Informed Comment

Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute

Monday, September 14, 2009

Bin Laden Message - US Gov. translation

The USG Open Source Center translates the recently released audio address attributed to Usamah Bin Ladin

Bin Ladin Says US Should Stop Supporting Israel or Face 'War of Attrition'
Jihadist Websites -- OSC Summary
Monday, September 14, 2009
Document Type: OSC Summary

On 14 September, a forum participant posted to a jihadist website numerous links to an 11-minute and 20-second audio statement by Al-Qa'ida leader Usama Bin Ladin titled "Address to the American People." The audio statement is produced by Al-Qa'ida's Al-Sahab Media and distributed through Al-Fajr Media Center. The statement is dated Ramadan 1430, corresponding to September 2009.

A translation of the statement follows:

"Praise be to God, Who created people to worship Him, ordered them to be just, and permitted the wronged to mete out fair punishment to the wrongdoer.

"American people: This address to you is a reminder of the causes of 11 (September) and the wars and consequences that followed and the way to settle it once and for all. I mention in particular the families of those who were hurt in these events and who have recently called for opening an investigation to know its causes. This is a first and important step in the right direction among many other steps that have deliberately gone in the wrong direction over eight barren years that you have experienced.

"The entire American people should follow suit, as the delay in knowing those reasons has cost you a lot without any noteworthy benefit.

"If the White House administration, which is one of the two parties to the dispute, has made it clear to you in the past years that war was necessary to maintain your security, then wise persons should be eager to listen to the two parties to the dispute to know the truth, so listen to what I am going to say.

"At the beginning, I say that we have made it clear and stated so many times for over two decades that the cause of the quarrel with you is your support for your Israeli allies, who have occupied our land, Palestine. This position of yours, along with some other grievances, is what prompted us to carry out the 11 September events. Had you known the magnitude of our suffering as a result of the injustice of the Jews against us, with the support of your administrations for them, you would have known that both our nations are victims of the policies of the White House, which is in fact a hostage in the hands of pressure groups, especially major corporations and the Israeli lobby.

"One of the best persons to explain to you the causes of the events of the 11th is one of your citizens, a former veteran CIA agent, whose conscience awoke in his eighth decade and decided to tell the truth despite the threats, and to explain to you the message of the 11th. So he carried out some activities for this purpose in particular, including his book "Apology of a Hired Assassin."

"As for explaining the suffering of our people in Palestine, Obama has recently acknowledged in his speech from Cairo the suffering of our kinfolk there, who are living under occupation and siege. Things will become clearer if you read what your former president, Carter, wrote about the racism of the Israelis against our kinfolk in Palestine, and also if you listened to his statement weeks ago during his visit to the destroyed and besieged Gaza Strip. He said in that statement that the people of Gaza are treated more as animals than human beings. For us God suffices, and He is the best disposer of affairs.

"We should have a lengthy pause at this point. Any person with an iota of mercy in his heart cannot but sympathize with those oppressed elderly, women, and children living under the deadly siege. Above that, the Zionists pound them with US-made incendiary phosphorous bombs. Life there is tragic beyond limits, to the point that children die b etween the arms of their parents and doctors due to the lack of food and medicine and the power outages. It is indeed a disgrace for world politicians who are content with that, and their loyalists, who are behaving as such with prior knowledge and premeditation, and under the influence of the Israeli lobby in America. The details of that are explained by two of your fellow citizens. They are John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in their book "The Israel Lobby" in the United States.

"After reading the suggested books, you will know the truth and you will be severely shocked at the magnitude of deception that has been practiced against you. You will also know that those who make statements from inside the White House today and claim that your wars against us are necessary for your security are in fact working along the same line of Cheney and Bush, and propagating the former policies of intimidation to market the interests of the relevant major corporations, at the expense of your blood and economy. Those in fact are the ones who are imposing wars on you, not the mujahidin. We are just defending our right to liberate our land.

