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bin Ladin'd Speech to the American People

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bin Ladin'd Speech to the American People

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Praise be to Allah who created the creation for his worship and commanded them to be just and permitted the wronged one to retaliate against the oppressor in kind. To proceed:

Peace be upon he who follows the guidance: People of America 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 of human life and that free men do not forfeit their security, contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom.

If so, then let him explain to us why we don't strike for example - Sweden? And we know that freedom-haters don't possess defiant spirits like those of the 19 - may Allah have mercy on them.

No, we fight because we are free men who don't sleep under oppression. We want to restore freedom to our nation, just as you lay waste to our nation. So shall we lay waste to yours.

No one except a dumb thief plays with the security of others and then makes himself believe he will be secure. Whereas thinking people, when disaster strikes, make it their priority to look for its causes, in order to prevent it happening again.

But I am amazed at you. Even though we are in the fourth year after the events of September 11th, Bush is still engaged in distortion, deception and hiding from you the real causes. 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 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 the towers. But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the American/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind.

The events that affected my soul in a direct way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American Sixth Fleet helped them in that. This bombardment began and many were killed and injured and others were terrorised and displaced.

I couldn't forget those moving scenes, blood and severed limbs, women and children sprawled everywhere. Houses destroyed along with their occupants and high rises demolished over their residents, rockets raining down on our home without mercy.

The situation was like a crocodile meeting a helpless child, powerless except for his screams. Does the crocodile understand a conversation that doesn't include a weapon? And the whole world saw and heard but it didn't respond.

In those difficult moments many hard-to-describe ideas bubbled in my soul, but in the end they produced an intense feeling 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 oppressor in kind and that we should 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.

And that day, it was confirmed to me that oppression and the intentional killing of innocent women and children is a deliberate American policy. Destruction is freedom and democracy, while resistance is terrorism and intolerance.

This means the oppressing and embargoing to death of millions as Bush Sr did in Iraq in the greatest mass slaughter of children mankind has ever known, and it means the throwing of millions of pounds of bombs and explosives at millions of children - also in Iraq - as Bush Jr did, in order to remove an old agent and replace him with a new puppet to assist in the pilfering of Iraq's oil and other outrages.

So with these images and their like as their background, the events of September 11th came as a reply to those great wrongs, s

hould a man be blamed for defending his sanctuary?

Is defending oneself and punishing the aggressor in kind, objectionable terrorism? If it is such, then it is unavoidable for us.

This is the message which I sought to communicate to you in word and deed, repeatedly, for years before September 11th.

And you can read this, if you wish, in my interview with Scott in Time Magazine in 1996, or with Peter Arnett on CNN in 1997, or my meeting with John Weiner in 1998.

You can observe it practically, if you wish, in Kenya and Tanzania and in Aden. And you can read it in my interview with Abdul Bari Atwan, as well as my interviews with Robert Fisk.

The latter is one of your compatriots and co-religionists and I consider him to be neutral. So are the pretenders of freedom at the White House and the channels controlled by them able to run an interview with him? So that he may relay to the American people what he has understood from us to be the reasons for our fight against you?

If you were to avoid these reasons, you will have taken the correct path that will lead America to the security that it was in before September 11th. This concerned the causes of the war.

As for it's results, they have been, by the grace of Allah, positive and enormous, and have, by all standards, exceeded all expectations. This is due to many factors, chief among them, that we have 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 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 characterised by pride, arrogance, greed and misappropriation of wealth. This resemblance began after the visits of Bush Sr 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 those monarchies and military regimes, and became envious of their remaining decades in their positions, 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 pretence of fighting terrorism. In addition, Bush sanctioned the installing of sons as state governors, and didn't forget to import expertise in election fraud from the region's 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. All that we have to do is to send two mujahidin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaida, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits for their private companies.

This is in addition to our having experience in using guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers, as we, alongside the mujahidin, bled Russia for 10 years, until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat.

All Praise is due to Allah.

So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah.

That being said, those who say that al-Qaida has won against the administration in the White House or that the administration has lost in this war have not been precise, because when one scrutinises the results, one cannot say that al-Qaida is the sole factor in achieving those spectacular gains.

Rather, the policy of the White House that demands the opening of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations - whether they be working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction - has helped al-Qaida to achieve these enormous results.

And so it has appeared to some analysts and diplomats that the White House and us are playing as one team towards the economic goals of the United States, even if the intentions differ.

And it was to these sorts of notions and their like that the British diplomat and others were referring in their lectures at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. [When they pointed out that] for example, al-Qaida spent $500,000 on the event, while America, in the incident and its aftermath, lost - according to the lowest estimate - more than $500 billion.

