ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

(photo: AP)

IAN BLACK | OSAMA BIN LADEN has taunted Barack Obama that he is “powerless” to stop the war in Afghanistan, days after the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and amid signs that al-Qaeda is under heavy US military pressure in its Pakistani havens.

Bin Laden’s message, his first since one just before Mr Obama’s speech reaching out to the Muslim world in Cairo in June, accused the US president of following the strategy of George Bush and Dick Cheney to “promote the previous policies of fear to market the interest of big companies”.

But some analysts found it less strident than previous statements, perhaps reflecting al-Qaeda’s current weakness, and detected an attempt to exploit divisions of opinion within the US administration about policy towards Israel.

“Rather than fighting to liberate Iraq – as Bush claimed – it [the White House] should have been liberated,” Bin Laden said. But when Obama became president and kept many Bush administration military leaders, such as the defence secretary, Robert Gates, “reasonable people knew Obama is a powerless man who will not be able to end the war as he promised”.

If authenticated, the 11-minute audio tape posted on an Islamist website by as-Sahab Media, al-Qaeda’s production arm, would prove Bin Laden is alive, though the fact that it contained no new image of him may hint at communications difficulties or security concerns.

References to Obama’s Cairo speech and the visit to Gaza made by former US president Jimmy Carter suggested that the tape had been made since June. It appeared despite a cyber-battle that has seen several jihadi website discussion forums hacked or otherwise interfered with, presumably by governments, in recent days.

Bin Laden emphasised US backing for Israel as a key reason for Arab and Muslim grievances, even as the Obama administration intensifies diplomatic efforts to restart stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. “Prolong the wars as much as you like. By God, we will never compromise on it [Palestine], ever,” he said.

Dia Rashwan, of the al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, noted that, unusually, the message contained no specific warnings and failed to praise the 9/11 hijackers.

Anwar Eshki, of the Middle East Centre for Strategic Studies in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, said: “This is the first time I have seen Bin Laden that weak . . . The message shows that he is in a difficult situation, especially since we have heard that he has started to feel the pressure in the Pakistani tribal areas at a time when a lot of militants are leaving Pakistan for Yemen or Somalia.” – ( Guardian service)