Bin Laden's Back - New Audio, Same Old Message

Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda may be learning a lesson from American media personalities: If you haven't been in the news since last week, you're last week's news.

Al-Jazeera released brief excerpts from an upcoming bin Laden audio, "Message to the European Peoples, which Al Qaeda says will be available: probably on the Islamic militant websites that Al Qaeda favors as its media outlets.

Here's part of what bin Laden had to say:

"The events of Manhattan were retaliation against the American-Israeli alliance's aggression against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, and I am the only one responsible for it. The Afghan people and government knew nothing about it. America knows that,"

Apparently, Osama bin Laden doesn't blame European nations for getting involved in America's invasion of Afghanistan. He says they had no choice, but now it's time to get back to good, old-fashioned anti-Americanism.

"The American tide is ebbing, with God's help, and they will leave back to their countries," he said, to Europeans. "Therefore it is better for you to stand against your leaders who are dropping in on the White House, and to work seriously to lift the injustice against the believers."

"All your victims from bombings were children and women, and you know that women do not fight, but you target them even when they are celebrating to break their morale," he said: which raises an interesting point.

Iran's president Ahmadinejad said that there aren't any homosexuals in Iran, now bin Laden is saying that all the victims from (American-directed) bombings were children and women. I've been watching news video from the Middle East - and some of those women and children had rather thick beards.

Come on! Are people in the Middle East that different from everyone else? I think it's obvious that this 'the great Satan America kills only women and children' stuff just standard-issue hyperbole - but I'm afraid that quite a few people will believe bin Laden.

This will be bin Laden's third message since September - a burst of activity, after a year's silence.

Al Qaeda has stepped up its media campaign, too, doubling its 2006 productivity. The Islamic terrorist group has been releasing an average of one message every three days in 2007.

Same Old, Same Old

Bin Laden fans won't see it this way, but except for Al Qaeda's increasing media savvy, this is the same old thing: America is evil, anyone who works with America is a tool or an infidel, and the big, bad west should stop helping people in the Middle East set up independent, terrorist-free, nations.

If leaders around the world keep taking this sort of propaganda seriously, this is going to be a long war.