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Last Updated: Thursday, 16 December 2004, 19:42 GMT
Excerpts of Bin Laden message
Osama Bin Laden

The latest audio message attributed to Bin Laden, posted on the internet, warns the Saudi ruling family that the people have "woken from their slumber".

It praises those who carried out the 6 December deadly attack on the US consulate in Jeddah, and calls on followers to target Gulf oil supplies.

Here are excerpts.

"These collaborator tyrannical ruling families in the region today that suppress every reform movement, and impose policies on their people that are contrary to their religion and their world, are the same families that supported the crusaders against Muslims a century ago.

The level of Crusader control over our countries is shown by the implementation of changes imposed by the authorities. Even in our educational curricula, the objective is to erase the nation's character and westernise its sons.

The government of Riyadh has entered into an international alliance with the infidel Crusaders led by Bush against Islam and its people. This is also what has happened in Afghanistan. This conspiracy has begun in Iraq but has not ended yet.

The thief is taking the money of the Iraqi people and violating their land and honour, backed by the support and advice of the Arabian ruler. True, Saddam is a thief and a renegade, yet the solution can never be taking Iraq from the hands of the local thief to hand it over to the international thief.

There is no difference between [Paul] Bremer, the former US ruler in Baghdad, and [Iyad] Allawi, the current ruler, in the implementation of America's policies in Iraq, just as there is no difference between Bremer and the rest of the rulers of the region.

Who are the ones who follow the deviant thought, and who are the corrupt groups? Are they the mujahideen or those who helped America kill over one million children in a few years in the largest child massacre humanity has ever known during the unjust siege on Iraq?

I wish to ask the Riyadh rulers - Who supported Arafat with $100m to suppress the mujahideen's first intifada? Who supported the Jews against the oppressed in Sharm-el-Sheikh in 1996? Who opened the military bases for the invasion of Iraq? Who pledged to pay the cost of training of Iraqi police to fight the mujahideen in Iraq?

I ask all Muslims in general to pray to God against the Zionists and their agents. I ask you, if you are honest, to make this call at the holy mosques and the other mosques - O God, destroy the US-Zionist alliance and those who support them and their agents. O God, destroy their entity, break their back, end their rule, disperse their ranks, divide their troops, and make their wives widows.

We pray to God to have mercy on our brothers the martyrs everywhere in Palestine, Iraq, the land of the two holy mosques [Saudi Arabia], the Maghreb, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Nigeria, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand....

We ask God Almighty to have mercy on the mujahideen who stormed the consulate of the Americans in Jeddah. How do they want to enjoy security while they sow destruction and kill our people in Palestine and Iraq?

Targeting America in Iraq in terms of economy and losses in life is a golden and unique opportunity. Do not waste it only to regret it later. One of the most important reasons that led our enemies to control our land is the theft of our oil. Do everything you can to stop the biggest plundering operation in history - the plundering of the resources of the present and future generations in collusion with the agents and the aliens... Be active and prevent them from reaching the oil, and mount your operations accordingly, particularly in Iraq and the Gulf, for this is their fate.

I address this short message to the Riyadh rulers and decision-makers - there is a contract between the ruler and his subjects entailing rights and obligations on both parties. One of its main features is that the ruler protects his people. But the truth is otherwise. You have oppressed the people without their agreement.

The people have woken from their slumber and realised the extent of the tyranny and corruption that you exercise. The Muslims in the land of the two mosques insist on regaining their rights, regardless of the cost.

You have two options. The first is to restore the trust to the people in a peaceful manner and let the inhabitants choose the Muslim ruler... The second is to refuse to return those rights and continue to oppress the people, and employ people with the funds of the nation to strike down and kill their sons, brothers, and cousins who have rejected your rule.

You must know, however, that matters have exceeded all bounds and when the people move to ask for their rights, security agencies cannot stop them. You might also keep in mind the fate of the Shah of Iran... and the fate of Ceausescu in Romania."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.





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