Bin Laden audio tape released

2004-12-16 12:41

Cairo - A man identified as Osama bin Laden delivered a message about the conflict between the rulers and the people of Saudi Arabia in an audiotape posted on an Islamic website on Thursday.

The voice sounded like the al-Qaeda terror chief's, and the tape was posted on a site known as a clearinghouse for militant Islamic comment.

The speaker said that while Saudi leaders blame "holy warriors" for trouble in the kingdom, "the truth is that the whole responsibility falls on the shoulders of the regime" .

The speaker, in calm and even tones, accused Saudi rulers of "violating God's rules," a common theme of statements from bin Laden, who accuses Saudi rulers of being insufficiently Islamic and too close to the "infidel" United States.

The main statement was preceded by Quranic verses, a rhetorical device typical of bin Laden.

Bin Laden, believed hiding in the mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, last reached out to his followed in October, with a videotape aired on the Arabic TV station Al-Jazeera. In that statement, he for the first time clearly took responsibility for the September 11 attacks on the United States and said America could avoid another such strike if it stopped threatening the security of Muslims.

- AP