Following is the text, translated from Arabic, of Osama bin Laden's taped
remarks, aired yesterday on Qatar's al-Jazeera television. The remarks
appear to have been made before the U.S. and British strikes on Afghanistan.

I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is his
messenger.

There is America, hit by God in one of its softest spots. Its greatest
buildings were destroyed, thank God for that. There is America, full of fear
from its north to its south, from its west to its east. Thank God for that.
What America is tasting now is something insignificant compared to what we
have tasted for scores of years. Our nation [the Islamic world] has been
tasting this humiliation and this degradation for more than 80 years. Its
sons are killed, its blood is shed, its sanctuaries are attacked, and no one
hears and no one heeds.

When God blessed one of the groups of Islam, vanguards of Islam, they
destroyed America. I pray to God to elevate their status and bless them.
Millions of innocent children are being killed as I speak. They are being
killed in Iraq without committing any sins, and we don't hear condemnation
or a fatwa [religious decree] from the rulers. In these days, Israeli tanks
infest Palestine -- in Jenin, Ramallah, Rafah, Beit Jalla and other places
in the land of Islam -- and we don't hear anyone raising his voice or moving
a limb.

When the sword comes down [on America], after 80 years, hypocrisy rears its
ugly head. They deplore and they lament for those killers, who have abused
the blood, honor and sanctuaries of Muslims. The least that can be said
about those people is that they are debauched. They have followed injustice.
They supported the butcher over the victim, the oppressor over the innocent
child. May God show them his wrath and give them what they deserve.
I say that the situation is clear and obvious. After this event, after the
senior officials have spoken in America, starting with the head of infidels
worldwide, Bush, and those with him. They have come out in force with their
men and have turned even the countries that belong to Islam to this
treachery, and they want to wag their tail at God, to fight Islam, to
suppress people in the name of terrorism.

When people at the ends of the earth, Japan, were killed by their hundreds
of thousands, young and old, it was not considered a war crime, it is
something that has justification. Millions of children in Iraq is something
that has justification. But when they lose dozens of people in Nairobi and
Dar es Salaam [capitals of Kenya and Tanzania, where U.S. embassies were
bombed in 1998], Iraq was struck and Afghanistan was struck. Hypocrisy stood
in force behind the head of infidels worldwide, behind the cowards of this
age, America and those who are with it.

These events have divided the whole world into two sides -- the side of
believers and the side of infidels. May God keep you away from them. Every
Muslim has to rush to make his religion victorious. The winds of faith have
come. The winds of change have come to eradicate oppression from the island
of Muhammad, peace be upon him.

To America, I say only a few words to it and its people. I swear by God, who
has elevated the skies without pillars, neither America nor the people who
live in it will dream of security before we live it in Palestine, and not
before all the infidel armies leave the land of Muhammad, peace be upon him.
God is great, may pride be with Islam. May peace and God's mercy be upon
you.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company