Obama visit to Muslim world draws bin Laden response
As President Barack Obama lands in Saudi Arabia — and I bet a lot of the Muslim world still can’t believe we have a president by that name (no doubt joined by not a few Americans) — a tape recording attributed to Osama bin Laden was played on al Jazeera. It was clearly not a coincidence.
On the tape, bin Laden accuses Obama of “walking the same road of his predecessors to build enmity against Muslims and increasing the number of fighters, and establishing more lasting wars,” particularly in encouraging the Pakistani army to move against Taliban and al Qaida fighters.
“All this led to the displacement of about a million Muslim elders, women and children from their villages and homes,” bin Laden claimed. “They became refugees in tents after they were honored in their own homes. This basically means that Obama and his administration put new seeds of hatred and revenge against America. The number of these seeds is the same as the number of those victims and refugees in Swat and the tribal area in northern and southern Waziristan.”
Apparently, bin Laden’s not too happy about the fact that the Pakistanis have summoned the courage to fight back effectively. He’s also clearly worried about the impact in the Muslim world of Barack Obama being welcomed in “the Land of the Two Holy Mosques,” bin Laden’s native Saudi Arabia.
The reaction to all this over the next few days should be interesting, both in the Islamic world and here at home as well…
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146 comments Add your comment
Mrs. Godzilla
June 3rd, 2009
10:17 am
Oh No!
Osama skeert of Obama!
Delightful.
Bud Wiser
June 3rd, 2009
10:19 am
At least he kept his spine straight when he met the royalty.
Let us hope he can find some stiffness there as well when dealing with these thugs.
As for Osama? Speaks loud and strong from the anonymity of his cave. Kind of like the libs here, from behind their keyboards. That shared bravado must be why the libs are always chasing the mad dogs with a biscuit and a blanket as opposed to a .50 caliber.
Bud Wiser
June 3rd, 2009
10:22 am
So why is this “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” always showing up for me? Is it because I deal with reality and not some insane lala land that you people dwell in?
mike
June 3rd, 2009
10:22 am
Mrs. Godzilla –
Well if hostile rhetoric is a sign that Bin Laden was scared of Obama, he apparently was scared of Bush too.
One Voice
June 3rd, 2009
10:22 am
Funny how bin Laden’s comments were very similar to hundreds of comments posted by right wing Christian fundamentalists on “Pro Life” websites over the past couple days. Which terrorists are more dangerous to U.S. security? Hmmm…
mike
June 3rd, 2009
10:26 am
Interesting article about the Bagram detention center and how it is Obama’s Gitmo:
“Times writer Tim Reid said that at Bagram “more than 600 prisoners, many held for years, and all without charges and indefinitely are packed into conditions far worse than Guantanamo.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31046933/
The whole question of moving Gitmo detainees to the US is a side show that doesn’t address the underlying problems of holding terrorism suspects.
As US District Appeals Judge, John Bates wrote:
““The constitutional issues presented are consequential and fundamental: at stake are separation of powers considerations, the president’s authority to wage war abroad free from judicial scrutiny, and the constitutional rights of certain aliens detained abroad indefinitely by the United States,” Bates wrote in a separate ruling this week that cleared the way for the appeal.”
DB, Gwinnettian
June 3rd, 2009
10:28 am
“If you actually took the number of Muslims Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. And so there’s got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.”
In Wingnut World, this is worthy of Code Red poutrage, looks like.
josef nix
June 3rd, 2009
10:30 am
Let me see, now, Brother Barak is off to Egypt to address the world’s Muslims. Does that mean the 10% of Egypt’s population that’s Christian ain’t invited to this love fest from the leader from this great “Muslim nation” where less than 1% are Muslims? Hmmm…maybe he ought to take a remedial math course
Redneck Convert
June 3rd, 2009
10:31 am
Well, our Towelhead President must feel right at home right now, what with all his fellow Muslims around. We tried to tell you back last fall he wasn’t a Real American, but you wouldn’t listen. Now he’s over there kissing a King’s butt again and holding hands. If you had of elected McCain, we would be at war with Iran and a whole bunch of countrys by now. And he would of let all those cos. go bust here and by this time the economy would be on the way back up.
