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Saturday, July 01, 2006

Osama bin Laden draws another line in Somalia


OBL is back and wants everyone to join the fun in Somalia, except, of course, "foreign troops" who might spoil the party. As reported here:
Osama Bin Laden, the fugitive leader of al-Qaeda Islamist militants, has apparently issued a warning against foreign intervention in Somalia.
An internet audio message warns the world community against sending troops to the country where Islamists have been making major military gains.

Posted on a website, it is addressed to militants in Somalia and Iraq.

It would be the second message in two days attributed to the man the US blames for the 9/11 attacks.

The 19-minute recording calls on all Somalis to back the Council of Islamic Courts militia in its bid to build an Islamic state in Somalia.
***
"We will fight [US] soldiers on the land of Somalia... and we reserve the right to punish it on its land and anywhere possible," the speaker says.

"We warn all of the countries in the world not to respond to America by sending international troops to Somalia."

The speaker condemns Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, president of Somalia's secular interim government, as a "traitor" and "renegade".
Exactly how the Saudi-born, cave-dwelling bin Laden has any standing to refer to a Somali as a "traitor" or "renegade" to Somalia is a little fuzzy to me. Perhaps he could come out of the mountains of Pakistan (or whereever) and explain it to us all?

UPDATE: I'm sure OBL has never studied American history from the 1860s, but as we near the Fourth of July, it would be wrong not to point out the strength of the American people to him as evidenced at a little knoll in Pennsylvania called Little Round Top:
It was a desperate moment. The troops of the 20th Maine had been ordered to defend the left flank of the Federal line at Gettysburg "at all costs." Led by Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain, a 35 year-old college professor and Christian theologian, the men from Maine had successfully repulsed repeated attacks by courageous Confederates from Alabama. Finally, exhausted and low on ammunition the valiant soldiers from Maine appeared near the breaking point. As the determined Southerners renewed the attack on Little Round Top with another assault against the Federal left flank. Chamberlain knew what was at stake. If his troops could not hold the line and the flank was turned, the Federal army might be destroyed, the battle lost -- and the war with it.

Facing what appeared to be impending destruction, Chamberlain did the unexpected: he ordered a bayonet charge. The battle-weary men in blue obediently fixed bayonets, charged down the hill Into the face of the enemy -- and shattered the final Confederate assault The day was won.


As another American once said, "I have not yet begun to fight!" So should say all of us.

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