Another Day, Another Bin Laden Tape

The Guardian reports:

Audio and video messages from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden since Sept. 11, 2001:

- Oct. 22, 2007: Bin Laden calls for Iraqi insurgents to unite and avoid divisive ``extremism'' in an audiotape apparently intended to win over Sunnis opposed to the terror group's branch in Iraq.

- Sept. 20, 2007: Bin Laden urges Pakistanis to wage holy war on and overthrow President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for his alliance with the United States against Islamic militants in a 23-minute video. The images on the tape had been released before, but the audio referred to the storming of Islamabad's Red Mosque, a militant stronghold, suggesting it had been recorded since July.

- Sept. 11, 2007: Bin Laden commemorates one of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers and calls on young Muslims to become martyrs in a videotape that lays his audio message over a still image of the al-Qaida leader.

- Sept. 7, 2007: Bin Laden appears for the first time in three years in a 30-minute video, released to mark the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. He tells Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end. He is shown wearing a trimmed beard, which in previous videos was mostly gray, now entirely dark.

- July 1, 2006 - Bin Laden issues a 19-minute audiotape endorsing the new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, and denouncing Iraqi Shiite leaders as traitors.

- June 30, 2006 - Bin Laden issues an audiotape praising al-Muhajer's predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who had been killed in a U.S. airstrike. The message, also 19 minutes, was packaged with an old photo of bin Laden and images of al-Zarqawi.

- May 23, 2006: Bin Laden says in an audiotape that convicted terror plotter Zacarias Moussaoui had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks.

- April 23, 2006: In an audiotape, bin Laden says the West is at war with Islam and calls on his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed U.N. force.

- Jan. 19, 2006: Bin Laden warns in an audiotape that his fighters are preparing new attacks in the United States but offers the American people a ``long-term truce'' without specifying the conditions.

- Dec. 28, 2004: In an hourlong audiotape, bin Laden endorses al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and calls for a boycott of Iraqi elections.

- Dec. 16, 2004: In an audiotape, bin Laden praises militants who attacked a U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia and calls on militants to stop the flow of oil to the West.

- Oct. 29, 2004: In a videotape, bin Laden says the United States can avoid another Sept. 11 attack if it stops threatening the security of Muslims.

- May 6, 2004: In an audiotape released on Islamic forums, bin Laden offers rewards of gold for the killing of U.S. and U.N. officials in Iraq.

- April 15, 2004: Bin Laden offers a ``truce'' to European countries that do not attack Muslims.

- Jan. 4, 2004: Bin Laden says in an audiotape that the war in Iraq is the beginning of the ``occupation'' of Persian Gulf states for their oil. He calls on Muslims to keep fighting a holy war in the Middle East.

- Sept. 10, 2003: In the first video image of bin Laden in nearly two years, he is shown walking through rocky terrain with top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri. In an accompanying audiotape, bin Laden praises the ``great damage to the enemy'' in the Sept. 11 attacks and mentions five hijackers by name.

- April 7, 2003: In an audiotape, bin Laden exhorts Muslims to rise up against Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other governments it claims are ``agents of America,'' and calls for suicide attacks against U.S. and British interests.

- Feb. 13, 2003: In an audiotape, bin Laden reads a last will and testament. He says he wants to die a martyr in a new attack against the U.S.

- Feb. 11, 2003: Bin Laden tells followers to help Saddam Hussein fight U.S. troops.

- Nov. 12, 2002: An audiotape attributed to bin Laden threatens new terrorism against the U.S. and its allies, and calls the Bush administration ``the biggest serial killers in this age.'' U.S. experts say the tape can't be authenticated because of its poor quality.

- Dec. 13, 2001: In a videotape made in Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2001, bin Laden says the destruction of the Sept. 11 attacks exceeded even his ``optimistic'' calculations.