I wonder what was on the rest of this most recent tape – only 7 of 18 minutes was released, and only snippets of that has made US news channels. Bin Laden seems alive and well, strangely dignified and sounding reasonable – as our own barbarous butchers also sometimes sound dignified and reasonable. Still, it occurs to me that outside of any threat, isn’t it strange that we have not had any debate about the dictatorships we do actually support, that any discussions about Israel and Palestine in this country quickly devolve into charges of anti-semitism, that Bush feels comfortable about using crusading language, and that many of the civilian deaths in Iraq are of women and children? The whole history of this brand of terrorism is almost an undiscussable in America – and yet, how can we beat an enemy that we still do not understand? Of course, I am not in sympathy with Bin Laden or his like. But isn’t it time we had a little more public debate on these topics?

“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.
…
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.
…
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 characterised 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.”
Bin Laden tape

And this from Bin Laden in November 2001

“What can those who allege that this is a war against terrorism say? What terrorism are they speaking about at a time when the Islamic nation has been slaughtered for tens of years without hearing their voices and without seeing any action by them?
But when the victim starts to take revenge for those innocent children in Palestine, Iraq, southern Sudan, Somalia, Kashmir and the Philippines, the rulers’ ulema (Islamic leaders) and the hypocrites come to defend the clear blasphemy.
….
Following World War I, which ended more than 83 years ago, the whole Islamic world fell under the crusader banner – under the British, French, and Italian governments. They divided the whole world, and Palestine was occupied by the British. Since then, and for more than 83 years, our brothers, sons, and sisters in Palestine have been badly tortured. Hundreds of thousands of them have been killed, and hundreds of thousands of them have been imprisoned or maimed.”
…

And in November 2002

“What Bush, the pharaoh of the century, did by murdering our children in Iraq and what Israel, the ally of America, did in bombing houses of the elderly, women and children in Palestine, using American planes, was enough for the wise among your leaders to distance themselves from this criminal gang. Our people in Palestine have been massacred and subjected to the worst of suffering for nearly a century. If we defend our people in Palestine, the world gets agitated and coalesces against Muslims under the cover of the war against terrorism, unjustly and in a false way. Do your governments not know that the clique in the White House is made up of the greatest murderers of the century?

Rumsfeld [US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld] is the butcher of Vietnam who has killed more than two million people. Cheney [US Vice-President, Dick Cheney] and Powell [US Secretary of State, Colin Powell] have murdered and destroyed in Baghdad more than did Houlagou,” [a reference to a 13th-century Mongol who conquered the city].
…
If you suffer to see your [people] killed and those of your allies in Tunisia, in Karachi, in Failaka, Bali and Amman, remember our [people] killed among the children of Palestine, in Iraq. Remember our dead in Afghanistan. As you look at your dead in Moscow, also recall ours in Chechnya. For how long will fear, massacres, destruction, exile, orphanhood and widowhood be our lot, while security, stability and joy remain your domain alone? It is high time that equality be established to this effect. As you assassinate, so will you be [assassinated], and as you bomb so will you likewise be.”