Osama bin Laden issued a series of opinions and threats after emerging in the mid-1990s
Since he first emerged as a high profile threat in the mid-1990s, Osama bin Laden has issued statements, opinions and chilling threats that have captured global attention. He has aired views on everything from cartoons of the prophet Mohammed to the wider impact of western foreign policy.
After the attacks of 9/11 every word uttered by the Al Qaida leader was studied closely. In recent years, though, amid ongoing speculation about the state of his health, Bin Laden's declarations became fewer. Perhaps surprisingly, some of his last public comments were directed against the west's role in perpetuating climate change. His final high-profile statement was a video tape last year threatening French citizens after the wearing of the veil was banned there.
28 October 2010
In what appears to have been Bin Laden's last diktat, French citizens were the specific target.
"How is it right for you to occupy our countries and kill our women and children and expect to live in peace and security? … the equation is clear: you are killed as you kill and abducted as you abduct …
"The way to safeguard your security is to cease your oppression and its impact on our nation, most importantly your withdrawal from the ill-fated Bush war in Afghanistan."
1 October 2010
Bin Laden criticised the relief effort for the floods in Pakistan and reiterated condemnation of the west's role in climate change.
"Millions of children are out in the open air, lacking basic elements of living, including drinking water, resulting in their bodies shedding liquids and subsequently their death," he said. "The huge climate change is affecting our [Islamic] nation and is causing great catastrophes throughout the Islamic world."
29 January 2010
In an audiotape that surfaced on the al-Jazeera network, Osama bin Laden pronounced himself a believer in climate change and blamed America and other industrialised economies for failing to rein in greenhouse gas emissions warming the atmosphere.
"Speaking about climate change is not a matter of intellectual luxury – the phenomenon is an actual fact … all of the industrialised countries, especially the big ones, bear responsibility for the global warming crisis."
24 January 2010
An audio message purportedly from al-Qaida's leader claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound plane and vowed further attacks. In the recording, carried by al-Jazeera, Bin Laden addressed the US president, Barack Obama.
"The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of the September 11," he said.
"America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine," he added. "God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support to the Israelis will continue."
19 March 2008
An internet audio message from Bin Laden was released in which the al-Qaida leader threatened the EU over the publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad two years before.
"Your publications of these drawings – part of a new crusade in which the pope of the Vatican had a significant role – is a confirmation from you that the war continues," he said. "You went overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings."
20 Feb 2006
Osama bin Laden vowed never to be taken alive in an audiotape broadcast on a militant website.
"I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don't want to die humiliated or deceived," Bin Laden said in the 11-minute recording.
"The jihad is continuing with strength, for Allah be all the credit, despite all the barbarity, the repressive steps taken by the American army and its agents, to the extent that there is no longer any mentionable difference between this criminality and the criminality of Saddam."
Bin Laden said the Iraq conflict had "become a point of attraction and recruitment of qualified forces".
19 January 2006
On a tape recording, Bin Laden threatened that preparations for a fresh wave of terror attacks on the US were under way.
"The delay in similar operations happening in America has not been because of failure to break through your security measures," the speaker said. "But the operations are happening in Baghdad and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are complete, God willing."
29 October 2004
Al-Jazeera aired a video of Bin Laden criticising George Bush ahead of the year's presidential election.
"Your security is not in the hands of [Democratic candidate John] Kerry or [President George] Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands …"
"We had no difficulty in dealing with Bush and his administration because they resemble the regimes in our countries, half of which are ruled by the military and the other half by the sons of kings ... they have a lot of pride, arrogance, greed and thievery …
"[Bush] adopted despotism and the crushing of freedoms from Arab rulers – called it the Patriot Act under the guise of combating terrorism ..."
8 May 2004
A recording attributed to Bin Laden showed him offering rewards in gold for killing top American and United Nations officials or citizens of any country which had troops in Iraq. The 20-minute audio message, posted on two Islamist websites, promised 10kg (22lb) of gold for the death of Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Iraq, Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, or Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN envoy to Iraq. Given gold prices at the time, the reward would have been worth around £70,000.
"Due to the security situation, rewards will be handed over at the first possible opportunity," the voice said.
