been born. It's al-Qa'ida we have to deal with.
So we are told that America's security hasn't prevented an
attack, that " operations" take time to prepare. "It is better
not to fight the Muslims on their land," Bin Laden says. "We'd
not mind offering you a truce that is fair in the long term ...
so we can build Iraq and Afghanistan," he says. Forget for a
moment the deep cynicism behind this message - deconstructing
the Shia of Iraq seems to be one of the Iraqi insurgents' aims -
it also reveals one of Bin Laden's old themes: the idea that
these wars will bankrupt the United States.
"There is no shame in this solution because it prevents the
wasting of billions of dollars ... to the merchants of war."
These are almost the same words Bin Laden used to me when we
last met. "The Americans will be bankrupted," he said, not
realising that war primes the pumps of a superpower economy.
It is as if both "sides" in this conflict live on illusions.
Mssrs Bush and Blair keep telling us things in Iraq are getting
better, when we all know that they are getting worse. Anarchy
has seized that entire country. American bodies coming home to
the United States? Just don't let the press take photographs of
the coffins. Bombs in London? Nothing to do with Iraq, Blair
haplessly told us last July.
Now there's a website in Spanish about Iraq on the White House
screens. Why? Because the Spaniards are interested in the war
their army has left? Or because so many of the American soldiers
dying in Iraq are Hispanics? And now we have Paul Bremer,
America's equally hapless former pro-consul in Baghdad, telling
us that those same Spanish troops contributed to the uprising in
Najaf because they weren't performing their tasks in Iraq. More
nonsense. What started the uprising was Bremer's own anger at an
attack on him in a tiny Shia Muslim newspaper which he ordered
to be closed (in an announcement of execrable Arabic). It was
this which prompted Muqtada al-Sadr to fight the Americans.
And so we go on. Blame foreign fighters - even if 158,000 of
them in Iraq happen to be wearing American uniforms - blame
Syria, blame Iran. And blame Spain of course. Blame anyone who
is not "with us".
In truth, it will need Iran and Syria to help get the US and
Britain out of this shameful adventure. Yet what do we do? Raise
the stakes on Iran by claiming that it intends to make nuclear
weapons. And why Iran? Why not that infinitely more unstable
Islamic state called Pakistan which has nuclear weapons? Because
its dictator, President General Musharraf is on "our side". Why
not attack North Korea, whose leader is more unstable than any
Iranian cleric? Because he also has nuclear weapons.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban are slowly returning. Outside Kabul
every woman wears a burqa. Weren't they supposed to have taken
them off? Weren't women now "free" in Afghanistan? US troops are
being killed at an increasing rate there. Weren't they supposed
to have won? Now Canada has split its troops and sent a
battalion to Kandahar to fight the Taliban and al-Qa'ida. What
are the Canadians now doing in combat operations? What risks
does this now pose for the Canadian nation which kept out of
Iraq?
It was only a few months ago that Bin Laden was bombarding us
with explanations for his movement's attacks. Why did no one
ask, he said, why Sweden was not assaulted? And so, I suppose,
we can indeed fear more attacks on the United States, more
bombing raids, further chapters in the "war on terror".
And all the time we in the West fail to look for a way to end
this "war" . How about some justice in the Middle East? How
about lifting the blanket of injustice that has lain across the
region for so many decades? Muslims there will probably like
some of the democracy we say we're trying to export to them.
They would also like human rights off our Western supermarket
shelves.
But they would also like another kind of freedom - freedom from
us. And this, it seems, we are not going to give them. So the
war goes on. Stand by for more audio tapes, and more threats,
and more death.
The text of Osama bin Laden's message
The text of excerpts from the Bin Laden tape
My message to you is about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and
how to end them... Our situation, thank God, is only getting
better and better, while your situation is the opposite.
But I plan to speak about the repeated errors your President
Bush has committed in comments on the results of your polls that
show that an overwhelming majority of you want the withdrawal of
American troops from Iraq. But he [Bush] has opposed this wish
and said that withdrawing troops sends the wrong message to
opponents, that it is better to fight them [Bin Laden's
followers] on their land than them fighting us [Americans] on
our land. I can reply to these errors by saying that war in Iraq
is raging with no let-up, and operations in Afghanistan are
escalating in our favour, thank God, and Pentagon figures show
the number of your dead and wounded is increasing not to mention
the massive material losses...
The reality shows that war against America and its allies has
not been limited to Iraq as he [Bush] claims ... The proof of
that is the explosions you have seen in the capitals of the
European nations who are in this aggressive coalition. The delay
in similar operations happening in America has not been because
of failure to break through your security measures. The
operations are under preparation and you will see them in your
homes the minute they are through [with preparations]...
We don't mind offering you a long-term truce on fair conditions
that we adhere to. We are a nation that God has forbidden to lie
and cheat. So both sides can enjoy security and stability under
this truce so we can build Iraq and Afghanistan, which have been
destroyed in this war. There is no shame in this solution, which
prevents the wasting of billions of dollars that have gone to
those with influence and merchants of war in America who have
supported Bush's election campaign with billions of dollars.
SEE, HEAR AND QUESTION ROBERT FISK
The Independent's celebrated Middle East Correspondent talks
about his life in the war zone on 23 January, from 6.30 to 8pm
at Manchester Town Hall, Albert Square, Manchester.
A limited number of tickets are still available. If you would
like tickets, please e-mail debate@ independent.co.uk with your
full name, address, daytime telephone number and number of
tickets required. Ticket-only event. Subject to availability.
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