But no, you wouldn’t listen. You just had to put one of Those People and a Towelhead to boot in the White House. Now he’s running around talking about how sorry he is we don’t bow to Mecca five times a day. Well, this is one GA Redneck that’s mighty proud he didn’t get fooled like the rest of you.
Have a good day everybody.
DB, Gwinnettian
June 3rd, 2009
10:33 am
Yep. Code Red Poutrage. Thanks for backing me up, Bud.
josef nix
June 3rd, 2009
10:33 am
DB–. We would be ranked with Albania, Bosnia, and Kossovo among others…
getalife
June 3rd, 2009
10:35 am
Obama will win this debate because the majority of Muslim’s are moderate.
The king will miss alll the kisses and hand holding with his lover w.
Ew.
Normal
June 3rd, 2009
10:35 am
Why is it that whenever I read anything Osama Bib laden says,
I get a mental picture of Rush Limbaugh in a turbin?
Copyleft
June 3rd, 2009
10:40 am
Osama’s just ranting and raving as usual, but he does (accidentally) make a valid point: Obama IS continuing too many of Bush’s bad policies, especially regarding unnecessary wars and terrorism paranoia in the name of “security.”
This is not a problem for us sane and rational liberals, of course: we oppose bad policies no matter WHO’S in office. But the Rabid Right sure WANTS it to be a problem for us. Then again, they’re desperate for any sign that the liberal agenda is failing or collapsing; it’s their only hope!
SOMALIDAWG
June 3rd, 2009
10:41 am
و از دید حیثیت و حقوق با هم برابرند، همه دارای اندیشه و وجدان هستند و باید در May stolen 50 dollar buy you many unhappiness dishonest person.
Cindy
June 3rd, 2009
10:50 am
“and I bet a lot of the Muslim world still can’t believe we have a president by that name (no doubt joined by not a few Americans)”
LOL, Jay. There are many posters here still foaming at the mouth, while spittle runs down their chin over this past election.
josef nix
June 3rd, 2009
10:50 am
Normal–”Why is it that whenever I read anything Osama Bib laden says, I get a mental picture of Rush Limbaugh in a turbin?”
Heh, heh! Good one! Think Evil Moderator will let me ask you here where you posted the Grizzard comment to me?
Getalife–and some of them, gasp, are even secular democrats (not upper case folks, not the party, the political philosophy!) in their public lives. Gasp!
Seriously, though, if President Obama will make it clear that it is that group he is aiming to reach, he could have some success. The world’s largest “muslim countries” are secular democracies, and the largest, Indonesia, in its recent elections soundly repudiated the radical Islamic parties.
md
June 3rd, 2009
10:52 am
“Obama IS continuing too many of Bush’s bad policies, especially regarding unnecessary wars and terrorism paranoia in the name of “security.”
This is not a problem for us sane and rational liberals, of course: we oppose bad policies no matter WHO’S in office.”
Or maybe Obama is privy to a little more information than posters on the ajc. Maybe his decisions are based on a wee bigger picture than the blogger agenda game played here. It is more than likely that we will never see all the information, yet funny how we all seem to “know” it.
Kind of like Clinton promising to release all the info on JFK only to backtrack once he got in office. That mystical “Presidents book” must be a dooosy.
josef nix
June 3rd, 2009
10:52 am
Okay, Evil Moderator, just what the hell brought THAT on for 10:50…Jay, I AM beginning to take this personally..
josef nix
June 3rd, 2009
10:54 am
Normal–Heh, heh! Good one! Think Evil Moderator will let me ask you here where you posted the Grizzard comment to me?
From the 10:50 post–is this it, oh Great and Omnipotent Moderator€/€
josef nix
June 3rd, 2009
10:55 am
Normal–see 10:54 if Moderator let’s it (or this) through…Jay???
@@
June 3rd, 2009
10:57 am
Did OBL call him an apostate or Allah’s מלאך שחור כנף, jay?
josef nix
June 3rd, 2009
10:58 am
Won’t keep beating a dead horse, but a MOST interesting patter is emerging here on moderation.. see 10:54
Copyleft
June 3rd, 2009
10:59 am
MD: If you’re saying we need a LOT more transparency and a LOT less secret-keeping from our government, then I agree. There’s darn little they should be allowed to hide from us in a free country.
georgian by birth floridian because I'm lucky
June 3rd, 2009
11:00 am
So now its a good thing to anger Bin Laden?