Meaning that every dollar of al-Qaida defeated a million dollars by the permission of Allah, besides the loss of a huge number of jobs.

As for the size of the economic deficit, it has reached record astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars.

And even more dangerous and bitter for America is that the mujahidin recently forced Bush to resort to emergency funds to continue the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is evidence of the success of the bleed-until-bankruptcy plan - with Allah's permission.

It is true that this shows that al-Qaida has gained, but on the other hand, it shows that the Bush administration has also gained, something of which anyone who looks at the size of the contracts acquired by the shady Bush administration-linked mega-corporations, like Halliburton and its kind, will be convinced. And it all shows that the real loser is ... you.

It is the American people and their economy. 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 American armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone, the 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.

And it's no secret to you that the thinkers and perceptive ones from among the Americans warned Bush before the war and told him: "All that you want for securing America and removing the weapons of mass destruction - assuming they exist - is available to you, and the nations of the world are with you in the inspections, and it is in the interest of America that it not be thrust into an unjustified war with an unknown outcome."

But the darkness of the black gold blurred his vision and insight, and he gave priority to private interests over the public interests of America.

So the war went ahead, the death toll rose, the American economy bled, and Bush became embroiled in the swamps of Iraq that threaten his future. He fits the saying "like the naughty she-goat who used her hoof to dig up a knife from under the earth".

So I say to you, over 15,000 of our people have been killed and tens of thousands injured, while more than a thousand of you have been killed and more than 10,000 injured. And Bush's hands are stained with the blood of all those killed from both sides, all for the sake of oil and keeping their private companies in business.

Be aware that it is the nation who punishes the weak man when he causes the killing of one of its citizens for money, while letting the powerful one get off, when he causes the killing of more than 1000 of its sons, also for money.

And the same goes for your allies in Palestine. They terrorise the women and children, and kill and capture the men as they lie sleeping with their families on the mattresses, that you may recall that for every action, there is a reaction.

Finally, it behoves you to reflect on the last wills and testaments of the thousands who left you on the 11th as they gestured in despair. They are important testaments, which should be studied and researched.

Among the most important of what I read in them was some prose in their gestures before the collapse, where they say: "How mistaken we were to have allowed the White House to implement its aggressive foreign policies against the weak without supervision."

It is as if they were telling you, the people of America: "Hold to account those who have caused us to be killed, and happy is he who learns from others' mistakes."

And among that which I read in their gestures is a verse of poetry. "Injustice chases its people, and how unhealthy the bed of tyranny."

As has been said: "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure."

And know that: "It is better to return to the truth than persist in error." And that the wise man doesn't squander his security, wealth and children for the sake of the liar in the White House.

In conclusion, I tell you in truth, that your security is not in the hands of Kerry, nor Bush, nor al-Qaida. No.

Your security is in your own hands. And every state that doesn't play with our security has automatically guaranteed its own security.

And Allah is our Guardian and Helper, while you have no Guardian or Helper. All peace be upon he who follows the Guidance.

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Following is the full English transcript of Usama bin Ladin's speech in a videotape sent to Aljazeera. In the interests of authenticity, the content of the transcript, which appeared as subtitles at the foot of the screen, has been left unedited.

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Coddled No More: A Stunned Silence on the Streets of WashingtonThe Washington Post.

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Coddled No More: A Stunned Silence on the Streets of WashingtonThe Washington Post.

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Editor's note: This article was originally published September 11, 2001.

The silence was scariest of all. On the streets, in the lobbies of emptying office buildings, in the Metro -- we were all heading somewhere, to find someone to hug, to find something safe, and we just didn't have anything to say. It was that far out of our experience.

We have lived a very safe and coddled life in this country. And now we are like the rest of the world.

In McPherson Square, three blocks from the White House, a dozen people gathered around a man with a boom box just as details of the attack on the Pentagon were being broadcast. Among them were Assaf and Liat Ben-Melech, tourists from Israel, and everyone wanted to know if this was what it is like to live in Jerusalem.

Yes, Assaf Ben-Melech said, and he assured us that "when you hear the bombs every day, you don't panic anymore." But you never stop being scared. "When people keep killing, it fills you with desperation." His wife had been telling him that in America, everything is bigger. "Now I see, even the terrorist attacks are the biggest. It's a terrible, terrible thing."

On the streets, no one wanted this to be the most powerful city in the world. Not today. On Vermont Avenue NW, a man passed his cell phone around to three strangers who had to find their children and hear their voices. A tire squealed on L Street and a clot of pedestrians jumped as one.

