Bin Laden appeals to Obama to end war

CAIRO — Osama bin Laden has allegedly said in a new audiotape that President Barack Obama's strategy in Afghanistan is "hopeless" and has called on Americans to resolve the conflict with al-Qaida by ending the war there and breaking the US alliance with Israel.

In the message marking the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the voice reported to be of the al-Qaida leader avoided his usual rhetoric of jihad and instead took a more analytical tone, claiming to explain to the US public the root causes of the conflict, which he said were the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But analysts said Monday that the message's tone and its unusually short length, at only 11 minutes, far shorter than other videos al-Qaida has released to mark the anniversary, indicated how al-Qaida was struggling to maintain attention and relevance eight years after its most shattering terror attacks.

In 2007, al-Qaida marked the anniversary with multiple videos by several of its leaders, including bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahri.

In 2008, it issued a massive 90-minute opus summing up seven years of struggle around the world.

"You might interpret this as a sign of weakness, the suggestion being that they don't really want to fight the US," Jeremy Binnie, an analyst with Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, said of the tone of the tape.

Arabs and Muslims' more positive feelings toward the new US president are believed to have helped deflate al-Qaida's anti-American rhetoric, which found a receptive audience during the administration of former President George W. Bush, who was widely resented in the region.

Also, the Iraq war, once a main front for al-Qaida's militants, has become less prominent in the public eye as violence has eased over the past two years and US troops have reduced their presence.

The main front now is Afghanistan, where the Obama administration is contemplating sending more troops to battle al-Qaida's ally, the Taliban.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of US and NATO forces said he sees no signs of a major al-Qaida presence in the country.

In the audiotape, posted late Thursday on Islamic militant Web sites, bin Laden sought to depict Obama as continuing the policies of Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney.

"If you end the (Afghan) war, so be it, but otherwise we will continue the war of attrition against you," he said, addressing the American people. "You are waging a hopeless and losing war, a war in which the end is not visible on the horizon."

Bin Laden used most of the message to chide Americans for failing to understand the reason for al-Qaida's campaign against the United States.

"The cause of our disagreement with you is your support to your Israeli allies who occupy our land of Palestine," he said, adding that this support "pushed us to undertake " the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

He argued that even under Obama, Washington was under the thrall of "neoconservatives and the Israeli lobby."

He also said Obama and White House officials "act like Cheney and Bush and promote the previous policies of fear to market the interests of big companies" and pull Americans into wars that he said have bankrupted the United States.

If America reconsiders its alliance with Israel, the message said, al-Qaida will respond on "sound and just bases."

The Saudi construction magnate's son-turned "holy warrior" and his deputies have frequently sought to wrap al-Qaida in the Palestinian cause, seeking to draw support in the Arab world, where the issue is one of the public's top concerns.

However, Palestinians and even the militant Hamas organization, have generally tried to distance themselves from al-Qaida and have condemned those espousing extremist ideology inside the Gaza Strip.

- AP