BBC Translation Of Osama Bin Ladens New Tape Jan 05

Jill St. Claire's HomelandSecurityUS.NET

BBC Translation Of Osama Bin Ladens New Tape Jan 05,

2004 Source: BBC

Here is the BBC translation of Osama bin Ladens

January 4th tape, without the Quranic references.

From Osama Bin Laden to his brothers and sisters in the entire Islamic

nation: May God's peace, mercy and blessings be upon

you.

My message to you concerns inciting and continuing to

urge for jihad to

repulse the grand plots that have been hatched against

our nation,

especially since some of them have appeared clearly,

such as the occupation
of the crusaders, with the help of the apostates, of
Baghdad and the house
of the caliphate [the succession of rulers of the
Islamic nation], under the
trick of weapons of mass destruction.

There is also the fierce attempt to destroy the
al-Aqsa Mosque and destroy
the jihad and the mujahideen in beloved Palestine by
employing the trick of
the roadmap and the Geneva peace initiative.

The Americans' intentions have also become clear in
statements about the
need to change the beliefs, curricula and morals of
the Muslims to become
more tolerant, as they put it. In clearer terms, it is
a religious-economic
war. The occupation of Iraq is a link in the
Zionist-crusader chain of evil.

Then comes the full occupation of the rest of the Gulf
states to set the
stage for controlling and dominating the whole world.
For the big powers
believe that the Gulf and the Gulf states are the key
to controlling the
world due to the presence of the largest oil reserves
there.

O Muslims: The situation is serious and the misfortune
is momentous.

By God, I am keen on safeguarding your religion and
your worldly life.

So, lend me your ears and open up your hearts to me so
that we may examine
these pitch-black misfortunes and so that we may
consider how we can find a
way out of these adversities and calamities.

The West's occupation of our countries is old, yet
new.
The struggle between us and them, the confrontation,
and clashing began
centuries ago, and will continue because the ground
rules regarding the
fight between right and falsehood will remain valid
until Judgment Day.

Take note of this ground rule regarding this fight.
There can be no dialogue
with occupiers except through arms.

This is what we need today, and what we should seek.
Islamic countries in
the past century were not liberated from the
crusaders' military occupation
except through jihad in the cause of God.

Under the pretext of fighting terrorism, the West
today is doing its utmost
to tarnish jihad and kill anyone seeking jihad.

The West is supported in this endeavour by hypocrites.

This is because they all know that jihad is the
effective power to foil all
their conspiracies.

Jihad is the path, so seek it.

This is because if we seek to deter them with any
means other than Islam, we
would be like the one who goes round in circles.

We would also be like our forefathers, the
al-Ghasasinah [Arab people who
lived in a state historically located in the
north-west of the Persian
empire].

The concern of their seniors was to be appointed
officers for the Romans and
to be named kings in order to safeguard the interests
of the Romans by
killing their brothers of the peninsula's Arabs. Such
is the case of the new
al-Ghasasinah; namely, Arab rulers.

Muslims: If you do not punish them for their sins in
Jerusalem and Iraq,
they shall defeat you because of your failure. They
will also rob you of
land of al-Haramayn [Mecca and Medina]. Today [they
robbed you] of Baghdad
and tomorrow they will rob you of Riyadh and so forth
unless God deems
otherwise. Sufficient unto us is God.

What then is the means to stop this tremendous
onslaught?
In such hard times, some reformers maintain that all
popular and official
forces should unite and that all government forces
should unite with all
their peoples. Everyone would do what is needed from
him in order to ward
off this crusader-Zionist onslaught.

The question strongly raised is: Are the governments
in the Islamic world
capable of pursuing this duty of defending the faith
and nation and
renouncing allegiance to the United States? The calls
by some reformers are
strange. They say that the path to righteousness and
defending the country
and people passes though the doors of those rulers.

I tell those reformers: If you have an excuse for not
pursing jihad, it does
not give you the right to depend on the unjust ones,
thus becoming
responsible for your sins as well as the sins of those
who you misguide.
Fear God for your sake and for your nation's sake. God
does not need your
flattery of dictators for the sake of God's religion.

The Gulf states proved their total inability to resist
the Iraqi forces.
They sought help from the crusaders, led by the United
States, as is well
known.
How can these states stand up to the United States? In
short, these states
came to America's help and backed it in its attack
against an Arab state
which is bound to them with covenants of joint defence
agreements. These
covenants were reiterated at the Arab League just a
few days before the US
attack, only to violate them in full.

This shows their positions on the nation's basic
causes. These regimes
wavered too much before taking a stand on using force
and attacking Iraq. At
times they absolutely rejected participation and at
ther times they linked
this with UN agreement. Then they went back to their
first option.

In fact, the lack of participation was in line with
the domestic desire of
these states. However, they finally submitted and
succumbed to US pressure
and opened their air, land and sea bases to contribute
toward the US
campaign, despite the immense repercussions of this
move. Most important of
these repercussions is that this is a sin against one
of the Islamic tenets.

