Osama bin Laden to Launch War against Iraq?

So, Osama bin Laden has appeared again. To put it more precisely, the question is about a new audio message of him. As it already happened earlier, the speech of the Terrorist Number One was promulgated by the Quatar TV channel Al-Jazeera.

According to the record, bin Laden is informed very well about what happens in the world. He devoted his audio letter to the most exciting subject – the possible US war against Iraq. However, bin Laden said nothing new. He still menaces with terrorist acts (though, this time the menace is addressed to the countries supporting the US in its war against Iraq). And he still calls all Muslims to unification against “US aggression” and to supporting people of Iraq.

Though, bin Laden seems not to respect Saddam Husain so much. According to bin Laden, Saddam who is the head of the BAAS party (which declared while being funded its fidelity to a kind of “Arab socialism”) is as big apostate as Americans preparing for the regime overthrow. According to bin Laden, it does not matter whether the Saddam communist party disappears or not (you know, in his time, Saddam annihilated almost all Iraqi communists).

However for the White House the appearance of the tape with bin Laden’s speech came in handy. For some time the US has been trying to prove that the Iraqi regime actively cooperates with Al-Qaida. However, until this moment there was no evidence of it. This fact was recognized even by the leadership of the US special services. And now, you see, such a present… US Secretary of State Colin Powell hastened to declare the cassette obviously demonstrated the link between bin Laden and Iraq Washington has been trying to prove since September 11, 2001.
 
Iraqis at once characterized the bin Laden speech as “provocation.” According to Iraqis, the existence of the tape is profitable only for the US, searching for a pretext for launching a military offensive. The hint is plain: Iraq considers the tape may be fabricated by special services of certain influential power.
This hint as well as many other hints of all interested parts hardly could be confirmed with documents. Nevertheless, the situation looks paradoxical: the speech of the terrorist with whom the US fought so long is advantageous for Washington.
 
Who would dare to oppose the Saddam overthrow, if it appears he really has or had some links to bin Laden? Nobody would. However, it is still not known whether Osama bin Laden is alive or not. It was probably somebody else who is implicated in the tape production. So, the tape authenticity is under question. But this fact does not hinders Americans from using it as ideological weapon in its fight with terrorism or - in patronage of it.

Vasily Bubnov
PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Vera Solovieva