So often the debate about Al Qaeda focuses on the contemporary perceived injustices which the West, or more specifically the US, has meted out on the Muslim world. Two examples spring immediately to mind. The first is the freeing of the Iraqis from a genocidal despot, and the second offence is the release of the Afghan people from an appallingly reactionary regime. Rather disgracefully, the US replaced both of those anti-Muslim regimes with democratic governments, in contrast to previous decades when they replaced them with despots to their liking. For this they will never be forgiven. We have never seen such a hankering after US realist policies from the left. Anyway, I digress.

Here is Osama in an interview in 1998. Re-reading it now, just illustrates why so much of the glib blathering about the War on Terror is ungrounded in the reality of the enemy.

The American people, by and large, do not know the name bin Laden, but they soon likely will. Do you have a message for the American people?

I say to them that they have put themselves at the mercy of a disloyal government, and this is most evident in Clinton’s administration … . We believe that this administration represents Israel inside America. Take the sensitive ministries such as the Ministry of Exterior and the Ministry of Defense and the CIA, you will find that the Jews have the upper hand in them. They make use of America to further their plans for the world, especially the Islamic world. American presence in the Gulf provides support to the Jews and protects their rear. And while millions of Americans are homeless and destitute and live in abject poverty, their government is busy occupying our land and building new settlements and helping Israel build new settlements in the point of departure for our Prophet’s midnight journey to the seven heavens. America throws her own sons in the land of the two Holy Mosques for the sake of protecting Jewish interests. …

The American government is leading the country towards hell. … We say to the Americans as people and to American mothers, if they cherish their lives and if they cherish their sons, they must elect an American patriotic government that caters to their interests not the interests of the Jews. If the present injustice continues with the wave of national consciousness, it will inevitably move the battle to American soil, just as Ramzi Yousef and others have done. This is my message to the American people. I urge them to find a serious administration that acts in their interest and does not attack people and violate their honor and pilfer their wealth. …

It’s also interesting to note how Osama’s view on Israel have moved into the liberal mainstream.