BY JIM KOURI, CPP
The leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, blames the United States and developed nations for not halting climate change and said that the global economy should immediately abandon its reliance on the American dollar.
An audiotape, purported to be the voice of the world's most infamous terrorist, was broadcast on al-Jazeera TV. In it, bin Laden exhorts the world to boycott of the US dollar "to free humankind from slavery."
This latest tape comes only a few days after another tape, also purported to be from Bin Laden was released in order to praise the terrorist for the attempted bombing of a Northwest airliner landing at Detroit International Airport on Christmas Day.
"All industrial nations, mainly the big ones, are responsible for the crisis of global warming," the latest tape says. "This is a message to the whole world about those who are causing climate change, whether deliberately or not, and what we should do about that."
Osama uses the usual vitriol in his criticism of former US President George W Bush and blames Bush for his refusal to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol to combat global warming, now called climate change.
In the tape, Osama allegedly calls on the world's countries to boycott the US dollar. "I know that there would be huge repercussions for that, but this would be the only way to free humankind from slavery to America and its companies."
Osama, in his first tape of the New Year released last week, praised the efforts of a Nigerian terrorist in his attempt to kill more than 275 people onboard a Northwest airliner on December 25.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was reportedly arrested and interrogated by federal law enforcement investigators when Northwest Flight 253 landed at Detroit International Airport on Christmas Day after he allegedly tried to detonate a makeshift bomb he surreptitiously took through airport security in Nigeria and Amsterdam. Abdulmutallab presently is being held in a secure prison about 50 miles outside of Detroit.
Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a columnist for The Examiner (examiner.com) and New Media Alliance (thenma.org). In addition, he's a blogger for the Cheyenne, Wyoming Fox News Radio affiliate KGAB (www.kgab.com). Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty.