Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S.

(CNN) -- The Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera released a full transcript Monday of the most recent videotape from Osama bin Laden in which the head of al Qaeda said his group's goal is to force America into bankruptcy.

Al-Jazeera aired portions of the videotape Friday but released the full transcript of the entire tape on its Web site Monday.

"We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah," bin Laden said in the transcript...

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/01/binladen.tape/index.html

Comments?

First reaction–
Heh, Reagan claimed the same thing; bleeding the Soviet Beast till it collapsed.

Second reaction–
So Osama's still at large. I guess the guy with the white turban at the wedding we bombed wasn't him?Atrocity (http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/central/07/01/afghanistan.bombing/)

And finally,
could al Qaeda really do it?

Osama will claim credit for bankrupting America when it was clear even before 9/11 that we would bankrupt ourself without any help from Osama. Reagan's fans gave Reagan to much credit for bankrupting the Soviet Union that would have collapsed even without Afghanistan.

it would happen but they can just get a loan from ocean finance...... no questions asked.

Far as I know, the USA is nearly bankrupt anyway, they might collaps just like the Soviet beast...

If it will be the work of Al-quaida? To some percentage at least.

Perhaps it was Bin Laden who made Bush win the election; Afterall Bush is more likely to make it happen than Al Quaida :D

Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S.

"We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.
what a joke,America aint some two horse village.
destroying couple skyscrapers didnt change much except gave the prez an excuse to go into ME and kick ass and look like a hero and at the same time take control of the second biggest oil fields in the world,
almost like this Bin Laden was playing straight into GW Bushs hand,eh?
makes one wonder


Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah," bin Laden said in the transcript.
gotta love those deluded religious idiots


.. this shows that al Qaeda has gained,
what exactly did they gain?
besides being the most wanted fugitives from the most powerful nation on Earth!


but on the other hand it shows that the Bush administration has also gained, something that anyone who looks at the size of the contracts acquired by the shady Bush administration-linked mega-corporations, like Halliburton and its kind, will be convinced.
thank you


"And it all shows that the real loser is you," he said. "It is the American people and their economy."
ROFL ,,this coming from some camel riding towelhead who lives in a cave,
get the fuck real!


As for President Bush's Iraq policy, Bin Laden said, "the darkness of black gold blurred his vision and insight, and he gave priority to private interests over the public interests of America.
yeah its all about $$$ we know,what else is new?

and Bin dumbfuck Laden who could have lived a wonderful life as a very rich man hides in some cave in Pakistan scared shitless for his life anytime some Army jet flies overhead,
now, whos the morron here?

Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S.................Comments?

Ahhhhh.....America is already bankrupt .......................

Bin Laden should have put his flame something like this: "we will make American bancruptcy obvious to the world, so the World will eventually stop supporting delusions of grandeur of the bancrupt nation".

Considering looming oil crisis in the next 10-20 years, everybody will be bancrupt. Fittest will survive; buy guns, let the newest Russian history be your survival guide.

http://costofwar.com/

America is collapsing already. al-Qaeda's just one little push. Your politicians are busy making themselves wealthy. Best of luck.

Osama's goal is to change the entire world to suit him. That just happens to mean he wants the world to be ruled by a massive theocracy or series of theocracies that practice a particularly extreme form of islam and enforce it with an iron fist. All else is, for him, merely a tool towards that end.

America and Israel are considered two of the biggest impediments to that design and so he figures they must go first. He goes at this from every angle. Filling the American people with fear makes us less likely to take risks trading and spending our money, thus screwing with the economy. Killing troops and civilians overseas puts us in more turmoil, some Americans are isolationists cringe at the very thought of losing a soldier under any circumstances. And yes, this all costs the American government money. Bankrupcy would be one more plus on his chalkboard. Please enjoy the fact that should the US and Israel fall, you all will be next on Osama's menu. Sleep tight.

And please dont think the collapse of the US will be a good thing. Should we fracture, the world economy would crumble due to the loss of a major trading partner and the need for individual countries to defend themselves. It would take many decades to crawl out of.