Downtown in late morning was a jumble of wailing sirens, rush-hour traffic, and the silence of determination and fear. On K Street, a construction worker loudly joked that "I better go into the drug store and stack up on food," and immediately two total strangers shushed him.

The first instincts were to get home, to get safe, and only then to wonder what it all meant.

I called my friend Daniel Benjamin, who was director for transnational threats at the National Security Council in the Clinton administration. He was at home on Capitol Hill, and just as we started talking, we heard a big boom from somewhere outside. Or we thought we did. We had already gotten to the point where we would believe almost anything, which is exactly what terrorism is all about.

Benjamin said this day's events had all the markings of an assault by the forces of Osama bin Laden, a Saudi dissident who is wanted by U.S. authorities on charges of masterminding the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.

"They have been seeking to create a sort of Tet offensive phenomenon of lots of attacks at one time to show they can coordinate attacks better than any other terrorist operation before," Benjamin said. "They've done that today. This is a very impressive performance."

It seemed this morning that our government, our country were totally clueless, but Benjamin said that's precisely the impression that terrorists want to make, and it's not entirely the case.

"Terrorism is a bizarre game in which when the bad guys score one, it looks like they're winning the game," he said. "Attacks have been foiled in recent years. And there have been arrests that stopped incipient attacks."

But not this time. "This will stress the resources of the United States as far as anything has in our history," Benjamin said.

And yet on the streets of Washington, there was no panic, no shouting, no crying. There were quick, efficient cell phone conversations about whether the kids would be safer at home or at school. There were strangers offering to drive strangers home, or at least in that direction. A woman whose boyfriend was at that moment in a plane somewhere over the East Coast was besieged with offers of the latest news about hijacked planes.

People shared phones, radios, cars, stories. We didn't know what to do except to keep on doing. We just didn't know anything but to be afraid, and that's the purpose and the mission of terrorism.

After the man from Israel told me that in his home town, there are big booms every day, I asked him if he ever got used to it emotionally. He shook his head. "We came here to calm down," he said. "Now I guess we feel kind of homesick."

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Coddled No More: A Stunned Silence on the Streets of Washington

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Editor's note: This article was originally published September 11, 2001. The silence was scariest of all. On the streets, in the lobbies of emptying office buildings, in the Metro -- we were all heading somewhere, to find someone to hug, to find something safe, and we just didn't have anything to say.

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Fox News: Timeline: Key Events Leading Up to Sept. 11

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Fox News: Timeline: Key Events Leading Up to Sept. 11

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Chronology of some key events in U.S. relations with Islamic groups and with Usama bin Laden before Sept. 11, 2001:

Feb. 26, 1993 -- Bomb explodes in garage under World Trade Center, killing six and injuring more than 1,000. Group of Islamic extremists later convicted.

Nov. 13, 1995 -- Seven people, including five Americans, killed when two bombs explode at U.S.-Saudi military facility in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Usama bin Laden blamed for attack.

Sept. 27, 1996 -- Taliban, suspected of giving refuge to bin Laden, completes takeover of Kabul, Afghanistan.

June 25, 1996 -- Bin Laden followers detonate bomb at U.S. military base near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 American soldiers and wounding hundreds of Americans and Saudi Arabians.

Aug. 7, 1998 -- U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, bombed, killing more than 250 people, including 12 Americans, and injuring 5,000. In retaliation, United States launches airstrikes against suspected terrorist camps in Sudan and Afghanistan.

Aug. 28, 1998 -- FBI accuses bin Laden of having declared "jihad," or holy war, against United States. Complaint also alleges bin Laden founded Al Qaeda that year to promote Islamic fundamentalism and force non-Muslims out of Muslim countries.

November 4, 1998 -- Bin Laden charged with ordering embassy bombings.

Oct. 12, 2000 -- Suicide bombers in Yemen attack U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole, killing 17 sailors. Officials suspect bin Laden involvement.

Jan. 15, 2001 -- U.N. imposes new economic sanctions against Taliban for refusing to turn over bin Laden for trial.

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President Bush addressing the nation after the 9/11 attack.

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President Bush addressing the nation after the 9/11 attack.

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Images of the World trade centers on 9/11

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Images of the World trade centers on 9/11

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How everyone, from presidents to family members, remembers the tragic loss of life on that day.

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Twelve years after the attack on September 11, 2001, our country pays tribute to the victims and the heroes.

