MOSCOW, September 14 (RIA Novosti) - Just days after the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terroist attacks in the United States, Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden warned the Americans of their ties with Israel.
In an 11-minute audio message titled "A statement to the American people" and posted on an Islamic website used in the past by a terrorism network, Bin Laden said the United States had to free itself from Israeli influence.
"The time has come for you to liberate yourselves from fear and the ideological terrorism of neo-conservatives and the Israeli lobby... The reason for our dispute with you is your support for your ally Israel, occupying our land in Palestine," the most-wanted international terrorist said.
The issue of Jewish outposts in the West Bank is the main obstacle in reviving peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and has become a sticking point in relations with the United States, Israel's main strategic ally.
Bin Laden also described U.S. President Barack Obama as "powerless," accusing him of doing nothing to end the war and keeping many military people from the previous administration of George Bush, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
"If you think about your situation well, you will know that the White House is occupied by pressure groups... Rather than fighting to liberate Iraq — as Bush claimed — it [the White House] should have been liberated," Bin Laden told the American people. "Obama is a powerless man who will not be able to end the war [in Iraq] as he promised."