8 April 2003
A cassette tape purportedly from Bin Laden called on Muslims to rise up against Arab governments that were supporting the US-led attack on Iraq.
"I ask the Muslim women to join jihad by providing food to mujahideen [holy warriors]. Elders should pray for us. I am proud of those martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the sake of Islam …
"Do not be afraid of their tanks and armoured personnel carriers. These are artificial things".
24 November 2002
A chilling message from Osama bin Laden issued a direct threat to the West.
"Anyone who tries to destroy our villages and cities, then we are going to destroy their villages and cities. Anyone who steals our fortunes, then we must destroy their economy. Anyone who kills our civilians, then we are going to kill their civilians."
13 December 2001
The US defence department released a videotape of Osama Bin Laden, which they said proved beyond doubt he was responsible for the suicide attacks on the World Trade Centre.
"We counted in advance the number of casualties from the enemy who would be killed, based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors," he said.
"I was the most optimistic of them all … due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and the floors above it only. This is all that we hoped for …
"I was sitting with Dr Ahmad Abu-al-Khair," he said. "Immediately, we heard the news that a plane had hit the World Trade Centre. We turned the radio station to the news from Washington.
"They were overjoyed when the first plane hit the building, so I said to them: be patient."
He added: "The brothers who conducted the operation, all they knew was that they have a martyrdom operation and we asked each of them to go to America, but they didn't know anything about the operation, not even one letter.
"But they were trained and we did not reveal the operation to them until they are there and just before they boarded the plane".
8 November 2001
An interview with Bin Laden was published in a Pakistani newspaper.
"We have chemical and nuclear weapons as a deterrent … if America used them against us we reserve the rights to use them [too] …
"The American people should remember that they pay taxes to their government, they elect their president, their government manufactures arms and gives them to Israel and Israel uses them to massacre Palestinians.
"The American people had risen against their government's war in Vietnam. They must do the same today. The American people should stop the massacre of Muslims by their government."
7 October 2001
Osama bin Laden issued a statement on the 9/11 attacks.
"There is America, hit by God in one of its softest spots. Its greatest buildings were destroyed, thank God for that.
"There is America, full of fear from its north to its south, from its west to its east. Thank God for that. What America is tasting now is something insignificant compared to what we have tasted for scores of years. Our nation [the Islamic world] has been tasting this humiliation and this degradation for more than 80 years. Its sons are killed, its blood is shed, its sanctuaries are attacked, and no one hears and no one heeds."
16 September 2001
In a statement faxed to the pro-Taliban Afghan Islamic Press agency, Bin Laden denied having anything to do with the previous week's attacks in New York and Washington. "I am residing in Afghanistan. I have taken an oath of allegiance [to the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar] which does not allow me to do such things from Afghanistan …
"We have been blamed in the past, but we were not involved".
9 September 2001
Two days before the World Trade Centre and Pentagon attacks, Osama bin Laden telephoned his adoptive mother and told her that he would not be in touch again for some time.
"In two days you're going to hear big news and you're not going to hear from me for a while," the prime target for United States military retaliation is quoted as telling Al-Kalifa Bin Laden, the woman who brought him up.
20 June 2001
In a video tape revealed by CBS News, Bin Laden appeared in a video celebrating Al-Qaeda followers who bombed the USS Cole in Yemen's Aden harbour in 2000 in a poem celebrating the violence. Although the poem did not name the Cole, it was shown alongside footage of the bombed vessel.
"And in Aden, they charged and destroyed a destroyer that fearsome people fear, one that evokes horror when it docks and when it sails."
18 October 2000
Bin Laden issued a statement in Pakistan's Jang newspaper that was apparently issued from Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban's headquarters.
"I am not afraid of the American threats against me," he said. "As long as I am alive there will be no rest for the enemies of Islam. I will continue my mission against them."
23 August 1996
Three months after he was expelled from Sudan under US pressure, Osama bin Laden issued a declaration of war fatwa from his hideout in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan. "Terrorising you, while you are carrying arms on our land, is a legitimate and morally demanding duty. These youth are different from your soldiers. Your problem will be how to convince your troops to fight, while our problem will be how to restrain our youths to wait for their turn in fighting and in operations."