"If you thoroughly consider your situation, you will know that the White House is occupied by pressure groups. You should have made efforts to liberate it rather than fight to liberate Iraq, as Bush claimed. The White House leader, under such circumstances, and regardless of who he is, is like a train driver who cannot but travel on the railways designed by these pressure groups. Otherwise, his way would be blocked and he would fear that his destiny would be like that of former President Kennedy and his brother.

"In a nutshell, it is time to free yourselves from fear and intellectual terrorism being practiced against you by the neoconservatives and the Israeli lobby. You should put the file of your alliance with the Israelis on the table of discussion. You should ask yourselves the following question so that you can determine your position: Do you like the Israelis' security, sons, and economy more than your security, blood, sons, money, jobs, houses, economy, and reputation? If you choose your security and stopping the wars -- and this has been shown by opinion polls -- then this requires that you act to stop those who are tampering with our security on your end. We are prepared to respond to this option on sound and fair foundations that have been mentioned before.

"Here is an important point that we should pay attention to with regard to war and stopping it. When Bush assumed power and appointed a defense secretary who had made the biggest contribution to killing more than two million persecuted villagers in Vietnam, sane people predicted that Bush was preparing for new massacres in his era. This was what took place in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Obama assumed power and kept the men of Cheney and Bush -- namely, the senior officials in the Defense Department, like Gates, Mullen, and Petraeus -- sane people knew that Obama is a weak person who will not be able to stop the war as he had promised and that he would procrastinate as much as possible. If he were to decide, then he would hand over command to the generals who oppose this aimless war, like the former commander of troops in Iraq, General Sanchez, and the commander of the Central Command who was forced by Bush to resign shortly before leaving the White House due to his opposition to the war. He appointed instead of him a person who would escalate the war. Under the cover of his readiness to cooperate with the Republicans, Obama made the biggest trick as he kept the most important and most dangerous secretary from Cheney's men to continue the war. The days will show you that you have changed only faces in the White House. The bitter truth is that the neoconservatives are still a heavy burden on you.

"Once again, if you stop the war, then that is fine. If you choose not to stop the war, then we have no other option but to continue the war of attrition against you on all possible axes, just as we did with the Soviet Union for 10 years until it disintegrated, with the grace of God. Continue the war for as long as you wish. You are fighting a desperate, losing war that is in favor of others. There seems to be no end in sight for this war.

"Russian generals, who learned lessons from the battles in Afghanistan, had anticipated the result of the war before its start, but you do not like those who give you advice. This is a losing war, God willing, as it is funded by money that is borrowed based on exorbitant usury and is fought by soldiers whose morale is down and who commit suicide on a daily basis to escape from this war.

"This war was prescribed to you by two doctors, Cheney and Bush, as a cure for the 11 September events. However, the bitterness and losses caused by this war are worse than the bitterness of the events themselves. The accumulated debts incurred as a result of this war have almost done away with the US economy as a whole. It has been said that disease could be less evil than some medicines.

"Praise be to God, we are carrying our weapon on our shoulders and have been fighting the two poles of evil in the East and the West for 30 years. Throughout this period, we have not seen any cases of suicide among us despite the international pursuit against us. We praise God for this. This proves the soundness of our belief and the justice of our cause. God willing, we will continue our way to liberate our land. Our weapon is patience. We seek victory from God. We will not give up the Al-Aqsa Mosque. We hold on to Palestine more than we hold on to our souls. Continue the war as long as you wish, we will never bargain over it (Palestine).

"Endless war will not tire me
"For I am now fully grown and strong
"For this, my mother begot me (lines of poetry)
"Peace be upon those who follow guidance."


End/ (Not Continued)

22 Comments:

At 5:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bin Laden died years ago. The CIA-linked intel centers release these fake audio/video recordings so that America has a boogie man. It's like the book 1984, where Big Brother used the fictional character "Goldstein" to control his subjects. Every time the Orwellian "war on terror" becomes unpopular, Big Brother releases a new video of the scary boogie man.

 
At 5:41 PM, Blogger allears said...

I googled "Apology of a Hired Assassin" but could find nothing but a trashy novel. Does anybody know who or what he's talking about?

