CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden addressed the "wise men" of the European Union in a new audio message late Wednesday, slamming the publication of drawings insulting to the Prophet Muhammad and vowing a strong reaction. The message, which appeared on a militant Web site that has carried al-Qaida statements in the past and bore the logo of the extremist group's media wing al-Sahab, showed a still image of bin Laden aiming with an AK-47. A voice believed to be bin Laden's described the attacks of the Europeans on women and children but said these "paled (in comparison) when 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, this is the greatest misfortune and the most dangerous." THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. CAIRO, Egypt (AP)—Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden will be issuing a new message timed to the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a militant Web site with close connections to the group said Wednesday. "Urgent, very soon by the will of God," read the announcement of the new message "the response is what you see and not what you hear, by the warrior sheik, Osama bin Laden." Iraq marked the fifth anniversary of the war on Wednesday. The announcement was text only and showed no pictures of the elusive militant leader. The message would be bin Laden's first for 2008 and follows up an hour-long, late December audio missive in which he warned Iraq's Sunni Arabs against fighting al-Qaida in Iraq and vowed new attacks on Israel. source ___________________________ From another source: Bin Laden warns EU over Prophet cartoons By Lin Noueihed DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatened the European Union with grave punishment on Wednesday over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. In an audio recording posted on the Internet, Bin Laden said the cartoons were part of a "crusade" in which he said the Catholic Pope Benedict was involved. The message was released on the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The cartoons were first published by the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in September 2005 but a furor erupted only after other papers reprinted them in 2006. At least 50 people were killed in the protests against the publication of the cartoons, which Muslims say are an affront to Islam. Newspapers which have reprinted the cartoons argue they are defending the right to media freedom. Bin Laden's message was entitled "The Response Will Be What You See, Not What You Hear", according to the password-protected Ekhlaas Web, which carries messages and statements from al Qaeda-affiliated groups around the world. The banner message appeared in bright red, labeled "urgent" with plain Arabic text. It carried no picture of the Saudi-born militant leader nor the insignia of al Qaeda's media arm As-Sahab, which usually releases his videos and audio tapes. The message apparently is the first by bin Laden since November 29 when he urged European countries to end military participation with U.S. forces in the Afghan conflict. The al Qaeda leader, blamed for the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities, issued a number of messages late last year after a hiatus of well over a year raised speculation that he might be dead or incapacitated. Bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding in remote areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan, has tended to release messages to mark significant dates or events. On September 7, 2007, bin Laden appeared in a videotape marking the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and said the United States remained vulnerable despite its economic and military power. He then eulogized a September 11 hijacker in an al Qaeda tape that appeared on the anniversary date itself. Later the same month bin Laden vowed to retaliate against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for the killing of a rebel cleric and a raid on his mosque. Bin Laden is blamed for masterminding a series of attacks on U.S. targets in Africa and the Middle East in the early 1990s. His wealthy family has disowned him and he has been stripped of his Saudi citizenship.
LOL yet another dodgy audio tape (completely unverified of course!) I have noticed that the CIA have stopped releasing dodgy Bin Laden videos because nobody buys the BS anymore. Even your hero Bush isn't interested in the Boogeyman any more and hasn't been for years.
This was on an extremist website. Let's just say for a moment that it was either Bin Laden or someone making a threat in his name. They said, "the response is what you see and not what you hear, by the warrior sheik, Osama bin Laden." What are they planning?
2 Hour special on MTV? Sorry, I don't take the Bin Laden scaremongering seriously anymore. Not since the last round of tapes, where the content was chronologically correct, but Bin Laden looked 20 years younger than his last tape. Which is precisely why I think we're now only hearing audio. Or how the government leaked tapes prematurely that were exposed by a private covert operative, shutting down the operatives access. Does anyone remember the video of Pakistani students I posted last year? Where they said that people think that Bin Laden is an American invention? I swear, this is like the Twilight Zone, and if I'm going crazy, I'm at least going to go laughing.
OK, but let's just pretend, if you were a terrorist and made the threat of violence: "the response is what you see and not what you hear, by the warrior sheik, Osama bin Laden." What would the violence be? Anyone??
There are very few men in the world who can spend the entire day lounging around in a bathrobe, and accomplish as much as Bin Laden.
If Bin Laden is dead, I doubt that Al-Qaeda would let us know. They may be creating these new "messages" supposedly from Bin Laden.
I'd just like to make sure I understand what people believe. Is Bin-Laden and Al-Qaeda a creation, an instrument of the U.S. Government (specifically, the CIA), and we are being essentially fed a massive lie by the same, or is Bin Laden/Al-Qaeda what it is commonly understood to be?
Soon there will be articles everywhere on the web and instructional video's on youtube on " How to create a Bin Laden Audio Tape in 3 minutes". I will be making some Bin laden Audio tapes myself, without depending on some random extremist website for them.