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Bin Laden Declares War, Vows No Peace for U.S.
DUBAI, Oct 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Osama bin Laden and his aides declared war on the United States, warning there will be no peace as missiles rained down Sunday on his sanctuaries in Afghanistan.
Bin Laden defiantly praised the September 11th hijack bombings on New York and Washington and vowed the United States would not know peace until it withdraws its troops from the Arabian Peninsula, and Palestine also enjoys peace.
He said "a vanguard group of Muslims" was behind the jetliner attacks that razed the World Trade Center in New York and damaged the Pentagon.
The gray-bearded bin Laden used Qatar's al-Jazeera satellite channel to broadcast a tough pre-recorded message after the start of U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan.
"I swear by God that America and those who live in America won't dream of having security before we have it in Palestine and all infidel armies depart from the land of Mohammad," said bin Laden, accused by Washington of masterminding the anti-U.S. attacks.
Bin Laden said the United States had been hit where it hurts, its most impressive building had been destroyed, "thank God, and it has been filled with fear from north to south and from east to west."
However, the Saudi-born millionaire, flanked by commanders of his al-Qaeda network and surrounded by automatic weapons, stopped short of claiming responsibility for the attacks that left thousands dead.
"God guided the path of a vanguard group of Muslims who destroyed America and we implore Allah to raise them up and admit them to paradise."
Bin Laden also said there was no comparison between the suffering Muslims had experienced at the hands of the United States and what Americans were experiencing today.
"The Islamic nation had for decades suffered injustice and humiliation, with its sons killed and their blood shed," he said.
"Even now, Israeli tanks are wreaking havoc in Palestinian localities without anyone batting an eyelid," he said.
Bin Laden said the current crisis had divided the world into "faith and infidelity," and every Muslim should rise to defend his faith.
"The winds of change have blown to sweep away evil from the [Arabian] Peninsula" he said referring to the presence of thousands of Western, chiefly U.S., troops in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Arabian Peninsula, but presumably also to Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Saudi Arabia is home to Islam's holiest sites, while East Jerusalem hosts the al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine.
The United States had vowed to attack the Taliban regime in Afghanistan unless it handed over bin Laden.
"On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al-Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan," U.S. President George Bush said late Sunday.
Suleiman Abu-Ghaith, identified as al-Qaeda's official spokesman, urged Muslims to fight and the leader of the Egyptian Jihad organization, Ayman Zawahri, delivered an equally harsh message.
Abu Ghairth said the September 11th attacks were a "natural ... result of America's foolish [foreign] policy ... blatant hostility to Islam and Muslims".
Recalling that the Soviet Union had been forced to withdraw from Afghanistan, Abu-Ghaith warned the United States that, "the moment it sets foot on the land of Afghanistan will mark the beginning of its downfall."
"The banner announcing jihad [struggle] against Jews and Christians is raised as never before in our time. It has announced
jihad against Americans, it has announced jihad against those who seek to soil the sanctuaries of Muslims and against the occupation of their territory," he warned.
The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef said bin Laden had survived the first missile strikes and air raids on Afghanistan launched by U.S. and British forces.
Text of Osama bin Laden's statement
Following is the full text of the message of Osama bin Laden broadcast Sunday by Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite channel:
"America has been hit by Allah [God] at its most vulnerable point, destroying, thank God, its most prestigious buildings.
"America has been filled with fear from north to south and from east to west, thank God.
"What America is suffering today does not constitute even a negligible part of what we [Muslims] have suffered for decades. Our nation has undergone more than 80 years of this humiliation, its sons are killed, its blood flows, its holy places are attacked without reason - but no one hears or answers.
"God guided the path of a group of vanguard Muslims who destroyed America and we implore Allah to raise them up and admit them to paradise.
"When they responded to [the call of] their oppressed sons and their brothers and sisters in Palestine and many other Islamic countries, the world was up in arms, and so were the infidels and hypocrites.
"Innocent children are being killed until this moment in Iraq and we hear no denunciation and we don't hear of any step [taken] by [Arab] rulers and sultans. Israeli tanks are wreaking havoc in Palestine - in Jenin, Ramallah, Rafah and Beit Jala and other parts of the land of Islam, but no one raises his voice [in protest] or bats an eyelid.
"When the sword reached America after 80 years, the hypocrites raised their heads and lamented [what befell] those killers who played havoc with the Muslims' blood, honor and sanctities. They [Americans] are debauchees who supported the executioner against the victim and the unjust against the innocent child. God gave them what they deserve.
"After what happened and after senior officials in the United States, starting with the chief [non-believer] Bush, spoke out, they mobilized their men and horses and turned even the countries that call themselves Muslim against us, in order to fight a group of people who are committed to their religion, in order to fight Islam and attack people under the banner of [combating] terrorism.
"[Where America is concerned], killing hundreds of thousands in Japan is debatable, and [what is happening in] Iraq is debatable. But when a few dozen of them were killed in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, Afghanistan and Iraq were bombed and all hypocrites rallied behind America, the leader of global infidelity and injustice, and its allies.
"These events have divided the world into two parts: a part that espouses faith and is devoid of hypocrisy, and an [npn-believing] part, may God protect us from it.
"Every Muslim must rise to defend his religion. The winds of faith, the winds of change have blown to sweep away evil from Mohammad's Peninsula.
"To America, I have only a few words to say: I swear by God that America and those who live in America won't dream of having security before we have it in Palestine and all infidel armies depart from the land of Mohammad.
"God is great. Glory be to Islam."
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