He also refers to the current fighting in the Waziristan area of Pakistanbetween the Pakistani Army and the local inhabitants in the following words:" With respect to Pakistan, some Muslims have done a good job by assistingtheir fellow Muslims, God bless them, but the Pashtun tribes must be aided afterthe Pakistan army devastated their homes in Waziristan in order to satisfy theUS."
This is the second audio message by bin Laden since he broke his13-month-long silence on January 19, 2006,with a message which was essentiallydirected to the American people in the context of the war in Iraq andAfghanistan. That message was triggered off by reports of growing opposition to the war in Iraq from large sections of the American public. It sought to takeadvantage of this opposition by offering a truce to the American people if theAmerican forces were withdrawn from the two countries. It carried an impliedwarning that if his offer was rejected, another terrorist strike in the UShomeland would follow for which, he claimed, preparations were alreadyunder way.
The latest message, which is addressed to the Islamic world and not to the USand other Western countries, does not repeat his earlier warning of plans foranother terrorist strike in the US. The message of April 23 seems to have beentriggered off by a concern over the lack of any significant anger in the Islamicworld over the suspension of Western assistance to the Hamas-led Government inthe area under the control of the Palestinian Authority and over thedevelopments in the Darfur region of the Sudan and the plans to send aninternational peace-keeping force there. He projects these developments asevidence of the continuing conspiracy by the Crusaders and the Zionists againstthe Muslims.
His reference to the American opposition to the Hamas is casual rhetoric,without any indication of any action to be taken by the Muslims in thisconnection. However, his references to the alleged American designs in the Sudanand to the need to counter the Crusaders' in southern and Western Sudan are moredetailed and call for specific action such as storage of weapons for waging ajihad before the rains start hindering transport in the interior.