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2007-09-10 WASHINGTON (AFP) - - Elusive Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden vows to step up the battle in Iraq in a new video, US media reported Friday, as US officials analyzed the message for hints about possible new attacks on the United States.
According to a transcript of the video obtained by ABC News, bin Laden apparently says there are two ways to end the Iraq war. "The first is from our side, and it is to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you," bin Laden says, according to the
transcript published by ABC. The second is to do away with the American democratic system of government, ABC said, adding the video was about 30 minutes long. If the tape is authenticated it would mark bin Laden's first such appearance since October 2004, when he threatened new attacks against
the United States just days before US elections. The US government said on Friday it was studying the video as the Central Intelligence Agency warned that Al-Qaeda was plotting fresh
attacks on the United States designed to inflict massive casualties. "I can confirm that USG has the video and it is currently being analyzed," a senior administration official told AFP, referring to the
US government. Bin Laden, wanted for the 2001 attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda, has evaded capture by US authorities despite a huge manhunt and a 25-million dollar bounty on his head. CNN reported that a senior official told the network that the video "contains no overt threats but does contain several date references,
including one that, if confirmed, would indicate the tape is new." "It's quite possible this is a new video," a CIA spokesman also told ABC News. ABC said the transcript contained references to Nicolas Sarkozy's victory in the French presidential elections in May and to the Iraq war
in 2007 suggesting that it was made recently, and that bin Laden is still alive. According to the SITE intelligence group, Al-Qaeda network's media arm as-Sahab announced the release of the video in a notice posted on
jihadist forums late Thursday. The video was timed to mark Tuesday's anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people, a senior US official said. According to the transcript, bin Laden opens the video with "praise to Allah" and his "law of retaliation" -- "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth and the killer is killed." He addresses the American people directly saying: "People of America: the world is following your news in regards to your invasion of Iraq,
for people have recently come to know that, after several years of tragedies of this war, the vast majority of you want it stopped. "Thus, you elected the Democratic Party for this purpose, but the Democrats haven't made a move worth mentioning. On the contrary, they continue to agree to the spending of tens of billions to continue the killing and war there." According to the ABC transcript, bin Laden also speaks about recent issues grabbing headlines in the United States, referring to "the
reeling of many of you under the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes and real estate mortgages; global warming and its woes." "To conclude," bin Laden says, "I invite you to embrace Islam." CIA Director Michael Hayden meanwhile warned in a speech that the intelligence agency believed Al-Qaeda was planning new, large-scale
attacks on US targets. "Our analysts assess with high confidence that Al-Qaeda's central leadership is planning high impact plots against the American homeland,"
Hayden told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "Al-Qaeda is focusing on targets that would produce mass casualties, dramatic destruction and significant economic aftershocks," he added.
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