Bin Laden wants Iraq as base for attacking Israel

CNN:

Al-Jazeera broadcast on Thursday an audiotape on which a voice identified as Osama bin Laden declares "Iraq is the perfect base to set up the jihad to liberate Palestine."

The voice calls for the people of neighboring countries "to do their best in supporting their mujahedeen brothers in Iraq."

"My speech to you is about the siege of Gaza and the way to liberate it," he said.

"The Gaza siege is a direct result of Annapolis," he adds, apparently referring to the site of November's summit in Annapolis, Maryland, where Israeli and Palestinian leadership agreed to work toward a two-state solution.

The voice also calls on "Muslims in the neighboring countries" to support the "mujahedeen in Iraq."

The broadcast comes a day after another statement attributed to the al Qaeda leader condemned European countries for siding with the United States in Afghanistan and for allowing the publication of cartoons considered insulting to Islam's prophet, Mohammed.

"This is the greater and more serious tragedy, and the reckoning for it will be more severe," the speaker in the five-minute audio recording says.

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There is much more.

What is striking about this statement is how much it makes John McCain's case for staying in Iraq and how he pulls the rug out from under the Clinton Obama argument for pulling out of Iraq. Clinton and Obama may be so committed to their misguided policies that they will try to spin their way out of the enemy leader's statement, but it will have to be a dishonest argument.

This is not the first statement bin Laden has made about his intentions for Iraq, just the latest. Those who want to lose the war in Iraq may ignore it, but American voters would be very foolish to follow them. This is as big a story as Obama's racist minister in undercutting the rationale for his candidacy. It will be interesting to see if the rest of the media ignores this news.