Man thought to be Osama bin Laden urges followers to back Saddam

DOHA, Qatar - The purported voice of Osama bin Laden tells his followers to help Saddam Hussein fight Americans even though his government is of "infidels," words U.S. officials said showed the Iraqi leader's ties to the al-Qaida terror network.\nThe voice on the tape aired Tuesday by the Al-Jazeera satellite television station throughout the Arab world urged Iraqis to stage suicide attacks and lure American troops into bloody urban battles to inflict "big casualties."\nU.S. officials said they believe the voice on the tape is that of the elusive bin Laden. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the comments, broadcast on the first day of the major Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha, bolstered U.S. allegations that Iraq is harboring al-Qaida operatives.\n"This nexus between terrorists and states that are developing weapons of mass destruction can no longer be looked away from and ignored," Powell told the Senate Budget Committee.\nSome Middle East experts have questioned ties between bin Laden's Islamic extremists and Saddam's government, which nominally adheres to a Pan-Arabic socialistic doctrine called Baathism.\nIn the tape, the speaker said Iraq was governed by socialist "infidels," including Saddam. But he said that it was acceptable for Muslims to fight on behalf of Iraqi "socialists" because "in these circumstances" their interests "intersect in fighting against the Crusaders," or Christians.\nThe Iraqi government has repeatedly denied links to al-Qaida, and the tape has not been reported on Iraqi media. Most Iraqis do not have satellite dishes.\nIn an interview Wednesday with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp., Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan denied his country has any links with al-Qaida or has sheltered any members of bin Laden's group. He claimed the United States was using the al-Qaida allegation as a pretext for war.\n"They are looking for oil, for Arab oil and want to protect the Zionist entity that usurped the land of the Arabs," Ramadan said.\nSome U.S. analysts wondered at bin Laden's motives for issuing a statement supporting Iraq, given many countries' skepticism of U.S. allegations of Iraqi-al-Qaida links. Others worried the recording would inflame Muslims against U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf region.\nThe tape was broadcast as U.S. officials were warning of imminent terror attacks in the United States or in the Persian Gulf, where more than 113,000 U.S. troops are massing for a possible attack on Iraq.\nOn the tape, the speaker urged Iraqis to profit from the lessons learned by al-Qaida fighters in the war against the Americans and their allies in Afghanistan.\nHe said the strategy of digging camouflaged trenches was especially effective against U.S. bombing in Tora Bora in December 2001. Bin Laden is believed to have escaped death or capture despite intense American bombing of the stronghold in eastern Afghanistan.\n"We advise about the importance of drawing the enemy into long, close and exhausting fighting, taking advantage of camouflaged positions in plains, farms, mountains and cities," he said.\nThe speaker urged the Iraqis to draw the Americans into urban combat, saying "the thing that the enemy fears the most is to fight a city war" because the United States is afraid of suffering "big casualties."\n"We stress the importance of martyrdom operations (suicide attacks) against the enemy, these attacks that have scared Americans and Israelis like never before," the man identified as bin Laden said.\nU.S. military planners fear Saddam might ring Baghdad with his best troops of the elite Republican Guard and draw U.S. forces into bloody street fighting where they could not use their high-tech weapons for fear of causing massive civilian casualties.\nThe speaker also told Iraqis not to worry about American smart bombs and laser-guided weapons because "they work on only the clear, obvious targets."\nU.S. counterterrorism officials in Washington said the audio message was probably a real recording of bin Laden, and that a technical analysis was planned to authenticate it.\nIn Washington, CIA Director George J. Tenet said intelligence information suggests al-Qaida may launch attacks as early as this week in both the United States and on the Arabian peninsula.\n"The intelligence is not idle chatter on the part of terrorists and their associates," Tenet told Congress. "It is the most specific we have seen."\nTenet said the information suggests the attack may involve a "dirty bomb" - a weapon that spreads radioactive material over a wide area - or chemical or poison weapons.\nOn the tape, the speaker urged other Muslims not to cooperate with the United States in a showdown against Iraq. He criticized Arab governments that support U.N. efforts to rid Iraq of alleged weapons of mass destruction.\n"Anyone who helps America, from the Iraqi hypocrites (opposition) or Arab rulers ... whoever fights with them or offers them bases or administrative assistance, or any kind of support or help, even if only with words, to kill Muslims in Iraq, should know that he is an apostate," the speaker said.\nThe speaker also called on Muslims to rise up and "break free from the slavery of these tyrannic and apostate regimes, which are enslaved by America." He singled out Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.\nIn remarks to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, Powell accused Iraq of harboring al-Qaida fugitive Abu Musaab Zarqawi, who has been linked to the murder of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan and poison plots in a half-dozen European countries.\nOn Thursday, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said the taped threats would not affect efforts to track down al-Qaida remnants there. Lt. Gen. Dan McNeill also said he saw no reason to change security at Bagram Air Base, the headquarters for troops in Afghanistan.\n"We are winning this thing and we are going to win it and whatever he might want to utter on tape causes me no great concern," McNeill said.