Based upon a question from Gunner of Target Centermass and in relation to the latest terrorism analyst who proclaimed Osama Bin Laden is dead, below is a timeline of speeches, interviews and letters by Osama Bin Laden. The timeline is provided by both PBS and Joyner Library with commentary by yours truly.

August 1996 Fatwa: OBL issued a declaration of war against the United States for occupying the “land of two holy places,” in other words Saudi Arabia. The Persian Gulf War enraged OBL primarily because he wanted to use the mujihadeen to fight back against Iraq following the invasion of Kuwait. The Saudis refused and a large international coalition moved into Saudi Arabia, with the United States maintaining a presence in order to keep Saddam Hussein in check.

October/November 1996 Interview with Australian Islamist Nida’ul Islam Magazine: Among other points, OBL singled out British involvement in the Middle East for centuries as well as American involvment post WW II. Also much more on the U.S. precense in Saudi Arabia.

Feb. 23, 1998 Fatwa: This fatwa was much of the same as the previous fatwa, though for some reason this one is considered the true declaration of war against the United States. Ayman al-Zawahiri was officially a member of Al Qaida at this time branching over from the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt. The U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed the following August.

January 11, 1999 Interview with Time Magazine: This is a fairly wide ranging interview and difficult to summarize.

June 10, 1999 Interview Aired on Al Jazeera: “Every Muslim who sees discrimination begins to hate the Americans, the Jews, and Christians. This is part of our religion and faith.” On the Somalia retreat: “We think that the United States is very much weaker than Russia. Based on the reports we received from our brothers who participated in jihad in Somalia, we learned that they saw the weakness, frailty, and cowardice of US troops. Only 80 US troops were killed. Nonetheless, they fled in the heart of darkness, frustrated, after they had caused great commotion about the new world order.”

September 24, 2001 Letter to Al Jazeera: “I assure you, dear brothers, that we are firm on the road of jihad for the sake of God inspired by His Prophet, may peace be upon him, and with the heroic faithful Afghani people under the leadership of the emir of the faithful Mullah Mohammed Omar and to make him triumph over the infidel forces and the forces of tyranny and to destroy the new Jewish Crusade campaign on the soil of Pakistan and Afghanistan.” This would have been written, presumably, following 9/11 and just as special forces units and CIA agents were on the ground in Afghanistan. This was three days after the Taliban said they would not turn over OBL and one day before the Taliban claimed OBL “went missing.”

October 2001 Interview with Al Jazeera: OBL did not deny or take credit for 9/11, but did defend the attacks against the United States.

We experienced the Americans through our brothers who went into combat against them in Somalia, for example. We found they had no power worthy of mention. There was a huge aura over America — the United States — that terrified people even before they entered combat. Our brothers who were here in Afghanistan tested them, and together with some of the mujahedeen in Somalia, God granted them victory. America exited dragging its tails in failure, defeat, and ruin, caring for nothing.

America left faster than anyone expected. It forgot all that tremendous media fanfare about the new world order, that it is the master of that order, and that it does whatever it wants. It forgot all of these propositions, gathered up its army, and withdrew in defeat, thanks be to God.

Yes, the second mention of Somalia as a measure of American military power. This is a trend with OBL. Also see the PBS translated transcript.

October 28, 2001 Video Where OBL Takes Credit for 9/11: Reportedly circulated “among [OBL's] followers” for 14 days before being released to the public on November 11, 2001. “If avenging the killing of our people is terrorism then history should be a witness that we are terrorists. Yes, we kill their innocents and this is legal religiously and logically.”

November 1, 2001 Letter Condemning Pakistan’s Government: In this letter, OBL rails against Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf for siding with the international community and against Al Qaida and the Taliban, even going so far as saying “the Pakistani government is standing beneath the Christian banner.”

It is also interesting to note OBL makes the remark that the attacks against the Taliban and Al Qaida are from crusaders and a reinvention of the Crusades, long before President Bush chose his words foolishly during the 2003 State of the Union Speech. Those who claim today President Bush put the Crusades into the GWOT either lack knowledge on OBL and Al Qaida or are doing so for other reasons.

November 10, 2001 Claim of Nuclear Weapons:

HM: Some Western media claim that you are trying to acquire chemical and nuclear weapons. How much truth is there in such reports?