Not only that, the fragments of America left behind would still be quite powerful and I doubt they would be as... stable. They have a bunch of military equipment and infrastructure, a huge number of nukes, and few inhibitions. I could easily imagine some fragments starting up piracy and privateering again.

He seems content to leave other nations alone. The only times he's been active have been during Western invasions, first the Russians and second the US/Israeli nuclear rule in the Middle East.

He seems content to leave other nations alone. The only times he's been active have been during Western invasions, first the Russians and second the US/Israeli nuclear rule in the Middle East.

In his eyes, why treat a case of warts when the patient has cancer? After the cancer has been carved out its a different matter entirely.

Some of you seem to come from the perspective that Bin Laden's goal is to destroy America.

I thought it was American involvement in Israel that Bin Laden is targeting.

Do you think he is stupid enough to believe Al-Qaeda is capable of bringing down the US?

I think he believes that god is on his side and will personally enact freaking miracles to aid Osama and his cause. That means yes, he is stupid enough to believe Al-Qaed a is capable of bringing down the US.

American involvement in Israel brought us to his attention because we got in the way of his goal. Severing connections would not make him forget about us. At most, it might just make him put us a notch or two down his hit list.

I think he believes that god is on his side and will personally enact freaking miracles to aid Osama and his cause. That means yes, he is stupid enough to believe Al-Qaed a is capable of bringing down the US.

Al Qaeda is not able to bring down the US, but Al Qaeda sure does help the US destroy itself. The biggest threat to America now after this shockingly idiotic election is her own population. You think Bush doesn’t think he has God on his side? LOL! Osama and Bush are essentially two religious freakos from the same pot. Bush thinks he can bring down Al Qaeda, just as impossible. If anything if Osama’s goal is to bankrupt the US he is sure as hell doing a good job. American power is all but over, the only question is how will this Rome end?

Bush thinks God is in his side. Just not in the 'with God's help, our skin will be as armor and every one of our arrows will strike true' way. He is more of a 'Yes, god is on our side. But it is totally up to us to do what needs to be done. You won't get any help from him until after you die' way.

And you speak Rome. I claim Rome Never Ended. It just changed names and geographic location. It passed to Byzantium and Britain and later... you guessed it... America. There are changes, but the essence is in many ways the same. When America as you know it dies, as will happen in what I hope are centuries, it will come back somewhere else.

FYI: Rome ate the barbariens and made them its own.

Hahahah, rome passing to britain. There was fuck all left to pass on. Rome got chewed up by barbarians, plagues and everything else, but Byzantium escaped most of it and managed to survive for a while longer.

Britain was a blend of old celtic, norse, and roman cultures. It formed the entire mindset and culture of the empire upon which the sun never set. It later absorbed assorted crap from its dealings with the rest of the world, muffling but never completely silencing Rome.

Now, back to the original topic.

Bush thinks God is in his side. Just not in the 'with God's help, our skin will be as armor and every one of our arrows will strike true' way. He is more of a 'Yes, god is on our side. But it is totally up to us to do what needs to be done. You won't get any help from him until after you die' way.

It’s the same bullshit; Osama doesn’t go around claiming that you won’t die if Allah is on your side. He like Bush feels that God favours his version of what the world should be like. Yes people will have to do die, but they are both doing Gods bidding. Now that the US is shifting to the hard right with religious nuttos taking over, America will destroy itself.

And you speak Rome. I claim Rome Never Ended.

Rome ended the actual empire, the structure of Rome continues in the Catholic Church. Your little analysis which ultimately makes no sense is essentially a fib from your Cuban-Nebraskan mind.

When America as you know it dies, as will happen in what I hope are centuries, it will come back somewhere else.

Zhongguo will take up the slack…

Britain was a blend of old celtic, norse, and roman cultures. It formed the entire mindset and culture of the empire upon which the sun never set. It later absorbed assorted crap from its dealings with the rest of the world, muffling but never completely silencing Rome.