Most important and dangerous in their view was that
they feared that the
door would be open for bringing down dictatorial
regimes by armed forces
from abroad, especially after they had seen the arrest
of their former comrade in treason and agentry to the United States
when it ordered him to
ignite the first Gulf war against Iran, which rebelled
against it.

The war consumed everything and plunged the area in a
maze from which they
have not emerged to this day. They are aware that
their turn will come.

They do not have the will to make the difficult
decision to confront the
aggression, in addition to their belief that they do
not possess the
material resources for that. Indeed, they were
prevented from establishing a
large military force when they were forced to sign
secret pledges and
documents long ago.

In short, the ruler who believes in some of the
above-mentioned deeds cannot
defend the country. How can he do so if he believes in
all of them and has
done that time and again?

Those who believe in the principle of supporting the
infidels over Muslims
and leave the blood, honour and property of their
brothers to be available
to their enemy in order to remain safe, claiming that
they love their
brothers but are being forced to take such a path - of
course this
compulsion cannot be regarded as legitimate - are in
fact qualified to take
the same course against one another in the Gulf
states.

Indeed, this principle is liable to be embraced within
the same state
itself. Those who read and understood the history of
kings throughout
history know that they are capable of committing more
than these
oncessions, except those who enjoyed the mercy of
God.

Indeed, the rulers have practically started to sell
out the sons of the land
by pursuing and imprisoning them and by unjustly and
wrongly accusing them
of becoming like the al-Khawarij sect who held Muslims
to be infidels and by
committing the excesses of killing them. We hold them
to be martyrs and God
will judge them.

All of this happened before the Riyadh explosions in
Rabi al-Awwal of this
year [around May, 2003]. This campaign came within a
drive to implement the
US orders in the hope that they will win its
blessings.

Based on the above, the extent of the real danger,
which the region in
general and the Arabian Peninsula in particular, is

being exposed to, has
appeared. It has become clear that the rulers are not
qualified to apply the
religion and defend the Muslims. In fact, they have
provided evidence that
they are implementing the schemes of the enemies of
the nation and religion
and that they are qualified to abandon the countries
and peoples.

Now, after we have known the situation of the rulers,
we should examine the
policy which they have been pursuing. Anyone who
examines the policy of
those rulers will easily see that they follow their
whims and desires and
their personal interests and crusader loyalties.
Therefore, the flaw does
not involve a secondary issue, such as personal
corruption that is confined
to the palace of the ruler. The flaw is in the very
approach.

This happened when a malicious belief and destructive
principle spread in
most walks of life, to the effect that absolute
supremacy and obedience were
due to the ruler and not to the religion of God. In
other countries, they
have used the guise of parliaments and democracy.
Thus, the situation of all
Arab countries suffers from great deterioration in all
walks of life, in
religious and worldly matters.

We have reached this miserable situation because many
of us lack the correct
and comprehensive understanding of the religion of
Islam. Many of us
understand Islam to mean performing some acts of
worship, such as prayer and
fasting.

Despite the great importance of these rituals, the
religion of Islam
encompasses all the affairs of life, including
religious and worldly
affairs, such as economic, military and political
affairs, as well as the
scales by which we weigh the actions of men - rulers,
ulema and others - and
how to deal with the ruler in line with the rules set
by God for him and
which the ruler should not violate.

Therefore, it becomes clear to us that the solution
lies in adhering to the
religion of God, by which God granted us pride in the
past centuries and
installing a strong and faithful leadership that
applies the Quran among us
and raises the true banner of jihad.
The honest people who are concerned about this
situation, such as the ulema,
leaders who are obeyed among their people,
dignitaries, notables and
merchants should get together and meet in a safe place
away from the shadow
of these suppressive regimes and form a council for
Ahl al-Hall wa al-Aqd
[literally those who loose and bind; reference to
honest, wise and righteous
people who can appoint or remove a ruler in Islamic
tradition] to fill the
vacuum caused by the religious invalidation of these
regimes and their
mental deficiency.
The right to appoint an imam [leader] is for the
nation. The nation also has
the right to make him correct his course if he
deviates from it and to
remove him if he does something that warrants this,
such as apostasy and
treason.
This temporary council should be made up of the
minimum number of available
personnel, without [word indistinct] the rest of the
nation, except what the
religion allows in case of necessity, until the number
is increased when the
situation improves, God willing. Their policy should
be based on the book of
God [the Koran] and the Sunna [tradition] of his
Prophet [Muhammad], God's
peace and blessings be upon him.
They should start by directing the Muslims to the
important priorities at
this critical stage and lead them to a safe haven,
provided that their top
priority should be uniting opinions under the word of
monotheism and
defending Islam and its people and countries and
declaring a general mobilisation in the nation to prepare for repulsing
the raids of the Romans,
which started in Iraq and no-one knows where they will
end.

God suffices us and he is the best supporter.