Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (47557)	12/17/2004 5:30:08 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

Osama warns Saudi leaders to quit or face revolt DUBAI: Osama bin Laden called on Saudi rulers to abandon power or face a popular uprising, laying the blame for deadly unrest gripping the country on the kingdom’s own regime, in a new purported audiotape message on Thursday. Osama called his fighters to focus their attacks on oil installations in the Gulf and Iraq. "Take Jihad to stop (the Americans) getting hold of (the oil). Concentrate your operations on the oil, in particular in Iraq and the Gulf," said the speaker. "The people have awoken," warned the message addressed to Riyadh’s rulers. "Muslims are determined to recover their rights whatever the price. Either you give them back what they entrusted you with (power), by allowing them to choose their rulers, or you refuse to give power back to them." It also accused the regime in the ultra-conservative kingdom, which is battling a wave of militant attacks, of forging an alliance with the "infidel" world led by US President George W Bush. "The sins the regime committed are great ... it practiced injustices against the people, violating their rights, humiliating their pride," the speaker said. While calling for change, the speaker scoffed at overtures such as promised municipal elections and a national dialogue Saudi rulers recently initiated to open public debate on democratisation and other issues. "This hasn’t changed anything ... the best they can do is that they will go into the elections game as happened before in Yemen and Jordan or Egypt and move in a vicious circle for dozens of years, this is regardless of the fact that it is prohibited to enter the infidel legislative councils," the speaker said. The authenticity of the tape, which was broadcast on a main militant website on the Internet, could not be immediately verified but the voice sounded like that of Osama bin laden. The Western world’s most wanted man, who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head but whose whereabouts are unknown, last appeared on a videotape broadcast on October 29 just before the US presidential election in which he threatened new attacks on the United States. In the latest attack claimed by al-Qaeda, the US consulate in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah was stormed by gunmen on December 6, killing five non-American staff members and four of the attackers. The Saudi branch of al-Qaeda, which calls itself the al-Qaeda Organisation in the Arabian Peninsula and has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly attacks over the past 18 months, said it was behind the Jeddah assault. The voice on the tape paid tribute to the attackers. "The responsibility for the current situation in Saudi Arabia rests with the regime," it said in a long message. "In Saudi Arabia, it is the king and not Allah who commands sovereignty and complete obedience," the voice said and added "I advised the government two decades ago to remedy the situation ... but it has not changed at all." "God bless our brothers who stormed the American Consulate in Jeddah," the voice said and added "Those who were killed were our brothers, we ask God to accept them as martyrs." Also on Thursday, an audiotape surfaced on the same website that was purportedly a recording of the sounds of the consulate attack transmitted via the attackers’ mobile phones. Sirens, machinegun fire and shouts of "God is Great!" can be heard. At the end, a man can be heard reciting Quranic verses and then saying: "Humiliation for America the infidel and its allies!" The tape emerged as Saudi security services were deployed in force to block protests called for by a dissident Islamist group seeking regime change in the oil-rich kingdom. "When people move to ask for their rights, security forces cannot stop them," said the tape, which also denounced what it said was American meddling in the affairs of Islamic nations. "The government in Saudi Arabia has been the target of American interference," even in the school curriculum, it said and added "The Saudi government has forged an alliance with the world of infidelity led by Bush." The voice also hurled back the "deviant" term used by Saudi authorities to refer to militants. "Who are the supporters of the deviant thinking? Are they the Mujahideen or the accomplices of America in the killing of more than one million children" in Iraq? he asked. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said: "it appears to be" the voice of Osama. Asked if Osama was taunting the United States, Powell said: "He’s a terrorist. That’s what terrorists do." "We’re going to continue to hunt for him .... He will be brought to justice," Powell added. A US official also said the intelligence has concluded "with high confidence" that Osma made the message on an Internet website. The official noted that the al-Qaeda leader made reference to recent incidents in the message, suggesting it was taped fairly recently. "The tone and message was consistent with previous messages," the official said and added "He reiterated many of the same themes we’ve heard before."