Not quite. It was a blend of celtic, anglo saxon, and then french culture, along with a bit of norse, some pict, and smattering of others. There was no roman culture left in Britain after the romans left, because of various plagues and the invasions of teh saxons. Sure, there were some roman forts and artefacts, but there is pretty much a clear cultureal break between the 2 set ups. Then the mindset of the empire was made up long after any considerations of any identity recognisable as celtic or norse. The empire became an empire proper over 1400 years after the invasion by the saxons, and had been based in part upon 300 years of judeo-christian protestant outlook, as well as a blend of greek thought, modern ideas and some admiration of the Romans. Whilst many of the intelligentsia and upper class read latin, admired rome and took its writings as a cultural base, the fact that they picked and chose what to use is clear. This picking and choosing of roman ideals came about long after the start of the empire, and was a sign mroe of it reaching its hights in the Victorian era. There were some similarities between some of the justifications for empire and who to treat yoru family etc, but much of that was independently created by the Victorians, based in part upon the religious movements of the past 300 years. Maybe you could argue that these ideals etc are necessary ot have a global empire, which may in part be true, but that is not a justification to ilnk rome with Britain.

Actually, Russians (before 1917 revolution) were certain that there were 3 Romes (Rome, Byzantium, Moscow) and fourth Rome will never appear. Now those ideas come back. So, every frog praises its pond.

Sorry about being off your topic and back on the original one

my 2¢

According to Thomas Barnett (Assistant for Strategic Futures, Office of Force Transformation Office of Secretary of Defense) bin laden's goal is to hijack the Middle East like Lenin and the Bolsheviks did. The more mutual hatred there is between the west and Middle East the easier it will be for him to do so. This is made easier by the same phenomenon that bush used to win the election: georing->
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
I honestly don’t think bin laden gives a flying f*** about America, or how much money it has

more about Barnett
http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail238.html

"According to Thomas Barnett (Assistant for Strategic Futures, Office of Force Transformation Office of Secretary of Defense) bin laden's goal is to hijack the Middle East like Lenin and the Bolsheviks did. The more mutual hatred there is between the west and Middle East the easier it will be for him to do so."

D'uh! I thought that was pretty damn obvious years ago. Stir up trouble, get people on both sides to overreact and involve innocents, create a few atrocities and ensure your people are in place to exploit them. The fact that this has an economic effect as well probably didnt occur to them originally, but now its become obvious that it does, it becomes another way for Bin Laden to boast.

D'uh! I thought that was pretty damn obvious years ago. Stir up trouble, get people on both sides to overreact and involve innocents, create a few atrocities and ensure your people are in place to exploit them. The fact that this has an economic effect as well probably didnt occur to them originally, but now its become obvious that it does, it becomes another way for Bin Laden to boast.
You just said exactly what I said! The only difference is that you think he has adopted a new way of going about his plan. I am saying that was part of the plan in the first place. How on earth can you think attacking financially is a NEW strategy?? Was that not the point of hitting the World Trade Centers!?!?

Hey, you misunderstand, I think that has been his plan from the beggining. Why else hit the world trade centres indeed, you are entirely correct. If my brain was still working (I think i've mentioned elsewhere that i am just coming off night shift) I would try and dig up some historical examples.

lol, We are auguring the same point, that’s funny. Well, in that case, I declare we both win the argument. :)

Unless someone has the cahones to try and argue with both of us.
(is that how you spell "cahones"? I dont know)

cojones.

I think bin Laden believes (or at least, at one time believed) in what he is fighting for.
He hates the US because of it's involvement in Israel and it's influence on the Arab nations.

His declaration of war...


Text of Fatwah Urging Jihad Against Americans
Published in Al-Quds al-'Arabi on Febuary 23, 1998

Statement signed by Sheikh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin; Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of the Jihad Group in Egypt; Abu- Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, a leader of the Islamic Group; Sheikh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan; and Fazlul Rahman, leader of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh

Praise be to God, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)"; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said "I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but God is worshipped, God who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders." The Arabian Peninsula has never--since God made it flat, created its desert, and encircled it with seas--been stormed by any forces like the crusader armies now spreading in it like locusts, consuming its riches and destroying its plantations. All this is happening at a time when nations are attacking Muslims like people fighting over a plate of food. In the light of the grave situation and the lack of support, we and you are obliged to discuss current events, and we should all agree on how to settle the matter.

