Full transcript:
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/070907_bin_laden_transcript.pdf
This version edited and condensed by Michael Dickinson
http://www.counterpunch.org/dickinson09112007.html
... After examining the transcribed text of Osama's address, I found
much of what he said made sense to me. After condensing and editing,
this following version of the speech might make sense to you too -
And your [America's] information media during the first years of the
war lost its credibility and manifested itself as a tool of the
colonialist empires, and its condition has often been worse than the
condition of the media of the dictatorial regimes which march in the
caravan of the single leader...
Why are the leaders of the White House keen to start wars and wage
them around the world, and make use of every possible opportunity
through which they can reach this purpose, occasionally even creating
justifications based on deception and blatant lies, as you saw in
Iraq?
In the Vietnam War, the leaders of the White House claimed at the
time that it was a necessary and crucial war, and during it, Rumsfeld
and his aides murdered two million villagers. When Kennedy took over
the presidency and deviated from the general line of policy drawn up
for the White House and wanted to stop this unjust war, that angered
the owners of the major corporations who were benefiting from its
continuation.
And so Kennedy was killed, and those corporations were the primary
beneficiary from his killing. The war continued after that for
approximately one decade. But after it became clear to you that it
was an unjust and unnecessary war, you made one of your greatest
mistakes, in that you neither brought to account nor punished those
who waged this war, not even the most violent of its murderers,
Rumsfeld. Even more incredible is that Bush picked him as Secretary
of Defense in his first term after picking Cheney as his vice
president, Powell as secretary of state and Armitage as Powell's
deputy, despite their horrific and blood history of murdering humans.
It was a clear signal that his administration - the administration of
the generals- didn't have as its main concern the serving of
humanity, but rather, was interested in bringing about new massacres.
Yet in spite of that, you permitted Bush to complete his first term,
and stranger still, chose him for a second term, which gave him a
clear mandate from you - with your full knowledge and consent - to
continue to murder our people in Iraq and Afghanistan.
History shows the genocide and holocausts which took place at your
hands: only a few specimens of Red Indians were spared, and just a
few days ago, the Japanese observed the 62nd anniversary of the
annihilation of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by your nuclear
weapons.
Then you claim to be innocent! It is impossible to humor any of you
in the arrogance and indifference you show for the lives of humans
outside America, or to humor your leaders in their lying, as the
entire world knows they have the lion's share of that. Not taking
past war criminals to account led to them repeating that crime of
killing humanity without right and waging this unjust war in
Mesopotamia.
This war was entirely unnecessary, as testified to by your own
reports. Among the most capable of those from your own side who speak
to you on this topic is Noam Chomsky, who spoke sober words of advice
prior to the war, but the leader of Texas doesn't like those who give
advice. The entire world came out in unprecedented demonstrations to
warn against waging the war and describe its true nature in eloquent
terms like no to spilling red blood for black oil, yet he paid them
no heed.
It is time for humankind to know that talk of 'the rights of man' and
'freedom' are lies produced by the White House and its allies in
Europe to deceive humans, take control of their destinies and
subjugate them.
Among the things which catch the eye of the repercussions of your
unjust war against Iraq is the failure of your democratic system,
despite it raising of the slogans of 'justice, liberty, equality and
humanitarianism'. It has not only failed to achieve these things, it
has actually destroyed these and other concepts with its weapons -
especially in Iraq and Afghanistan- in a brazen fashion, to replace
them with fear, destruction, killing, hunger, illness, displacement
and more than a million orphans in Baghdad alone, not to mention
hundreds of thousands of widows. Americans statistics speak of the
killing of more than 650,000 of the people of Iraq as a result of the
war and its repercussions.
People of America: the people of the world have recently come to know
that, after several years of the 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
