2004 Osama bin Laden video

In the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989), Muslim-majority Afghanistan was invaded by the mostly non-Muslim Soviet Union. Osama bin Laden, a Saudi Islamist connected to the royal House of Saud, left his country to organize the Afghan mujahideen, Muslims who fought the Soviets were jihadists; those who engage in jihad, struggle in the name of Islam, are called mujahideen. For that purpose, bin Laden and Abdullah Yusuf Azzam founded Maktab al-Khidamat (MaK). In 1989, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan. Azzam was then assassinated, leaving Bin Laden with full control of MaK, which evolved into al-Qaeda. In the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, nineteen members of al-Qaeda hijacked four American commercial flights in an attempt to crash them into important landmarks in the United States. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were crashed into the Twin Towers—1 and 2 World Trade Center (WTC)—in New York City. Both towers soon collapsed as a result of the damage. American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon near Washington D.C. From 2001 to 2011, the U.S. engaged in a widespread manhunt for bin Laden, who had left Afghanistan for Pakistan, where he eventually built a safe house. He had narrowly escaped death from a U.S. assault in December 2001, during the Battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan. Responsibility for 9/11 On 9/11, U.S. and German intelligence intercepted communications that pointed to bin Laden's culpability in the attacks. Bush wrote in his diary before going to bed that day: "The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today... We think it's Osama bin Laden." In November 2001, during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, American troops found a videotape in which bin Laden is seen discussing what is likely 9/11 with Khaled al-Harbi. Bin Laden tells him, among other things, that it was "calculated in advance [what] the number of casualties from the enemy [would be] based on the position of the towers". The video was released on December 13.—broadcast a video statement from bin Laden, in which he again seems to imply responsibility for 9/11: "Our terrorism against the United States is worthy of praise to ..." He also mentions a recent "blessed attack" on the U.S. Many more vague and cryptic recordings of bin Laden were released afterwards. ==Video==

On October 29, 2004, Al Jazeera broadcast a previously unseen video recorded by bin Laden. Reuters then made an English translation of it. The tape was analyzed by U.S. intelligence to determine if it contains any coded messages to al-Qaeda operatives; White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan claimed that there were no plans to raise the U.S. terrorism alert level, as no specific codes or threats were found to have been made in the tape. Indian intelligence official B. Raman came to the same conclusion. The video demonstrated that bin Laden was still alive by mid-to-late 2004. Not only does he state that 9/11 was three years ago, he makes references that seem plausible for that period. In one instance, he threatens the U.S. while mentioning U.S. Senator John Kerry, who was elected in July as the Democratic nominee for the presidential election on November 2. Kerry's opponent was incumbent president George W. Bush. Bin Laden says: One of the physical tapes was stamped with the date "10 Ramadan", or October 24, but the legitimacy of the date is unknown. == Content ==

Motives for 9/11 Bin Laden dismisses recent claims by Bush that 9/11 occurred because Islamic extremists "hate freedom": offloading supplies and equipment in Lebanon during the 1982 Lebanon War"I say to you, God knows that it had never occurred to us to strike the towers. But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the American/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind. The events that affected my soul in a direct way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American Sixth Fleet helped them in that. This bombardment began and many were killed and injured and others were terrorised and displaced. I couldn’t forget those moving scenes, blood and severed limbs, women and children sprawled everywhere. Houses destroyed along with their occupants and high rises demolished over their residents, rockets raining down on our home without mercy. The situation was like a crocodile meeting a helpless child, powerless except for his screams. Does the crocodile understand a conversation that doesn’t include a weapon? And the whole world saw and heard but it didn’t respond. In those difficult moments many hard-to-describe ideas bubbled in my soul, but in the end they produced an intense feeling of rejection of tyranny, and gave birth to a strong resolve to punish the oppressors. And as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children."He tells Americans that "the best way to avoid another" attack like 9/11 is to not threaten the security of Muslim nations. Threatening more attacks Bin Laden also threatens to "bankrupt" the U.S. with more attacks: Another crash made it clear that Flight 11's was not an accident. Bush quietly listened for seven minutes afterwards, and then left the classroom to be briefed by his staff. Bin Laden implies that the wait helped the hijackers who were still alive carry out their plans: "It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American Armed Forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the Twin Towers to face those great horrors alone, the time when they most needed him. [As Bush] seemed to [decide that] occupying himself by talking to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers, we were given three times the period required to execute the operations—all praise is due to God."Flight 77 had already been hijacked when Card spoke at 9:05 a.m. EST. The last plane to be hijacked was Flight 93, at 9:28; as mentioned, it failed to reach the hijackers' target. == Responses ==

at Express Airport in Toledo, OhioHours after the tape was broadcast, Bush gave a short statement to the media at Express Airport in Toledo, Ohio:"Let me make this very clear: Americans will not be intimidated or influenced by an enemy of our country. I'm sure Senator Kerry agrees with this. I also want to say to the American people that we're at war with these terrorists and I am confident that we will prevail." However, a CNN poll showed that Kerry was favored 53% to 47% by people who considered the tape "very important". ==See also==