I thought that it was a bad bad thing if he said we were making more terrorist by our actions?
Guess that was just for politics too?
No consistancy
Dave R
June 3rd, 2009
11:02 am
“sane and rational liberals”
An oxymoron if there ever was one . . .
@@
June 3rd, 2009
11:02 am
…waiting…
and waiting…
and….
DB, Gwinnettian
June 3rd, 2009
11:03 am
Man, I am not firing on all cylinders here today–Bud hadn’t posted anything poutrageous prior to my dopey cheap-shot bit @ 10.33. My bad.
Normal
June 3rd, 2009
11:04 am
Josef, It was at “Metro Region Drought…” at 3:52P.
————-
As an aside, the Rabids are calling Obama a Muslim at the Bob Barr site.
I wonder what would happen if the President admitted he was Muslim/Christian? I think the “Far Right Relegious zelots (American
Taliban)” AND Bin Laden would clutch their breasts and proclaim it’s
the big one. Just saying…
md
June 3rd, 2009
11:06 am
Copy,
I’m saying we will never know.
Its been a game of hide and seek since day one, and I doubt it will ever change. Transparency is a pipe dream in the name of “national security”.
Its all a game, and we are the pawns.
godless heathen
June 3rd, 2009
11:17 am
Osama Bin Laden is still on the loose? 5 months and Obama hasn’t captured him yet? I’m shocked!!
BDAtlanta
June 3rd, 2009
11:19 am
Osama doesn’t like Obama.
Conservatives don’t like Obama.
Evil sticks with evil.
josef nix
June 3rd, 2009
11:20 am
Normal–thanks! I best not go to the Barr site. Who knows what Moderator might do there! Christians/Muslims? What was that Paracelsus said about “two whores discussing chastity?”
@@, en francais ma chere, en francais! BTW as a fellow teacher–just got a call from work. Would I come in and “take care of a problem” which was nowhere near MY doings, but I can “fix it!”
md–”Its all a game, and we are the pawns.” Ain’t it the truth!
josef nix
June 3rd, 2009
11:21 am
Hmm 11:20 held up for moderation…if IT comes through…see the pattern?
josef nix
June 3rd, 2009
11:23 am
LOOK JAY–This is getting ridiculous. It’s nearly impossible to follow a thread and I’m not talking about just my own blather…
josef nix
June 3rd, 2009
11:24 am
Okay, Moderator, you win…
godless heathen
June 3rd, 2009
11:29 am
Osama doesn’t like conservatives.
Obama doesn’t like conservatives.
Evil sticks with evil.
mdh
June 3rd, 2009
11:34 am
why worry about our president,america elected him. we are stuck with him and when life hands you limons lets make lemon aid! but, seriously he(obama)will channel the entire world into a new era;the last one at that.so lets keep our eyes open for the King that will rule the world and I do mean the Lord Jesus Christ the true King and savior. dont waste time on little people like bin laden,obama,bush and rushy.etc.etc..this world will never see peace as we want it.
josef nix
June 3rd, 2009
11:39 am
NORM–got it! Thanks but I’m not so sure about the Yiddish (yes, I do know some!) but I’m Sephardic and don’t know from bagels and lox. Now, grits and greens? My folks have been down here in this part of the world since the 1600s part of that “Jews, Heathens and Dissenters” lot granted “equal rights of citizenship” under the Carolina Charter…
As my Granny once told an Ashkenazi from Up North who was having a hard time understanding what Granddaddy called “The Lost Tribe of the Lost Cause,” “Well, Ahm tur-rib-lih sah-rih if while yo-uh ances-tuhs were runnin’ from the Cossacks in Russia, mahn were sippin’ mint juleps on the verandah, but Ah cain’t rewrite his-tuh-rih just to make you feel bet-tuh.”
Obama and company evidently can, though. Did I just hear Granny roll over in an unquiet grave!
RB from Gwinnett
June 3rd, 2009
11:39 am
I thought all the muslims who hated us would all love us when Obama changed all of Bush’s foreign policy? What happend, libs? He’s even whining about Pakistan not allowing his fellow nut cases overthrow the government and blaming us for it.
Maybe he’s just a friggin’ lunatic who needs to be removed from the planet, eh? And why hasn’t Obama found him yet? All you libs promised us he would do that because he’s so much more effective than Bush, right?