 
At 5:51 PM, Blogger tom s. said...

Maybe I have missed this on your blog, but are you convinced this is Bin Laden? Is it now generally accepted that he's alive?

 
At 7:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I couldn't even find the trashy novel of "Apology of a Hired Assassin" when I Googled and Bing'd it. I'm calling dibs as the founder of the the group, "Why has AoaHA been wiped from the Internet?"

 
At 7:08 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Allears - He no doubt means John Perkins' "Confessions of an Economic Hitman." Anonymous - you're ridiculous.

-- Rodolfo

 
At 7:18 PM, Blogger Arnold Evans said...

"Apology of a Hired Assassin" is probably "Confessions of an economic hit man"

 
At 7:31 PM, Blogger J. said...

My assumption is "Apology of a Hired Assassin" is a garbled reference to john perkins "Confessions of an Economic Hitman"

 
At 7:51 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bin Laden has most likely been dead for years. These "messages" have a funny habit of showing up at appropriate moments to discredit voices of reason and peace by associating them with "the enemy" as represented by the alleged Bin Laden. As the first commenter said, this is very much akin to the Goldstein figure in "1984".

 
At 8:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have also searched Questia, Google, and book seller sites and did not find "Apology of An Assassin."

If this communication is from the CIA, they are sure making their boogieman sympathetic to anyone who agrees that the Israeli lobby has too much influence, the treatment of Palestinians is racist and disgraceful, and the wars are pointless. And there's the finger-pointing: 9/11 is your fault, not mine and the solution is in your hands.

I don't disagree with his views on Palestine but your average right-wing American would go ballistic. I also believe that the warmongering on both sides is akin to a suicide pact. If this is a CIA letter, well, they sure have devised a clever divide and conquer strategy.

I think that Osama bin Laden is alive.

 
At 10:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

So bin Laden's a 911 truther with an Israel / Palestine obsession now?

Sad to see how low he's fallen. That's a real last propaganda effort from deep in the bunker. He needs to get out more.

I doubt Obama will give two hoots for his advice.

 
At 10:31 PM, Blogger Walking Wounded said...

My reading says that the various audio recordings released by Al Qaeda are confirmed by voice print as bin Laden. The illness thing was ISI disinfo.

The view of Gen. Fred Odom in his various senate and strategic opinion pieces was that our expensive and usustainable Iraq war policy, by destabilizing the region and removing US options, was a huge threat to Israel's security. He pointed out that neocons advocating attacks on Iran were in agreement with Al Qaeda; threats against Iran increase their perceived need for a nuclear trump card, like Israel and Pakistan.

http://globalgeopolitics.net/art/0519-General-William-E-Odom-Iraq-Testimony.htm

 
At 1:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm not quite sure Osama Bin Laden is still alive. The late Benazir Bhutto claimed in November, 2007, that Osama Bin Laden was killed. Here is the YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIO8B6fpFSQ

At the 6 minute mark of the video She says that Bin Laden was murdered.

 
At 2:57 AM, Blogger Jason Wolfe said...

After reading this, I think this is Gadahn the American, not Osama Bin Laden. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Yahiye_Gadahn This sounds exactly like Gadahn's message in 2004. His message then was a mix of Chomsky with explosions and blood. This message is the same thing, Chomsky with explosions and blood. There is no proof that this is Bin Laden, and it comes from the usual fishy source, SITE intelligence.

As an addendum. Let's pretend you consider yourself a skeptic. You don't believe this on trust without some kind of evidence. What evidence is there for the authenticity of this message? I don't see how any skeptic can buy into this garbage.

 
At 3:10 AM, Blogger Patruus said...

Yup, they don't come much deader - http://snipurl.com/ruplq (London Daily Mail)

 
At 5:51 AM, Blogger ??? ?????? said...

An Arabic transcript produced by one of the jihadi media outlets is available here:

Usama bin Laden's New Audio Message, Arabic Transcript Here

 
At 12:04 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey, this man sounds sane and intelligent and should be listened to...

