New Bin Laden message addressing the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel imminent
Just two weeks shy of the tenth anniversary of Osama Bin Laden's declaration in a televised press conference that he does "not differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians: they are all targets", Bin Laden once again attempts to take center stage, with the announcement of a message addressing the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel.
In that interview ten years ago, Bin Laden predicted a "Black day for America" and followed through nine weeks later with the bombings of US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar as Salam, Tanzania.
A decade later, Bin Laden seems to be shifting gears a bit. In his initial messages, Bin Laden's focus was on the removal of US forces from the "Land of the Two Holy Sanctuaries" (reference to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia) but in recent years he has more closely wedded himself to the Palestinian issue, attempting to gain as much political capital from that perpetual hot topic as possible. Bin Laden and his second-in-command Dr.Ayman al Zawahiri have released messages coinciding with other event dates in the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, such as the Zawahiri's message of last year commemorating forty years since the fall of Jerusalem.
It would have been surprising to see such an event as Israel's 60th anniversary come and go without a Bin Laden message. It also is likely we'll see another message shortly from Zawahiri addressing the current crises in Egypt in the coming week/
It is not known whether this will be a video tape or an audio taped message. Historically banners for Bin Laden messages have not been good predictors of the presence or absence of new video footage showing the terror leader. Early indications are that the message will be released in at least two formats - one file of nearly 60 megabytes, a file of just over 12 megabytes, and a file slightly larger than 1 megabyte. The smallest of the files may contain transcripts or translations of the other message. In its last few messages, As Sahab has deviated from its usual pattern of converting even audio messages into video formats, with the audio playing over a still image. It is not clear yet whether they will continue this pattern or revert to their previous one.