Osama jumps into a climate change debate!
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has called in a new audiotape for the world to boycott American goods and the US dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialised countries for global warming. In the tape, aired in part on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden warns of the dangers of climate change and says that the way to it is to bring "the wheels of the American economy" to a halt.
He says the world should "stop consuming American products" and "refrain from using the dollar," according to a transcript on Al-Jazeera's Web site. The new message, whose authenticity could not immediately be confirmed, comes after a bin Laden tape released last week in which he endorsed a failed attempt to blow up an American airliner on Christmas Day.
Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden lectured the US and other industrial nations on climate change, and urged a dollar boycott in response to American "slavery," in a fresh verbal assault broadcast today.
In the message aired on Al-Jazeera television, possibly timed to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, bin Laden said "all industrial nations, mainly the big ones, are responsible for the crisis of global warming."
"Discussing climate change is not an intellectual luxury, but a reality," he said in the audio recording whose authenticity could not be immediately verified.
"This is a message to the whole world about those who are causing climate change, whether deliberately or not, and what we should do about that."
The al-Qaeda chief condemned the administration of former US president George W Bush for refusing to sign the Kyoto protocol on cutting carbon emissions.
"Bush, and the Congress before him, rejected this agreement, only to satisfy the big companies," said bin Laden.
"Those (firms) are behind speculation and monopolies, and rises in prices and they are behind globalisation and its tragic results."
The White House today announced that it had directed all federal government departments to reduce emissions by 28% over 2008 levels by 2020. That is a more ambitious target than America's official position in the global climate change negotiations - a reduction of 17% over 2005 levels by 2020.
The White House said the action would save 205 million barrels of oil and was the equivalent of taking 17 million cars off the road for one year.
