By PAUL SCHEMM, Associated Press Writer
23 minutes ago



CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden criticized the publication of drawings insulting to the Prophet Muhammad in a new audio message posted late Wednesday and warned Europeans of a strong reaction to come.


The message, which appeared on a militant Web site that has carried al-Qaida statements in the past and bore the logo of the extremist group's media wing al-Sahab, showed a still image of bin Laden aiming with an AK-47.

The five-minute message issued a warning to Europeans but made no mention of the fifth anniversary Wednesday of the U.S.-led invasion in Iraq.

"The response will be what you see and not what you hear and let our mothers bereave us if we do not make victorious our messenger of God," said a voice believed to be bin Laden's, without specifying what action would be taken.

The tape came as the Muslim world marks the Prophet Muhammad's birthday on Thursday and amid the reigniting of a two-year-old controversy over some Danish cartoons deemed by Muslims to be insulting. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

On Feb. 13, Danish newspapers republished a cartoon showing Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban to show their commitment to freedom of speech after police said they had uncovered a plot to kill the artist.

Danish intelligence service said the reprinting of the cartoon had brought "negative attention" to Denmark and may have increased the risk to Danes at home and abroad.

The original 12 cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper triggered major protests in Muslim countries in 2006. There have been renewed protests in the last month.

Adam Raisman, senior analyst at the SITE Institute, a Washington-based group that monitors terror messages, said that the tape's release coincides with an increased buzz in online jihadi forums calling for revenge on Europe over the cartoons.

But Raisman noted that bin Laden's message did not specifically mention the republishing of the cartoons, only the publishing, and it did not give any other time landmarks to prove it had been recorded since then.

Raisman also noted bin Laden's silence on Wednesday's fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

"The tape doesn't give any specific evidence that would allow us to determine when it was recorded," Raisman said.

In the message, Bin Laden described the cartoons as taking place in the framework of a "new Crusade" against Islam, in which the Pope has played a "large and lengthy role."

"You went overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings," said the voice believed to be Bin Laden's. "This is the greatest misfortune and the most dangerous and the judgment for it will be stronger."

The five-minute message, which featured English subtitles, is bin Laden's first for 2008 and follows up an hour-long, audio missive from Dec. 29 in which he warned Iraq's Sunni Arabs against fighting Al-Qaida in Iraq and vowed new attacks on Israel.

In the tape posted late Wednesday, Bin Laden also attacked his long-time nemesis, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, whom he described as the "crownless king in Riyadh" and said he could have ended the entire dispute over the cartoons if he had wanted because of his influence with European governments.

Bin Laden, who hails from a powerful Saudi family, was stripped of his citizenship in 1994 after criticizing Saudi Arabia for allowing U.S. troops on its soil.

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Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Egypt and Lily Hindy in New York contributed to this report.



How the hell is this man even around to criticize anything???!!!

This is the reason that the illegal war in Iraq pisses me off so badly.

This man who perpetrated one of the greatest crimes on our soil
feels free enough to criticize someone. He should have no freedom of any kind. We should have him in a jail somewhere facing his crimes on our nation. Why is he not paying for his crime against us?????

Because our illustrious baby shrub felt Iraq was the rode to travel. Because baby shrub lead us down the fairy tale trail of Saddam and his involvement with alqaeda. Because we the people of this country did nothing as he took us on a path that will never get bin laden for his crime.

Man am I steaming

interesting

Look, I can use faces to express my points too!

REALLY GOOD TO KNOW

i took a picture of bin laden,check out my profile

I think osama bin laden is alive so as to continue the war on terror, if he died the usa would lose a reason for it, its similar to the united states antagonizing the ussr to keep the cold war going and eventually become the premier world power

In hindsight.......if we send all 200,000 troops to Afganistan we could have.... sealed off the borders, moved everyone out of their homes into institutions (temporarily) documenting where everyone lives. Then, each home gets searched for illegal weapons. When found the household members of that house gets pulled aside and questioned. The person responsible gets tried for possession of illegal weapons and put in prison. Then we do and "arms accross the country" searching every square inch of the land for alqeada spots. Shoot all those that fight us, arrest anyone else. Conflict would have been over in less than a year, and we'd have BinLaden. Harsh, yes....but it would have worked if we did this RIGHT after 9/11. Too bad we don't tread harder sometimes....

I don't think we would get attacked for a while as people would know the consequences....

Bin Laden isn't in Afghanistan nor has he been for a very long time. He's bouncing all over the place across many borders and in mountain ranges more expansive in altitude and area covered full of caves stretching endlessly than one can even ponder.

indeed, agreed

If we can't find Steve Fossett with all the assets that went to search for him over an expansive area after his plane crashed, how do we expect to find bin Laden who had thousands of acres, over and through mountains and across many borders into many different countries?

And all that would be on this site by liberals would be how the US failed to capture bin laden and about all the mistakes we made trying. The Russians can tell you about Afghanistan.

It should have been our priority from get. So are you telling me because he was too hard to find that we just went for an easier target and made him pay for bin laden's sins?

Count the number of UN resolutions violated by Iraq for over 10 years. When is enough enough?

Since when does Bush give a sh*t about the UN?

Thank God he doesn't.

Isn't it a shame that the UN is such a pitiful organization that the US has to do their spineless dirty work.