Bin Laden Blames U.S. for Climate Change

The Associated Press via NBC News
Jan. 29, 2010

CAIRO – Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has called for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming, according to a new audiotape released Friday.

In the tape, broadcast in part on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden warned of the dangers of climate change and said that the way to stop it is to bring “the wheels of the American economy” to a halt.

He blamed Western industrialized nations for hunger, desertification and floods across the globe, and called for “drastic solutions” to global warming, and “not solutions that partially reduce the effect of climate change.”

Bin Laden has mentioned climate change and global warning in past messages, but the latest tape was his first dedicated to the topic.

Climate change an ‘actual fact’

The speech, which included almost no religious rhetoric, could be an attempt by the terror leader to give his message an appeal beyond Islamic militants. …

“Speaking about climate change is not an intellectual luxury, the phenomenon is actual fact.”

He pointed out that former President George W. Bush had not signed the Kyoto emissions agreement although most industrialized countries did.

Grave ramifications

Bin Laden targeted the U.S. economy in particular in the recording, calling for a boycott of American products and an end to the dollar’s domination as a world currency.

“We should stop dealings with the dollar and get rid of it as soon as possible,” he said.

“I know that this has great consequences and grave ramifications, but it is the only means to liberate humanity from slavery and dependence on America.” …

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Related reports on this site

Al-Qaida Aims to Hit U.S. with WMD (Jan. 26, 2010)

Al-Qaidas Next High-Value Target (Jan. 18, 2010)

Where is Osama Bin Laden? (Dec. 10, 2009)

Osama bin Laden Personality Profile (Dec. 6, 2009)

Adapting to Climate Change (Dec. 3, 2009)

Bin Laden Attacks Obama (Sept. 14, 2009)

Bin Laden Rails Against Obama (June 4, 2009)

Al-Qaida Lashes Out At Obama (June 3, 2009)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago – January 30, 2009

Blackwater contractors secure the site of a roadside bomb attack near the Iranian embassy in central Baghdad in 2005. (Photo credit: Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP – Getty Images)

Blackwater Booted from Iraq

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that Iraq denied North Carolina-based Blackwater Worldwide (Xe), which guards American diplomats in Iraq, an operating license because of a deadly shooting spree in Baghdad. Iraqi officials said the lingering outrage over a September 2007 shooting in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead led to its decision. The shooting strained relations between Washington and Baghdad and fueled the anti-American insurgency in Iraq, where many Iraqis saw the bloodshed as a demonstration of American brutality and arrogance.