U.S.: No Overt Threats In Osama Video
Boston Celtics' Greg Stiemsma, left, Keyon Dooling (51) and Paul Pierce, right, watch during the closing minutes of overtime of Game 2 in their NBA basketball Eastern Conference Finals playoff series against the Miami Heat, Wednesday, May 30, 2012, in Miami. The Heat defeated the Celtics 115-111 in overtime. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) / Lynne Sladky
A new videotape purported to be from Osama bin Laden, nearly 30 minutes long, contains no overt threat against the United States, a U.S. security official tells CBS News.
In the video, bin Laden tells Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end. He lectures them on the failures of their leaders to stop the war in Iraq despite growing public opposition in the U.S.
"There are two solutions to stopping it. One is from our side, and it is to escalate the fighting and killing against you. This is our duty, and our brothers are carrying it out," bin Laden said.
"The second solution is from your side," he said. "I invite you to embrace Islam."
"It will also achieve your desire to stop the war as a consequence, because as soon as the warmongering owners of the major corporations realize that you have lost confidence in your democratic system and have begun to look for an alternative, and this alternative is Islam, they will run after you to please you and achieve what you want to steer you away from Islam," he said.
CBS News terrorism analyst Paul Kurtz says bin Laden is not just addressing Americans - he is also sending a signal to his sympathizers.
"He's alive and well and he's up to date on what's happening in the world," Kurtz said. "So he's not necessarily living in some cave without broadband; he's connected, he knows what's going on."
Intelligence analysts are still looking at the video image to determine if the speaker is Osama bin Laden, but a U.S. intelligence official says an initial technical analysis suggests the voice on the tape is that of bin Laden, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.
According to the U.S. official, a transcript of the tape reveals the following:
The speaker who appears to be bin Laden makes specific references to the U.S. involvement in the Iraq War, which indicates the tape may have been made sometime in 2007.
The speaker talks about the politics of a U.S. withdrawal, an issue that was not current at the time of bin Laden's last confirmed video in 2004.
The speaker seems to criticize Democrats and their lack of action in pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq. He reportedly makes references to Democrats' campaign promises to start a withdrawal and notes the failure to follow up.
Officials will not say how the government obtained the tape, but it may have been briefly posted this morning on a Jihadist Web site, reports Orr. That Web site since has crashed.
U.S. officials said they do not know when, or if, al Qaeda will release the tape. The officials brushed aside questions about whether the U.S. would preemptively put it out.
Al Qaeda's media arm had previously announced a new bin Laden video would be released ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The video, if authentic, would be the first video from the terror chief in nearly three years.
On Thursday, the White House said that any new video from bin Laden would serve to highlight threats the West faces. Analysts noted that al Qaeda tends to mark the Sept. 11 anniversary with a slew of messages, and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told CBS News Friday afternoon there is no credible, imminent threat against the U.S.
Still, if the man in the video is bin Laden, his appearance would be significant. The al Qaeda leader has not appeared in new video footage since October 2004, and he has not put out a new audiotape in more than a year, his longest period without a message.
One difference in his appearance was immediately obvious. The announcement had a still photo from the coming video, showing bin Laden addressing the camera, his beard fully black. In his past videos, bin Laden's beard was almost entirely gray with dark streaks.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. In the video, bin Laden tells Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end. He lectures them on the failures of their leaders to stop the war in Iraq despite growing public opposition in the U.S.
"There are two solutions to stopping it. One is from our side, and it is to escalate the fighting and killing against you. This is our duty, and our brothers are carrying it out," bin Laden said.
"The second solution is from your side," he said. "I invite you to embrace Islam."
"It will also achieve your desire to stop the war as a consequence, because as soon as the warmongering owners of the major corporations realize that you have lost confidence in your democratic system and have begun to look for an alternative, and this alternative is Islam, they will run after you to please you and achieve what you want to steer you away from Islam," he said.
CBS News terrorism analyst Paul Kurtz says bin Laden is not just addressing Americans - he is also sending a signal to his sympathizers.
"He's alive and well and he's up to date on what's happening in the world," Kurtz said. "So he's not necessarily living in some cave without broadband; he's connected, he knows what's going on."
Intelligence analysts are still looking at the video image to determine if the speaker is Osama bin Laden, but a U.S. intelligence official says an initial technical analysis suggests the voice on the tape is that of bin Laden, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.
According to the U.S. official, a transcript of the tape reveals the following:
Officials will not say how the government obtained the tape, but it may have been briefly posted this morning on a Jihadist Web site, reports Orr. That Web site since has crashed.
U.S. officials said they do not know when, or if, al Qaeda will release the tape. The officials brushed aside questions about whether the U.S. would preemptively put it out.
Al Qaeda's media arm had previously announced a new bin Laden video would be released ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The video, if authentic, would be the first video from the terror chief in nearly three years.
On Thursday, the White House said that any new video from bin Laden would serve to highlight threats the West faces. Analysts noted that al Qaeda tends to mark the Sept. 11 anniversary with a slew of messages, and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told CBS News Friday afternoon there is no credible, imminent threat against the U.S.
Still, if the man in the video is bin Laden, his appearance would be significant. The al Qaeda leader has not appeared in new video footage since October 2004, and he has not put out a new audiotape in more than a year, his longest period without a message.
One difference in his appearance was immediately obvious. The announcement had a still photo from the coming video, showing bin Laden addressing the camera, his beard fully black. In his past videos, bin Laden's beard was almost entirely gray with dark streaks.
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Well- USA has technology that it can make a controlled bombing on moon, can scan galaxies but could not locate a single man which is sais it wanted very badly. USA could not find even people who are with him...and location which he had been and anything on him yet.
Now- how we can digest this ?
USA says- weapons of mass destruction are in IRAQ and toay we know that more than 95,000 people die [ This is official figure ] in IRAQ- who is responsible and what is accountability of these deaths..if USA could not find weapons of mass deestructions ?
It means-agends was somethig else from day one- OIL ? or what ???
Then we have 9/11 and within hrs, it was declared that this is AL-QAEDA and it's base is AFGHANISTAN. USA is there...with NATO tags and here we could not find anything on AL-QAEDA too. What we are doing there ? Fighting with Talibans which are now classified as GOOD TALIBAN and BAD TALIBAN.
Honestly speaking, if you see both images of BUSH and OSAMA..OSAMA looks like a saintly figure, cool and peace on his face where BUSH looks like a man suffering from acute depression and may be piles.
'' ... i just never could imagine walking into talk to a bunch of police and soldiers and saying to them: ''lets go to war in y''alls sons and daughters and brothers and sisters schools and call it ''dare ya'' and see how many little kids get mugged and raped and killed'' and then having them all say ''sounds great, let''s do it'' ... but that''s exactly what happened ... ''
http://www.dnaco.net/~vogelke/pictures/when-cloning-goes-wrong/
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If your big oil and profit motives are true then they are stupid in the extreme! In that case the smart thing to do would be to give Americans cheap gas prices at the pump, it would take a lot of heat off them wouldn''t you say? If what you''re saying is true then their extreme greed by not letting Americans share in the loot will be their ultimate undoing. They could easily lull Americans to sleep with cheap gas prices at the pump but their stupidity reigns supreme!