The best evidence yet that al Qaeda and Iraq are the same war? Bin Laden says they are:

An audio tape broadcast Tuesday and said to be from fugitive Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden warned Arab states against backing any U.S.-led war on Iraq and said suicide attacks were important in fighting America. [Reuters]

(By the way, Reuters, bin Laden is a fugitive terrorist.)

"We stress the importance of martyrdom attacks against the enemy. These attacks inflicted on America and Israel a disaster they have never experienced before," said the statement, broadcast on the al-Jazeera satellite television channel.

The statement said any Arab ruler who supported America or provided logistical or verbal backing for the war on Iraq would be "an apostate whose blood should be spilled."

Bin Laden urged Muslims to fight America and repel any attack on Iraq.

"We are following with great concern the preparations of the crusaders to launch war on the former capital of Muslims and to install a puppet government," said the statement, broadcast on the al-Jazeera satellite television channel.

The statement said the attack on Iraq was being led by the United States to tip the regional balance of power in favor of Israel.

"Fight these despots. I remind you that victory comes only from God," the audio statement said.

My feelings toward al Jazeera are mixed: they do sensationalize the Palestinian/Israeli conflict grossly in favor of the Palestinians, they do run bin Laden and al Qaeda announcements/propaganda without qualification, they are undoubtedly an Arab station, but they do have the virtue of pissing off every Arab government at one time or another. For the Arab world, they are relatively free:

The show is over for another week and Faisal al-Qassem, the hottest property in Arab television, emerges from the basement studio with his guests.

....Long before the Qatar-based satellite channel scooped the world's media with its exclusive footage of the Afghan war and a succession of tapes from Osama bin Laden, it was Qassem's Tuesday night show, The Opposite Direction, that drew in tens of millions of Arab viewers.

Qassem is an unlikely star. Wearing spectacles, and with his hair combed sideways to minimise the bald spots, he looks more like a university lecturer, and the formula for The Opposite Direction is so basic that most television stations would never dream of making it their flagship programme. For 75 minutes, Qassem sits at a table strewn with papers, while his two guests argue. But it is not what the BBC would call a studio discussion. The protagonists shout, gesticulate and try to drown each other out. On occasions, they have even stormed out. In the control room above the studio, it takes five people, working frenetically, to keep the flailing arms in shot.

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