OSB: I heard the speech of American President Bush yesterday (Oct 7). He was scaring the European countries that Osama wanted to attack with weapons of mass destruction. I wish to declare that if America used chemical or nuclear weapons against us, then we may retort with chemical and nuclear weapons. We have the weapons as deterrent.

HM: Where did you get these weapons from ?

OSB: Go to the next question.

Documents and videos found in Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban and ouster of Al Qaida included a video appearing to show crude experiments testing chemical gas on dogs. Also found in Afghanistan were areas that were believed to be chemical factories, including one in Kabul (also see this transcript of a CNN broadcast regarding Al Qaida’s quest for a “super bomb”). In 1998 what is now called a ‘pharmaceutical plant‘ was bombed because it was believed the plant was a chemical factory set up by OBL himself. Interestingly, Saddam Hussein also had a hand in bankrolling this project.

November 12, 2002 Video:

What do your governments want from their alliance with America in attacking us in Afghanistan?

I mention in particular Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Australia.

We warned Australia before not to join in [the war] in Afghanistan, and [against] its despicable effort to separate East Timor.

It ignored the warning until it woke up to the sounds of explosions in Bali.

Its government falsely claimed that they [the Australians] were not targeted.

November 24, 2002 ‘Letter to Americans’: OBL lays out the reasons Al Qaida has targeted the United States, with Iraq being the sixth reason of seven. A Caliphate is mentioned yet we still hear very little about this being a dominant desire of OBL and Al Qaida in today’s media and from today’s politicians.

February 11, 2003 Audio Message: Rallying against the United States now includes Iraq as a focal point for OBL. OBL makes the point that U.S. soldiers are cowards, are stealing Iraq’s oil and are in Iraq because of “crusader and personal grudges by Bush the father.”

March 5, 2003 – Bin Laden’s Sermon for the Feast of the Sacrifice: “I am happy to tell you that the Jihad in Afghanistan is going well, thank God, and that things are improving in favor of the Mujahideen, thanks to Allah. We are now in the second year of fighting, and America has not managed to accomplish its objectives; on the contrary, it has become embroiled in the Afghan swamp.” This despite a sovereign government in place at the time with elections on the horizon and Afghanis soundly rejecting the rule of the Taliban and the Al Qaida puppet masters.

July 23, 2003 Audio Message: Largely a recruiting tape, or what has to be seen as more so than other messages, OBL is stuck on Aghanistan yet again.

“Then, Allah made it possible to establish the Taliban state. The Taliban established [the state] and removed the conflict among the Afghans. They remained [in power] for six years, more or less. But the people remained captive to their fixed ideas and captive to the world media, which launched a mad attack on the Taliban and harmed their reputation…”

Despite there being a fairly large contingent of Afghanis known as the Northern Alliance who lived under constant threat and warfare from the Taliban and Al Qaida following the Soviet withdrawal as well as several warlords each attacking each other and various groups depending on who had more cash, OBL believes Afghanistan was peaceful . . . I suppose. What is interesting to note is that OBL rallies against foreign occupation yet it was Arabs who occupied Afghanistan following the Afghan-Soviet War and Pakistan during the war. Afhgans and Pakistanis, largely, are not Arab. Somehow OBL justifies occupation under Arabs loosely joined in religious doctrine yet condemns occupation by non-Arabs. OBL also justifies the occupation of the lands known as the Levant (Israel, Palestine, Syria and Jordan) by the Caliph, something he wants to bring back despite these lands being Jewish long before Islam was founded.

October 2003 Message to Iraqis: “Voices have risen in Iraq as before in Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen and elsewhere, calling for a peaceful democratic solution in dealing with apostate governments or with Jewish and crusader invaders instead of fighting in the name of God. Hence, it is necessary to warn against the danger of this deviant and misleading pratice that contradicts Allah’s teachings to fight in the name of God.”

October 2003 Message to Americans:

“This gang and their leader enjoy lying, war and looting to serve their own ambitions. The blood of the children of Vietnam, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq is still dripping from their teeth. They have fooled you and deceived you into invading Iraq a second time. And they have lied to you and the whole world.

“Nations are nothing without ethics and morals. If these are gone, the nations are gone.

