Bin Laden audio message denounces Obama before Cairo speech

June 3, 1:47 PMGeopolitics ExaminerMichael Hughes

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Source: Al Jazeera - 6/3/2009

Bin Laden accuses Obama of planting seeds of “revenge and hatred” against Islam in an attempt to deflate Obama speech to Muslims.

Just as the tires of President Barack Hussein Obama’s plane bounced off the runway in Saudi Arabia, Al Jazeera Television broadcast an audio message from Osama Bin Laden tearing into Obama for planting seeds of “revenge and hatred”, denouncing him for continuing the anti-Muslim policies of the Bush administration.  The al-Qaeda leader also charged the U.S. with preventing sharia law from being implemented in Pakistan, and even blamed the U.S. for the death and displacement of millions in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban has been battling Pakistani government forces.

Bin Laden continued the anti-American propaganda campaign that was launched yesterday by al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, who told Egyptians not to be seduced by Obama’s “polished words” when Obama delivers his address to the Muslim world in Cairo tomorrow, June 4.

Bin Laden, in an obvious attempt to stir-up fear on the U.S. home front, warned Americans that we will pay the price for the Obama administration’s actions, using a not-so-subtle analogy:

Let the American people prepare to harvest the crops of what the leaders of the White House plant in the next years and decades."

Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special rep to Afghanistan and Pakistan, reacted by saying that if anyone is to blame for the turmoil in Pakistan its al-Qaeda:  "This entire problem began with al-Qaeda and its associates and everybody in the world knows that. It's silly indeed to respond to such a ludicrous charge."

It will be interesting to see if Bin Laden’s strategically-timed audio dispatch will mar Obama’s Cairo address in any way.  As pointed out by Stuary Whatley of The Huffington Post, Obama's own message to the Islamic faithful is being anticipated with much hope by the global Muslim community, but at the same time, with a significant dose of skepticism.