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Bohlen C. (2001, DEC. 21). A nation challenged_An Overview: Dec.20,2001;Billions for Sept. 11 Victims, first moves Against Pakistani Terrorist. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/21/world/nation-challenged-overview-dec-20-2001-billions-for-sept-11-victims-first-moves.html

Cooper A. (Writer). Anderson Cooper 360. New York city, New York. Cable News Network. https://www.cnn.com/videos/bestoftv/2013/09/12/ac-911-anniversary-natpkg.cnn

(sep. 2002). Events Leading Up to Sept. 11. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/story/2002/09/05/timeline-key-events-leading-up-to-sept-11.html

Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (2018) Al-Qaeda, Islamic Militant Organization. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/al-Qaeda

Fisher M. (2001, Sep.)

Coddled No More: A Stunned Silence on the Streets of Washington. The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/coddled-no-more-a-stunned-silence-on-the-streets-of-washington/2014/09/10/8c159780-391d-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html?utm_term=.fb6b3d9f896d

Full Transcript of bin Laden’s speech. ( Nov. 1, 2004) Retrieved February 21, 2018, from [G1] http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2004/11/200849163336457223.html

Amadeo K. (Sep. 11, 2014) how the 9/11 attacks still affect the economy today. Retrieved February 21, 2018, from [G2] https://www.thebalance.com/how-the-9-11-attacks-still-affect-the-economy-today-3305536

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A NATION CHALLENGED -- AN OVERVIEW: DEC. 20, 2001; Billions for Sept. 11 Victims, First Moves Against Pakistani Terrorists

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A NATION CHALLENGED -- AN OVERVIEW: DEC. 20, 2001; Billions for Sept. 11 Victims, First Moves Against Pakistani Terrorists

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INSURANCE INDUSTRY RELIEF -- In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, there was a consensus in Congress on the need to assist the insurance industry, which was facing more than $40 billion in losses as result of the terrorist attacks. Yesterday, Congress, in the waning hours of its legislative session, abandoned the effort to protect insurance companies from losses that could be caused by future attacks when a bill approved by the House failed to make it to the Senate floor.

The lack of Congressional action could prompt insurers and lenders to raise rates sharply, some analysts said, as insurers back away from coverage for losses from terrorism attacks. But there is hope that lawmakers will pick up the issue next year.

NEW FREEZE ON ASSETS -- Stepping into the middle of a tense confrontation between India and Pakistan, President Bush ordered a freeze on the assets of a Pakistani-based terrorist group that he said was responsible for the attack last week on the Indian parliament.

Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, had publicly condemned the attack, but the group Mr. Bush cited yesterday has support inside the Pakistani Army and its intelligence service. The group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, is one of more than a dozen that has been fighting India in the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir.

The White House move presents a predicament for General Musharraf, who has embraced the Muslim cause in Kashmir. Removing support for Lashkar-e-Taiba would force General Musharraf to abandon the more militant aspects of the struggle in Kashmir -- a concession that could cost him backing at home. On the other hand, he can not afford to abandon his front-row seat in the United States-led war against terrorism, which Mr. Bush said pointedly yesterday is supported by both India and Pakistan.

The United States has also asked its allies to freeze the assets of another Pakistani group that is run by two nuclear scientists who visited Osama bin Laden earlier this year.

BIN LADEN HUNT -- Speaking of Mr. bin Laden, there was still no sign of him yesterday, even as scores of American aircraft flew over the mountains of Tora Bora. The planes were dispatched to attack any residual pockets of resistance by members of Mr. bin Laden's Qaeda terrorism organization, but no targets were sighted, and no bombs were dropped.

The first British Royal Marines -- the early birds of an international peacekeeping force -- arrived in Kabul, as did Afghanistan's presidential designate, Hamid Karzai. Francesc Vendrell, the deputy United Nations special envoy to Afghanistan, said the 55 marines would help members of the new government feel secure.

Mr. Karzai was greeted at the airport by three senior leaders of the Northern Alliance, which has controlled the capital city since the Taliban fled.

One of the first issues to confront him was a complaint from the new minister of planning, Hajji Muhammad Mohaqqeq, who said the international peacekeeping force is welcome, but that it should be organized under the Afghan Defense Ministry. CELESTINE BOHLEN

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A NATION CHALLENGED -- AN OVERVIEW: DEC. 20, 2001; Billions for Sept. 11 Victims, First Moves Against Pakistani Terrorists

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Overview of events in war against terrorism: estimate by Sept 11 Victim Compensation Fund that $6 billion will be paid out to victims; failure of Congress to pass bill to assist insurance industry in aftermath of terrorist attack; Pres Bush's order to freeze assets of Pakistani-based terrorist group that he says is responsible for attack on Indian parliament; continuing search for Osama bin Laden (M)