Bush has sent your sons into the lion’s den, to slaughter and be slaughtered, claiming that this act was in defence of international peace and America’s security, thus concealing the facts.

“On one hand he (Bush) is carrying out the demands of the Zionist lobby that helped him to enter the White House. These demands are to destroy the military strength of Iraq because it is too close to the Jews in occupied Palestine, regardless of the harm that will happen to your people and your economy.

“On the other hand, he (Bush) is concealing his own ambitions and the ambitions of the Zionist lobby and their own desire for oil. He is still following the mentality of his ancestors who killed the Native Americans to take their land and wealth. He thought that this time it would be an easy task and a lie that would not be exposed.

This should sound very similar to all readers and remind them of certain individuals who refer to OBL as “freedom fighters” and those who have spent time on the side of Texas roads, not including myself.

January 6, 2004 OBL’s Call to ‘Resist the New Rome’: ” In truth, this is a religious-economic war. The occupation of Iraq is a link in the Zionist-crusader chain of evil. Then comes the full occupation of the rest of the Gulf states to set the stage for controlling and dominating the whole world.” Again, OBL claims both Afghanistan and Iraq were attacked by the U.S. over oil.

April 15, 2004 Peace Treaty with Europe:

“Therefore, in order to thwart opportunities for the merchants of war, and in response to the positive developments that were expressed in recent events and in the public opinion polls, which determined that most European peoples want peace, I urge … the establishment of a permanent commission to nurture awareness among Europeans regarding the justness of our causes, particularly the cause of Palestine, and that use be made of the vast media resources to this end.

“I hereby offer them a peace treaty, the essence of which is our commitment to halt actions against any country that commits itself to refraining from attacking Muslims or intervening in their affairs, including the American conspiracy against the larger Islamic world.

An almost 180 degree turn from previous statements, but wisely OBL fails to mention a Caliphate and how most of Europe would be enveloped by the Caliphate he wishes to create.

October 29, 2004 Video to Influence U.S. Election: OBL railed against President Bush in this speech that was a likely attempt to influence the election in the United States either for or against Bush.

November 5, 2004 Video: Again taking credit for 9/11, OBL describes the attack by Israel on Lebanon.

“The events that had a direct influence on me occurred in 1982, and the subsequent events, when the U.S. permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon with the aid of the American sixth fleet. They started shelling, and many were killed and wounded, while others were terrorized into fleeing. I still remember those moving scenes – blood, torn limbs, and dead women and children; ruined homes everywhere, and high-rises being demolished on top of their residents; bombs raining down mercilessly on our homes. It was as though a crocodile swallowed a child, and he could do nothing but cry. But does a crocodile understand any language other than arms? The entire world saw and heard, but did not respond.”

This timeframe would have been right before OBL traveled to Egypt to open up a mujahideen recruiting center to send jihadis to Pakistan and ultimately Afghanistan for the Afghan-Soviet War.

December 27, 2004 Audio Tape: Osama Bin Laden endorsed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as the leader of Al Qaida in Iraq and called for a boycott of the upcoming Iraqi elections. Needless to say, this call for a boycott did not work.

January 19, 2006 Audio Message:

However, what prompted me to speak are the repeated fallacies of your President Bush in his comment on the outcome of US opinion polls, which indicated that the overwhelming majority of you want the withdrawal of the forces from Iraq, but he objected to this desire and said that the withdrawal of troops would send the wrong message to the enemy.

Bush said: It is better to fight them on their ground than they fighting us on our ground.

In my response to these fallacies, I say: The war in Iraq is raging and operations in Afghanistan are on the rise in our favour, praise be to God.

The Pentagon figures indicate the rise in the number of your dead and wounded, let alone the huge material losses.

To go back to where I started, I say that the results of the poll satisfy sane people and that Bush’s objection to them is false.

More evidence OBL pays attention to the news and politics is hardly alien to him. He also states Iraq “has become a point of attraction and recruitment of qualified resources.” Taking credit for the “bombings you have seen in the capitals of the most important European countries of this aggressive coalition,” which presumably means Madrid and London.

The rest of the January 19, 2006 message was released on a radical Islamic site. You may view the entire translated message HERE.

