Bin Laden has reportedly dyed.
Unfortunately, that is not a typo.
Elusive Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden mocked the United States as “weak” and vowed to escalate fighting in Iraq in a new video, his first such appearance in nearly three years.
Bin Laden discusses current events but issues no direct threats in the video, released Friday. His appearance appears to be timed to mark the upcoming sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
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In the rambling message bin Laden attacks US President George W. Bush, the US neoconservative thinkers that support him and global corporations for fomenting the Iraq war. He also attacks the US Democratic Party, which he claims has done little to halt the war, makes references to global capitalism and climate change, and invites Americans to embrace Islam.
US intelligence agencies confirmed the tape’s authenticity. “I think people are pretty confident it is his voice,” said a US intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The tape was probably produced as recently as early August because of a reference to the 62nd anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, the official said.
It is bin Laden’s first such appearance since October 2004, when he threatened new attacks against the United States in a video just days before the US presidential election.
Bush used the video to support the US military presence in Iraq.
“The tape is a reminder about the dangerous world in which we live,” said Bush, who was attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Sydney.
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In the video bin Laden appears with a trimmed beard that is apparently dyed black, hiding the streaks of gray seen in previous footage. He wears a beige cloak over a white robe, and looks more like a Muslim cleric than a fighter.
If you ask me, the cloak makes him look like some kind of Obi Wan Evil One Ben Kenobi.
According to Azzam Tamimi, head of the London-based Institute of Islamic Political Thought, the beard dye is a “sign of war.”
The rigorous Salafi Islamic school to which bin Laden belongs “condones this dye only in preparation for war,” he said.
Bin Laden mocks the United States for its troubles in Iraq and the effect of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“Despite America being the greatest economic power and possessing the most powerful and up-to-date military arsenal as well … 19 young men were able — by the grace of Allah, the most high — to change the direction of its compass,” he said in a reference to the September 11 hijackers.
“America is weak despite its apparent strength,” he says.
Widely believed hiding in the remote tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, bin Laden has evaded capture despite a huge US manhunt and a 25-million dollar bounty on his head.
According to the video transcript, bin Laden begins with “praise to Allah” and his “law of retaliation” — “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and the killer is killed.”
Bush is “like the one who plows and sows the sea: He harvests nothing but failure,” bin Laden said.
In the tape bin Laden also mentions French President Nicolas Sarkozy, elected in May, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took office in June.
Addressing the American people directly, he refers to domestic opposition to the Iraq war, saying: “the world is following your news in regards to your invasion of Iraq, for people have recently come to know that, after several years of tragedies of this war, the vast majority of you want it stopped.”
He says the Democrats who now control the US Congress have failed to stop the war, and even “continue to agree to the spending of tens of billions to continue the killing and war there.”
Bin Laden also refers to recent US headline stories, referring to “the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes and real estate mortgages; global warming and its woes.”
“To conclude,” he says, “I invite you to embrace Islam.”
Ever the comedian.
