http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13656426/

Second message from bin Laden posted
Al-Qaida No. 1 endorses al-Zarqawi's successor, issues warning to Shiites
CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden endorsed the new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq in an Internet posting Saturday, and he warned Shiites there against collaborating with the United States in its fight against Sunni insurgents.

In his fifth audio message this year and his second in two days, bin Laden also warned nations not to send troops to Somalia, where Islamic militants have taken over control of the capital and much of the southern part of the country.

Saturday’s message came as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, started a regional tour seeking support from Sunni Arab countries for his national reconciliation plan that contains a conditional amnesty for insurgents that excludes al-Qaida members.

Although no date was given for bin Laden’s message, it was probably made after June 12, when al-Qaida announced that Abu Hamza al-Muhajer was the new head of its operations in Iraq.

Notably, bin Laden’s voice in the 19-minute recording was much stronger than in the message that appeared Friday on the Web, reflecting the defiance of its content.

The authenticity of the recording could not be immediately verified. It was accompanied by a photo of bin Laden above the logo and name As-Sahab, al-Qaida’s media production wing.

Bin Laden gave his support to al-Muhajer, the replacement for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike June 7.

“I pray to God to make him the best successor to the best predecessor,” bin Laden said.

Urges militants to transform Iraq
He urged him to step up “the struggle” to transform Iraq into the center of an Islamic Caliphate. On Friday, bin Laden paid tribute to al-Zarqawi, and denied that the terror organization was involved in sectarian strife in Iraq.

Bin Laden’s message Saturday also urged the leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq to work with other militant groups operating there, saying they should maintain membership in the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization grouping Islamist militants fighting U.S. troops and the Iraqi government.

He also spoke about Iraq’s Shiites, referring to them indirectly as “sons of the south,” where they live in the largest numbers.

“We say that many sons of the south cannot just take part with America and its allies in invading Fallujah, Ramadi, Baqouba, Mosul, Samarra, Qaim and other cities and villages, and expect that their areas will be safe from a reaction and harm,” he said.

He also called their political leaders “traitors” and “renegades.”

Unlike al-Zarqawi, bin Laden has not attacked Muslim Shiites or endorsed their killing. Previously, he even urged al-Zarqawi to avoid targeting them.

In an attempt to boost the morale of al-Qaida members in Iraq, bin Laden said that the Islamic community was depending on them.

“Your Muslim nation is looking to you and praying for your victory. You are their hope after God. You are God’s trusted soldiers who will liberate the nation from the serfdom of the crusaders in our countries,” bin Laden’s message said.

“Stay steadfast and don’t leave Baghdad, otherwise all the capitals in the region will fall to the crusaders,” he said, referring to the U.S.-led coalition.

Message to Somalia
Addressing Somalia, which was largely taken over in June by a militia called the Islamic Courts, he urged its people to support the militants and said they were building an Islamic state in the Horn of Africa.

“You have no other means for salvation unless you commit to Islam, put your hands in the hands of the Islamic Courts to build an Islamic state in Somalia,” he said.

The hard-line Muslim leaders, who have seized control of much of southern Somalia, claimed authority throughout the country Thursday in another slap at the interim government, which sits powerless at its base in Baidoa, 90 miles from the chaotic capital of Mogadishu.

Bin Laden lashed out at the president of Somalia’s secular interim government, Abdullahi Yusuf, calling him a “traitor” and a “renegade.”

His comments on Somalia included a stern warning to leaders of other Islamic countries against sending troops there.

“We pledge that we will fight your soldiers on the land of Somalia and we will fight you on your own land if you dispatch troops to Somalia.”

The developments in the Horn of Africa are of particular concern in the West, which fears Somalia could be another Taliban Afghanistan — a lawless land offering terrorists a base from which to strike. Washington has accused the Islamic militia of harboring al-Qaida leaders responsible for deadly 1998 bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

This second message is really bad, too. He openly called for Sunni's to attack Shia's. If they follow him, an even worse civil war ensues -- which we're caught in the middle of -- and if/when the Sunni's appear to be losing, Syria and Saudi Arabia could get involved.

What a mess the Little Bush has created.

Bin Laden says will take fight to America:

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said his group reserved the right to fight the United States on its land and warned Washington and the world community against sending forces to Somalia, according to an Internet audio tape.
http://tinyurl.com/g5adt

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DEBKAfile: Osama bin Laden’s latest audio message is of prime importance because he affirms that al Qaeda will continue Zarqawi’s brutal strategy of terror in Iraq

July 1, 2006, 12:37 PM (GMT+02:00)

The same Web site later promised bin Laden would soon issue another tape on Somalia and Iraq.

In the 19-minute long tape released Friday, June 30, bin Laden asserted that the dead Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to whom he paid lavish tribute in rhymed couplets, went to Iraq and operated there under “clear instructions” which repudiates theories held by many experts in the West representing Zarqawi as an autonomous agent who was not controlled by al Qaeda’s supreme leader. Those instructions were to focus on US-led forces in Iraq but also to kill “those who stood to fight on the side of the crusaders against the Muslims, whoever they are, regardless of sect or tribe.” In other words, the sectarian war Zarqawi declared on Iraq’s Shiites will go on.

The day after bin Laden’s tape was released, a car bomb killed up to 60 people in Baghdad’s Shiite suburb, Sadr City.

Bin Laden also cited widespread criticism in the Muslim world of Zarqawi’s actions for spilling the blood of many Muslims, and assumed full responsibility for those actions. But he stresses that the instructions given Zarqawi’s still stand. “The banner has not fallen; it has only been passed from one lion to another.”

The al Qaeda leader addressed US president George W. Bush directly: “We will continue to fight you and your allies everywhere, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan,” until “you return defeated to your nation.”

The bin Laden message clearly comes out in support of the brutal Zarqawi strategy in Iraq as against its opponent, his deputy Ayman Zawahri.

It was Osama bin Laden’s fourth audiotape this year, but his face has not appeared on video since October 2004.


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