No one argues today about three facts that are known to everyone; we will list them, in order to remind everyone:

First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.

If some people have formerly debated the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it.

The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, still they are helpless. Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, in excess of 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once against trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation.

So now they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors.

Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there.

The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula.

All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on God, his messenger, and Muslims. And ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries. This was revealed by Imam Bin-Qadamah in "Al- Mughni," Imam al-Kisa'i in "Al- Bada'i," al-Qurtubi in his interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam in his books, where he said "As for the militant struggle, it is aimed at defending sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed. Nothing is more sacred than belief except repulsing an enemy who is attacking religion and life."


On that basis, and in compliance with God's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies--civilians and military--is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty God, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in God."

This is in addition to the words of Almighty God "And why should ye not fight in the cause of God and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated and oppressed--women and children, whose cry is 'Our Lord, rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will help!'"

We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.

Almighty God said "O ye who believe, give your response to God and His Apostle, when He calleth you to that which will give you life. And know that God cometh between a man and his heart, and that it is He to whom ye shall all be gathered."

Almighty God also says "O ye who believe, what is the matter with you, that when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of God, ye cling so heavily to the earth! Do ye prefer the life of this world to the hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place; but Him ye would not harm in the least. For God hath power over all things."


Almighty God also says "So lose no heart, nor fall into despair. For ye must gain mastery if ye are true in faith."

Well, we have been hearing the deficit is exploding for years and America heading towards bankruptcy, but still there she is....

I just wonder , does it really matter America has astronomical deficit, just how heigh this deficit can go before catastrophy strikes?? Maybe the world has invested too much money in the States to allow them to go bankrupt?

BTW: bankruptcy would be the quickest way to implement the Ownership Soceity, aka a return to the days of the wild wild West....

Well, we have been hearing the deficit is exploding for years and America heading towards bankruptcy, but still there she is....

I just wonder , does it really matter America has astronomical deficit, just how heigh this deficit can go before catastrophy strikes?? Maybe the world has invested too much money in the States to allow them to go bankrupt?

BTW: bankruptcy would be the quickest way to implement the Ownership Soceity, aka a return to the days of the wild wild West....

Good point Vortexx...

Let's refocus our discussion toward; Can the world allow the US Economy to Collapse? Is such a massive economy capable of collapsing?

He hates the US because of it's involvement in Israel and it's influence on the Arab nations.

I was asking about this earlier inthe thread. Thanks, I thought that was why Bin Laden is attacking the US.

The Roman economy collapsed because it could no longer expand. Expansion in those days was hostile take over; move in and take the gold, then tax.

Now, we move into markets. What happens when America runs out of markets? Our entire system is based on growth. It matters not what the Dow Industrial average is today, but what it was yesterday, and what it will go up (or down) to tomorrow.

It's not a matter of the world allowing the US economy to collapse; it's a matter of how long constant expansion can last.

Maybe, as markets are increasingly served by the chinese, the usa would move towards the Roman model of hostile takeovers?

One could view the enormous spending on the millitary apparatus and the involvement in iraq as telltale signs in such directions?

I can only hope the Americans would rather direct their energy towards expansion in space, grabbing the moonresources etc, cause at least they wouldn't have to step on everybodies toes (except the little green men would write angry letters to Kofi Anan) to quench their thurst...

the initial investments for developing the moon are literally Astronomical, but IMO not more crazy than the amount spend on F-22 raptors for instance and could maybe be the start of a new golden era....

The very fact that Delta Airline is about to go under says, Bin Laden group made a serious dent in the American Economy. The health of Airlines are the basis and metric of the economic success of America since Business Processes have not changed that much in the last 3 years. If the same process continues, Bin Laden group can easily take credit for it.

What I wonder is, are they smart to know that an event can cause the ripple in time to produce the intended result over time and just lucky?