The new Bin Laden Tape. I listened to the new Bin Laden audio tape as soon as it got out on the internet (or internets, as Bush calls it--he thinks that there are 5 internets). You may listen here yourself if you know Arabic. (But such links usually do not stay operative for long). It is not like any previous tape by Bin Laden. First, it is long, way too long, extremely long and tedious: 74 long minutes, with tons of religious citations. Almost like religious citations with a speech inserted in between. You also feel that he gets intoxicated with his own words, and read them as if he is reading a divine text. He was obviously reading the text, and did not seem to get out of breath while reading, unlike a speech in 2002. It confirms the impression that one gets from the previous video tape: that Bin Laden has access to internet and newspapers and is closely following developments and media around the world. It constitutes for the experts on Bin Laden and his movement the best and most revealing source on the ideology of Bin Laden and his fanatical movement. I think that it also represents a shift from the Bin Laden's strategy of February 1998 (when he declared his front to fight the faraway enemy) towards the early agenda of Ayman Adh-Dhawahiri and of Abu Mus`ab Az-Zarqawi, when he disagreed with Bin Laden in 1998 in Afghanistan. Bin Laden wanted to focus on fighting the US, while Zarqawi wanted to fight Arab regimes. Bin Laden (and Al-Qa`idah) may be shifting towards a new targeting priority where fighting Arab regimes is now stressed. This is not a truce with the US, but a focus on the weakest link in the body of what they now call as the Zio-Crusading (صهيوصليبي)--in their language--enemy. It deals mostly with the methods of takfir (declaring the infidelity of the enemy) against enemies of Al-Qa`idah, which also makes it possible for them to justify their killing of fellow Muslims, and they have killed hundreds of other Muslims. But the bulk of the message is about Saudi Arabia. He talks in details about developments in the kingdom. He even talks about his own dealings inside the kingdom with members of the House of Saud. He even talks about his own negotiations with officials of the Ministry of Interior. It carries a call for a change in the political system of Saudi Arabia, and urges the `ulama' (clerics) to act against the rule of the House of Saud, and hints at a political deal that would arrange for their ouster, as if it is that easy or possible given US support for them. The tape carries a litany of complaints about the House of Saud that most Saudis inside and outside the kingdom would identify with. He talks about the obscene corruption of King Fahd and his $4 billion bill for one palace alone (the figure seems to be too high). My own hope is that the people of Saudi Arabia will manage to change their government, but to also reject the horrific fanaticism of the agenda of Bin Laden and his movement. The people of Saudi Arabia deserve better than King Fahd or Bin Laden.