So, Jay, care to answer my question from yesterday about who will be happy when we close Gitmo? Will that make Osama happy, Jay? Will you and your surrender monkey friends ever figure out the only thing that will make Osama happy is seeing us all on a prayer mat 5 times a day?
You libs would be funny if you weren’t so dangerous.
josef nix
June 3rd, 2009
11:43 am
mdh–well, I am reminded of what a rabbi said once during an ecumenical conference I attended while in college (eons ago) when the matter of “accepting Christ” came up: “when the Messiah gets here, I don’t think it’s going to matter much whether it’s for the first or second time. He’s going to be pissed.”
Bud Wiser
June 3rd, 2009
11:48 am
Obowo is over there now, telling the Muslim world all of the things he has in common with them, and wants to be a part of their world, I guess.
Too bad this kind of self-flagellation Muslim apologist credo of his didn’t make it before last November, although it certainly doesn’t make me feel any better about that loser McCain.
DB, Gwinnettian
June 3rd, 2009
11:48 am
Jay sez of OBL
He’s also clearly worried about the impact in the Muslim world of Barack Obama being welcomed in “the Land of the Two Holy Mosques,” bin Laden’s native Saudi Arabia.
I was going to write “I would imagine so, given that his pretext for plotting 9/11 was to drive us out of that country.”
But I was looking for something to support that supposition and I stumbled upon this Reason piece instead that’s still kind of on-topic: The Shocking Truth About Osama bin Laden: Apparently, he reads our blogs.
I don’t know how truthful this all is, and I’m sure some conservatives here will seize upon the points made as Proof! Positive! Liberals Love them some Terrists! — but it’s entertaining…
By October 2001, bin Laden was celebrating 9/11’s impact on America’s economy and sense of resolve, talking about “the psychological shock of the attack” and how it cost the Americans an estimated “$140 billion” and led to 170,000 employees being “fired or liquidated” from airline companies. Here he cherry-picked from reports of job losses and predictions of doom that were widespread in the Western media after 9/11 and claimed ownership of them, as if they were part of his plot.
Bin Laden’s parasitical relationship with Western debate really came into its own from 2004 onward. During this period he has sounded almost indistinguishable from various left-wing blogs. In April 2004 he ranted about “big media,” describing them as “agents of deception and exploitation.” He said the war in Iraq “is making billions of dollars for the big corporations, whether it be those who manufacture weapons or reconstruction firms like Halliburton and its offshoot sister companies.” (Halliburton is, of course, the bête noir of anti-war bloggers.)
[...]
Bin Laden, it seems to me, is regurgitating the arguments of Western commentators and using them to justify his crimes. He is less the armed wing of a clear or coherent Islamist worldview than he is the armed wing of the West’s own fearful and tortured debates about war and terrorism today.
DB, Gwinnettian
June 3rd, 2009
11:49 am
freekin’ ital tags… sorry.
clyde
June 3rd, 2009
11:50 am
As far as I am concerned,Obama walks alone in his endeavor to appease the Muslim world.I want no part of it ,thank you.
Dave R
June 3rd, 2009
11:52 am
One thing I’ve noticed is that there is far less issues with posting on the Barr or Wooten blogs than there is here.
Maybe the filter the AJC employs is designed to filter out useless drivel from liberals? Or maybe the liberals on this blog are just more hate-filled and intolerant than the filter was designed to handle?
Oh, no! Better get the IT guys and gals on the alert for better software!
I Rule You :-)/ You Whine :-(
June 3rd, 2009
11:54 am
This Has Bin Laden guy is apparently not that bright, his side won the White House and with it, control of the United States, either someone hasn’t visited his cave with the news or he’s a dumbas-s.
Or both.
These cut throat bastards will never be happy, eewwww.
mdh
June 3rd, 2009
12:01 pm
josef.. you are so right. But, I would not want to be on the opposing side.
DB, Gwinnettian
June 3rd, 2009
12:04 pm
: “when the Messiah gets here, I don’t think it’s going to matter much whether it’s for the first or second time. He’s going to be pissed.”
Perchance was this conference session called “The Wisdom of Bumper Stickers”?
DB, Gwinnettian
June 3rd, 2009
12:06 pm
Dave R, I doubt Wootie or Barr are real motivated to fiddle with their spam filters. Both are short timers.