World News 25-09-2001 Bin Laden Calls War On Infidels who: Terrorist Osama bin Laden what: Sends rallying cry to Islamic faith against US "infidels" where: Pakistan when: Yesterday snippet: "Terror chief Osama bin Laden broke his silence yesterday to demand that fanatics crush the `infidels` of the West," reports The Mirror. "In a faxed and signed message to supporters in Pakistan he claimed that jihad - holy war - had already begun." He urged Muslims to defend Islam against "the American crusade" led by "the Chief Crusader Bush under the banner of the cross", says The Telegraph. "The statement released to Qatar`s Al-Jazeera satellite channel, with clear references to President Bush`s early use of the word `crusade`, was signed by bin Laden with Sunday`s date." Graphologist Caroline Murray tells the newspaper that the sigature "appears to reveal a rampant ego compensating for possible perceived childhood slights". "The authenticity of the message had not been fully established last night," points out The Independent, "but Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the ruling Taliban regime urged the US to withdraw from the Gulf region and correct its `biased attitude` on the dispute between Israel and Palestine." Meanwhile, bin Laden`s homeland Saudi Arabia has cut its links to Afghanistan`s Taliban government, effectively coming out in support of the US effort to crack down on the terrorists responsible for the World Trade Centre and Pentagon attacks on September 11th, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin said yesterday "that Moscow would step up its support for the Afghan opposition movement, the Northern Alliance," reports The Guardian, "providing the rebel coalition of minority tribes with arms and equipment." [... more]

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