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Second Reported Bin Laden Tape in As Many Days

March 20, 2008 -- Updated 22:57 GMT

Purported bin Laden message: Iraq is 'perfect base'
Second Reported Bin Laden Tape in As Many Days

MIDDLE-EAST: 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."

Terrorist leader Osama bin Laden spoke on a video released by al Qaeda in September. The voice calls on "Muslims in 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 plan.

He accused Arabs who supported the plan of having become "partners in this horrendous crime." And he predicted, "Palestine will be restored to us, with God's permission, when we wake up from our slumber and adhere to our faith and sacrifice our souls and belongings for it."

The speaker called for armed revolt in the Middle East.

"Palestine and its people have been suffering from too much bitterness for almost a century now on the hands of the Christians and the Jews. And both parties didn't take Palestine from us by negotiations and dialogue, but with arms and fire, and this is the only way to take it back," he said. Though the voice sounds like bin Laden, CNN has not been able to confirm that it is him...

Official sources could not immediately confirm or deny whether the latest tape was Bin Laden.

-- Source/continues:http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/
meast/03/20/binladen.message/index.html