 
At 1:36 PM, Blogger MonsieurGonzo said...

Osama bin Laden : “After reading the suggested books, you will know the truth — and you will be severely shocked at the magnitude of deception that has been practiced against you. (!) Is it not fascinating that here we have perhaps the most compelling proponent of militant Qutbism espousing that "enlightenment is achieved by means of literacy" and associated contemplation, thereof ~ that he is here daring us to question the dogma that permeates our culture; and by doing so engage ourselves, thus in the associated processes of open debate and Informed Comment? fwiw We have an idiom in the West: "People who live in glass houses should not throw stones." (apparently, in Arabic it goes something like: "The camel cannot see the crookedness of its own neck").

imho What should be truly "shocking," to both Messrs. Obama and bin Laden, are revelations found in propagenda snippets like this: "Illiteracy Slows Afghan Army, U.S. Pullout" : “90 percent of those deciding to join the Afghan army are illiterate, according to U.S. military officers involved in their training. That's higher than the 75 percent national illiteracy rate, because military recruits come from lower classes where few know how to read. The lack of basic reading skills slows down progress in an already short 10-week training course. This means that most Afghan soldiers cannot use maps properly or understand the [NATO-American = 'new' Afghan] Army's ‘code of conduct’, for example. It also increases the difficulty of building a solid core of non-commissioned officers - sergeants who are the backbone of every successful army, responsible for conveying a commander's written orders to the troops.

otoh, Most Taliban guerrillas also can't read and write, but they don't need to as much. [!] Understanding maps and signs is important for the Afghan army, which is supposed to deploy anywhere government control is challenged. The Taliban, however, strike on their own timetable - usually wherever government and NATO-American forces are weakest. They move among friendly, generally ethnic Pashtun communities and rely on local guides. Many Taliban fighters operate in areas of the country where they grew up, making maps and compasses unnecessary.
The Taliban also generally operate in small units. They use hit-and-run insurgency tactics or lay bombs along roads, highly effective techniques that don't require the same level of sophistication and attention to detail as conventional military tactics, which often use helicopters, artillery, armored vehicles and complex formations of large numbers of troops.


To overcome the problem... the U.S. has engaged private companies, such as Pulau Electronics of Orlando, Fla., to run a [crash course in literacy] that aims to make 50 percent of the troops "functionally literate" within the first year of the program: "The target is for them to be able to write their own name and their weapon's serial number." How enlightening, indeed.

 
At 2:50 PM, Blogger ??? ?????? said...

SITE Intelligence simply grabs things off jihadi web sites and translates and "analyzes" them for their clients, of course for a profit. However, the materials (such as audio and video messages, and written releases) are available through other avenues without SITE acting as intermediary.

As for the suggestion that the tape is Adam Gadahn ('Azzam al-Amriki), it is interesting to consider whether the text of this "new-old hat" audio message may have been constructed with Gadahn's help. However, I don't think that the voice is Gadahn's, who could not pass as Bin Laden or even a native Arabic speaker. In Gadahn's last video, released in the summer, he speaks in Arabic, but does so in a halting fashion, and clearly seems to be reading verbatim from a teleprompter.

 
At 10:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I believe the book was "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man."

 
At 5:55 AM, Blogger Howard said...

Since John Perkins is not 80 years old and was never a CIA agent, I don't think the book can be "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man". Has anyone read "American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate & Beyond" by E. Howard Hunt? He wrote this autobiography in his eighties and as we know he was a longtime CIA asset.

 
At 5:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Are the wars a waste of time? Is the spending on the war killing the economy? Will the US economy really tank when war spending ends? Are to hapless Palistinians being slowly exterminated by the Israelis? Do the Israelis lead US pussyticians around by the nose?

And is Obama unable to thwart the political forces that have made this very poor scene go on and on and on.

It will end when one side collapses.

 
At 3:01 AM, Blogger ??? ?????? said...

The official English translation was released yesterday by the Global Islamic Media Front.

Official English translation of New Bin Laden Audio Message Released

 

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