The Allmendinger Chronicles

From Adnkronos.com

New York, 19 Nov. (AKI) – The son of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, Omar, has told a British magazine that he would like to promote peace and work for the United Nations. His comments were published on Thursday in New Statesman magazine.

“I do not believe that I would be a good politician – I have a habit of speaking the truth, even when it does not serve me well. But I would like to be in a position to promote peace. I believe that the United Nations would be ideal for me,” said Omar Bin-Laden.

Last year in November, Omar (photo) requested asylum in Spain, but his application was refused.

He was travelling on a Saudi Arabian passport and was detained at Madrid’s Barajas Airport after arriving on a flight from Egypt.

In the interview, Omar told New Statesman that he would seek God’s advice in whether to report his father if he knew where he was hiding.

“If such a time comes, God will guide me to the correct path. But any child on earth would have difficulty with such a situation.”

Omar was also asked about his life as a child in the Bin Laden household and said he remembers most of it as being “sad”.

“There were lots of kids…But when my father was around, we were quiet and obedient,” he said.

“My childhood was mainly sad and lonely because of my father’s passion for supporting the Afghan people against the Russians. I rarely had time with him and he was afraid for our safety, so we had to play indoors,” Bin Laden said.

“When we left Saudi Arabia for Sudan, we lived more normally, but then we moved to Af­ghan­istan and life became more than tough.”

The Bin Laden family is one of the wealthiest in the Kingdom, where they possess an impressive conglomerate including one of the largest construction firms and are involved in equity management.

Omar, 28, is one of 19 children of the Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, who tops America’s most wanted list.

Osama Bin Laden’s whereabouts remain unknown. He is accused of being behind a number of atrocities, including the 1998 bombing of two US embassies in East Africa and the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 2001.

SOURCE

From HuffingtonPost.com

CAIRO — Osama bin Laden demanded that European countries pull their troops out of Afghanistan in a new audiotape Friday, warning of “retaliation” against them for their alliance with the United States in the war.

An image made from video with an audio-message, provided by IntelCenter on Friday, Sept 25. 2009, al-Qaeda’s as-Sahab released a 4′47″ video featuring an audio statement from Osama bin Laden entitled, “A Message from Sheikh Osama bin Laden to the People of Europe”. Osama bin Laden demanded that European countries pull their troops out of Afganistan in a new audiotape Friday, warning of “retaliation” against them for their alliance with the United States in the war. The message is in Arabic and was released in both an English and German subtitled version. On-screen text reads, �Say to those who disbelieve: if they desist, that which has passed will be forgiven them; but if they return [to their misdeeds], then the example of previous peoples has already passed before them. (AP Photo/IntelCenter)

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From HuffingtonPost.com

CAIRO — Al-Qaida on Tuesday released a new 106-minute long video predicting President Barack Obama’s downfall at the hands of the Muslim world.

The Arabic-language video, entitled “The West and the Dark Tunnel,” is part of series of messages by the organization marking the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Bin Laden released a short message of his own on Sept. 14.

Like similar long messages on previous anniversaries, it featured testimony from several leading al-Qaida figures intercut with news footage from the past year.

As in the past, al-Qaida attempted to conflate Obama with his predecessor, George W. Bush, who was widely disliked by Muslims for his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Many analysts believe that al-Qaida has been alarmed by Obama’s comparative popularity in the Middle East, especially following his landmark speech to the Muslim world in Cairo in June.

“America has come in a new, hypocritical face. Smiling at us, but stabbing us with the same dagger that Bush used,” said Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri in the message.

“God willing, your end will be at the hands of the Muslim nation, so that the world and history will be free of your crimes and lies,” he said addressing Obama at the end of the two-part video.

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Aug 7, 2009

If Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban’s most dangerous and powerful leader, was indeed killed by a U.S. Predator drone strike earlier this week, the biggest loser of all may be Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. For the past eight years, the group had depended on Mehsud, his close allies, and other sympathetic tribals to protect it in South Waziristan after its previous host, Mullah Mohammed Omar, was chased from Afghanistan by American bombs in late 2001. With Mehsud gone, Al Qaeda could be in trouble. “Mehsud’s death means the tent sheltering Al Qaeda has collapsed,” an Afghan Taliban intelligence officer who had met Mehsud many times tells NEWSWEEK. “Without a doubt he was Al Qaeda’s No. 1 guy in Pakistan,” adds Mahmood Shah, a retired Pakistani Army brigadier and a former chief of the Federally Administered Tribal Area, or FATA, Mehsud’s base.

Mehsud, whom Shah describes as being a short, slightly overweight Type-A diabetic in his late 30s, proved to be an even better host for Al Qaeda than Omar. When Omar was clearly controlling the Taliban before September 11, 2001, he was believed to have been surprised by bin Laden’s attack on New York and Washington. Mehsud, by contrast, didn’t just let bin Laden operate in his domain; he cultivated a symbiotic relationship with Al Qaeda. Bin Laden provided Mehsud and his allies with funds, Al Qaeda’s operational planners, and ideological and military experts (some of them veterans of the first Iraq War). Bin Laden’s operatives quickly became key players in Mehsud’s deadly insurgent operation on both sides of the border. In Afghanistan, they furnished fighters and suicide bombers to attack U.S., NATO, and Afghan troops. In Pakistan, gunmen and suicide bombers were sent to hit Pakistani security forces, military, police, and civilian targets. Mehsud got so caught up in Al Qaeda’s rhetoric that the normally quiet commander threatened in a statement last March, which few took seriously, to extend his operations to include “an attack in Washington that would amaze everyone.”

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