AP via Haaretz:
CAIRO – In his first new message in three months, Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden said in a tape reelased Sunday that the West’s suspension of aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government proved Washington and Europe were conducting “a Zionist crusaders war on Islam.”
“The blockade which the West is imposing on the government of Hamas proves that there is a Zionist crusaders war on Islam,” the tape said.
In an ominous new threat, Bin Laden also appeared to justify attacks on civilians in the West and called on his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed United Nations force in Darfur…
BBC:
The speaker on the tape said that along with their governments, the people of the West bear responsibility for what he called a “Zionist-crusader war against Islam”.
“The war is a responsibility shared between the people and the governments. The war goes on and the people are renewing their allegiance to its rulers and masters,” he said.
“They send their sons to armies to fight us and they continue their financial and moral support while our countries are burned and our houses are bombed and our people are killed.”
He said that the decision by some Western powers to cut funding to the Palestinian government since the militant group Hamas won elections there was further prove of this anti-Islamic campaign.
“The blockade which the West is imposing on the government of Hamas proves that there is a Zionist-crusader war on Islam,” the tape said.
As in a tape from the al-Qaeda leader in January, the speaker warned of fresh attacks on US soil….