What Osama Had To Say

By James Donahue

If my years as a journalist taught me anything it is this; there are always two sides to an issue. To do a fair and balanced job of reporting it is a necessity that good journalists seek the opinions of both sides of a conflict and keep an objective eye open when writing the story.

It would be wise for us all to think this way when assessing America’s so-called “War On Terrorism.”

Remember that it all began with what we perceived as an attack by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network on September 11, 2001. The nation’s counter-attacks, lead by President George W. Bush, brought American and British troops first to Afghanistan and then to Iraq where we have been embroiled in what now appears to be an unending horror story filled with death and destruction at every turn.

Throughout all of this I have been quietly wondering why nobody in the State Department or the Pentagon ever attempted to contact bin Laden, or representatives of his “terrorist network,” and ask what triggered such a vicious assault on our nation.

As far as I know, nobody in the Bush Administration has ever done this.

In case you might be wondering, I challenge you to read the transcript of the five-minute segment of the latest bin Laden taped message, as it was shown on Arabic television Al-Jazerra, complete with English translations in subtitles.

Since the translation was made by Arab editorial staff, in an Arab television station that has gained a reputation for its aggressive reporting of events in Iraq, I believe the translation can be trusted to be as close to what bin Laden actually said as we laymen will find.

Reading this text is more revealing than anything presented to us in the last two days by American news networks. There was, indeed, a reason for the attack. We are given the text of only a portion of an 18-minute taped message. But in it, Osama not only tells us why we were attacked on 9-11, he explains why it will happen again. It appears that he wants us to stop our aggressive attacks on Moslem soil so we can all live in peace.

Would he really call off the dogs if we suddenly shut down the wars in the Middle East and brought our troops home? We will never know the answer to this because of the current mindset of the nation and certainly the leaders of both major political parties.

As a public service, I am publishing the text as I found it on Al-Jazerra’s web site:

“Peace be upon he who follow the Guidance.

“People of United States, this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent another Manhattan and deals with the war and its causes and results.

“Before I begin, I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar in human life and that free men do not forfeit their security contrary to Bush's claims that we hate freedom.

If so, then let him explain why did not strike - for example - Sweden.

“And we know that freedom haters do not possess defiant spirits like those of the 19 may Allah have mercy on them.

“No, we fight because we are free men who do not sleep under oppression.

We want to restore freedom to our Nation and just as you lay waste to our Nation so shall we lay waste to yours.

“But I am amazed at you. Even though we are in the fourth year after the events of September 11, Bush is still engaged in distortion, deception and hiding from you the real cause and thus the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred.

“So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and I shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken for you to consider.

“I say to you Allah knows that it had never occurred to us to strike towers.

“But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the America/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind.

“The events that affected my soul in a difficult way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American 6th fleet helped them in that.

And the whole world saw and heard but did not respond.

“In those difficult moments many hard to describe ideas bubbled in my soul but in the end they produced intense feelings 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 oppressors in kind and that we 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.

“We have not found it difficult to deal with the Bush administration in light of the resemblance it bears to the regimes in our countries, half of which are ruled by the military and the other half of which are ruled by the sons of kings and presidents.

“Our experience with them is lengthy and both types are replete with those who are characterized by pride, arrogance, greed and misappropriation of wealth.

“This resemblance began after the visits of Bush Senior to the region at a time when some of our compatriots were dazzled by America and hoping that these visits would have an effect on our countries. All of a sudden he was affected by these monarchies and military regimes and became jealous of their remaining decades in their position to embezzle the public wealth of the Nation without supervision or accounting.

“So he took dictatorship and suppression of freedoms to his son and they named it the Patriot Act under the pretences of fighting terrorism.

“In addition, Bush sanctioned the installing of sons as state governors and did not forget to import expertise in election fraud from the regions presidents to Florida to be made use of in moments of difficulty.

“All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke and bait this administration.

“And for the record, we had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Ataa, Allah have mercy on him, that all the operations should be carried out within 20 minutes before Bush and his administration notice.

“It never occurred to us that the Commander in Chief of the armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone at a time when they most needed him.

“But because it seemed to him 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 Allah.”