Bin Laden 'will bankrupt' US
2004-11-01 22:14
Dubai - Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has vowed to wage a war of "attrition" against the United States until it is "bankrupt", in a message to the American people posted on the website of Al-Jazeera TV on Monday.
The television posted what appeared to be the full text of a message aired three days ago in which bin Laden threatened the United States with attacks similar to those of September 11 2001.
"We became experts in gang warfare and in the war of attrition," says bin Laden in the new excerpts, published on the eve of the US presidential election.
"We fought the unjust superpower, waging (a war of) attrition, along with the (Afghan) mujahedeen, (against) Russia for 10 years until they became bankrupt and decided to withdraw in defeat," he says, referring to the fight against Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Inflaming the intense final struggle
"We will press ahead with this policy of attrition (against) America until it is bankrupt, God willing. This is not difficult for God," bin Laden says.
In the parts of the video broadcast by Al-Jazeera, Bin Laden accused US President George W Bush of negligence during the September 11 attacks, further inflaming the already intense final struggle for the White House between Bush and John Kerry.
Bin Laden told the American people their security was not in the hands of either Bush or his Democrat challenger in Tuesday's presidential vote, but depended on US policy.
- AFP