April 23, 2006 Audio Tape:

The siege that is imposed on Hamas shows that it is a Zionist crusader war against Islam. This also shows their refusal to [acknowledge] Hamas movement, after it won the election, and we emphasized on what sheik Ayman Al-Zawahri has warned before, that it is forbidden to joined the joined councils. But their refusal to [acknowledge] Hamas proves that it is a crusader Zionist war against Muslims.

Of course the West has actually acknowledged Hamas and their leadership of Palestine, but the West has decided to cease funding the Palestinian government. That funding, mind you, is not something that is nor should be guaranteed. Hamas quickly denounced OBL’s call and said they have nothing to do with Al Qaida.

Osama bin Laden also urged jihadists to travel to Sudan to fight UN peacekeepers and continue the genocidal slaughter of African Christians in Darfur. The refugee camps in Darfur, OBL argued, is further evidence the West is at war with Islam. More commentary available HERE.

OBL also railed against the war in Iraq using the same arguments he’s used before and also many of the same arguments we hear even in the United States.

May 23, 2006 Audio Tape:

The key excerpt in this tape was the following:

“I am certain of what I say, because I was responsible for entrusting the 19 brothers — Allah have mercy upon them — with those raids, and I did not assign brother Zacarias to be with them on that mission,” the taped statement says.

“And his confession that he was assigned to participate in those raids is a false confession, which no intelligent person doubts is a result of the pressure put upon him for the past four and a half years.”

The mere suggestion Moussaoui gave a forced confession is hysterical. This is the same guy who would yell out in court various jihadi statements, the same guy that prior to receiving a trial would confess to a plot and the same guy that said after his trial that he wants a new trial because he didn’t realize Americans could be fair.

On the issue of whether or not Zacarias Moussaoui was part of the 9/11 attack, I don’t believe he was, though that’s not taken from his own words on the issue. One day Moussaoui would declare he was part of the attack and the next he would say his operation was to occur after 9/11. The interrogation of the actual mastermind behind the attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, led us to those interesting details that called Moussaoui a “loose cannon” among other chosen remarks. OBL reportedly picked those who would participate in the attacks, but it was Mohammed that put the entire plan together.

Above is every Bin Laden video, letter, interview, tape, etc. that I could find. If there is one missing, please let me know and I will add it to the timeline above.

Filling in the blanks as far as the timeframe in between messages from Bin Laden, he went just over two years without major contact between June 1999 and September 2001 in what was probably the calm before the storm. The next time period of silence is rather difficult to determine because I do not know when the interview where OBL claimed he had chemical and nuclear weapons was given. The release of the interview was in November 2001 and the next time we heard from OBL was in November 2002. Likely this drought in coverage was due to OBL trying to find a safe location. The constant rule with OBL prior to his disappearence and even into his days following the glorification of his defense against the Soviet military at his training camp the Lion’s Den is that he is a a media whore.

Now we come to the last known message from OBL which was a video sent out and aired on November 2, 2004. To date (January 17, 2006), there is roughly a year and a half without hearing from OBL. Is this another calm before the storm, is Osama Bin Laden dead or is he unable to send a message? I do not know the answers to these questions and I doubt anyone outside of Bin Laden’s circle of influence does either. It is rather strange that OBL has not sent the world a message even when his followers often write Internet postings in excitement a new message is forthcoming; a message that never comes.

Another item worth mentioning after reading much of Bin Laden’s statements or transcripts from audio and video tapes, either certain groups/people are using his words as political fodder or he is using the statements by certain groups/people as his political fodder. Much of what he has said that echoes other groups/people was said long before they came to the scene. I’ll let you fill in the blanks and debate whether or not the chicken (OBL) came before the egg (certain groups/people).

It should be crystal clear though that OBL listens intently to the political debate within the United States. He’s even suggested a book written by an American who derides the U.S. for the nation’s support for Israel that, in his words, brought upon the attacks of 9/11. I only bring this up not to slam a particular group, which is why I am leaving that blank open, but to demonstrate that we must pay closer attention to what we say and do because it is used by those who wish to kill all of us regardless of our political affiliation or apathy towards politics.

For much more on Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida as far as the history of both, check out the assortment of links at the Joyner Library.

This post will update with any messages I missed and/or any message sent out by Osama Bin Laden in the future, if he chooses/is able to release one.

Conservative Thinking linked with Timeline of Terrorism