Though the message is chock full of threats, it isn't clear that Osama and Al-Qaeda are in
a position to carry them out.

"We reserve the right to retaliate at the appropriate time and place against all countries involved,
especially the UK, Spain, Australia, Poland, Japan and Italy, not to exclude those Muslim states
that took part, especially the Gulf states, and in particular Kuwait, which has become a beachhead
for the crusading forces.

Osama here positions himself as a threat to Arab states as well as most of Europe, and inheritor of Saddam Hussein's mantle of bane of Kuwait. But the reservation We reserve the right to retaliate at the appropriate time and place may mean "Don't hold your breath 'till we do it."

Ami Isseroff

Full text of message to US
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8E8EA580-943C-4FBF-9ABD-21B47627FECD.htm
Saturday 18 October 2003, 21:40 Makka Time, 18:40 GMT

Usama bin Ladin has issued a message to the American people, broadcast on Saturday on Aljazeera
television. A full and exclusive translation follows:

"Oppression will only go against the oppressors.

"This is a message from Usama bin Muhammad bin Ladin to the American people regarding your
aggression in Iraq. Peace be upon those who follow the righteous path.
"Some have the impression that you are a reasonable people. But the majority of you are vulgar and
without sound ethics or good manners. You elect the evil from among you, the greatest liars and the
least decent and you are enslaved by your richest and the most influential among you, especially the
Jews, who lead you using the lie of democracy to support the Israelis and their schemes and in
complete antagonism towards our religion (Islam).

"These schemes are paid for in our blood and land, and your blood and economy.
"This has been proved by recent events. And the war on Iraq, which has nothing to do with you, is
proof of that.
"Bush and his gang, with their heavy sticks and hard hearts, are an evil to all humankind. They have
stabbed into the truth, until they have killed it altogether in the eyes of the world.
"With this behaviour they have encouraged hypocrisy, and spread vice and political bribes
shamelessly at the level of heads of state.

Blood

"This gang and their leader enjoy lying, war and looting to serve their own ambitions. The blood of
the children of Vietnam, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq is still dripping from their teeth. They have
fooled you and deceived you into invading Iraq a second time. And they have lied to you and the
whole world.

"Nations are nothing without ethics and morals. If these are gone, the nations are gone.
Bush has sent your sons into the lion's den, to slaughter and be slaughtered, claiming that this act
was in defence of international peace and America's security, thus concealing the facts.

"On one hand he (Bush) is carrying out the demands of the Zionist lobby that helped him to enter the
White House. These demands are to destroy the military strength of Iraq because it is too close to
the Jews in occupied Palestine, regardless of the harm that will happen to your people and your
economy.

"On the other hand, he (Bush) is concealing his own ambitions and the ambitions of the Zionist lobby
and their own desire for oil. He is still following the mentality of his ancestors who killed the
Native Americans to take their land and wealth. He thought that this time it would be an easy task
and a lie that would not be exposed.
Profit into loss

"But God sent him to Baghdad, the seat of the Caliphate, the homeland of people who prefer death to
honey. So they (the Iraqis) turned his profits into losses, his joy into sadness and now he is
merely looking for a way back home.

"Thanks be to God Almighty who has exposed the lies of George Bush and made his term as president a
term of continual catastrophe.

"To Bush I say, you are begging the world to come to your aid, begging mercenaries from every corner
of the world, even from small states. This begging has destroyed your pride and revealed how trivial
and weak you are after claiming to defend the whole world.

"Now you are like the knight who was trying to protect people from the Sword of Malik, and ended up
begging someone to protect him.

"We reserve the right to retaliate at the appropriate time and place against all countries involved,
especially the UK, Spain, Australia, Poland, Japan and Italy, not to exclude those Muslim states
that took part, especially the Gulf states, and in particular Kuwait, which has become a beachhead
for the crusading forces.

Folly

"And to the American soldiers in Iraq I say, now that all the lies have been exposed and the
greatest liar has been revealed, your stay on Iraq's land is compounding the oppression and is a
great folly.

"It shows you are selling your lives for the lives of others. And you are spilling your blood to
swell the bank accounts of the White House gang and their fellow arms dealers and the proprietors of
great companies. And the greatest folly in life is to sell your life for the lives of others.

"In conclusion, I say to the American people we will continue to fight you and continue to conduct
martyrdom operations inside and outside the United States until you depart from your oppressive
course and abandon your follies and rein in your fools.

"You have to know that we are counting our dead, may God bless them, especially in Palestine, who
are killed by your allies the Jews. We are going to take revenge for them from your blood, God
willing, as we did on the day of New York. Remember what I said to you on that day about our
security and your security. Baghdad the seat of the Caliphate, will not fall to you, God willing,
and we will fight you as long as we carry our guns. And if we fall, our sons will take our place.

"And may our mothers become childless if we leave any of you alive on our soil."