Bin Laden Warns Of Retaliation For Iraqi Deaths

3 November 2004 -- Osama bin Laden said in a full Internet broadcast of a video that U.S. President George W. Bush has dragged the United States into a quagmire in Iraq and warns of retaliation for Iraqi deaths.

In the video, bin Laden said Bush has ignored advice against waging what he called "an unjustified war on Iraq for which there would be no end."

Bin Laden, who is being blamed for the 11 September 2004 attacks on the United States, said Bush went to war to get Iraq's oil.

The complete 18-minute tape was posted on the Internet after Al-Jazeera aired excerpts on 30 October in which bin Laden warned of possible new 11 September-style attacks. Al-Jazeera did not broadcast his remarks on Iraq.

It was bin Laden's first videotape in more than a year and appeared to be a deliberate attempt to influence this week's U.S. presidential election.

(Reuters)

[For the latest news on the U.S.-led War on Terror, see RFE/RL's webpage on "The War on Terror".]