Bin Laden spokesman calls for holy war

CAIRO, Egypt -- Osama bin Laden's spokesman on Tuesday called for a holy war against U.S. interests everywhere and said the hijackers who flew planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon "did something good."

"America must know that the storm of airplanes will not stop, and there are thousands of young people who look forward to death like the Americans look forward to life," Sulaiman Abu Ghaith said.

The message from Abu Ghaith, delivered in Arabic, was the second statement from al-Qaida since the launch of U.S.-led airstrikes against Afghanistan on Sunday. Bin Laden issued a videotaped message that same day, though it appeared to have been recorded before the attacks began.

Abu Ghaith, who addressed his message "to the entire Islamic nation," said that President Bush had launched a "crusade" against Afghanistan with the launch of strikes and Muslims worldwide must respond.

Well before the attacks on Afghanistan began, Bush had called his war on terrorism a crusade, but a day later the White House apologized for using the loaded term which recalls the Christians' medieval wars against Muslims in the Holy Land.

Jihad, or holy war, "is a duty of every Muslim if they haven't got an excuse," he said in the videotaped statement broadcast on the Arab television news station Al-Jazeera.

"The American interests are everywhere all over the world. Every Muslim has to play his real and true role to uphold his religion and his nation in fighting, and jihad is a duty," he said.

If Muslims do not take up their duty, "it will be shameful," he said. "This battle is a decisive battle between atheism and faith."

He praised the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, saying the hijackers "did something good" and took the battle to the heart of America.

"The Americans have opened a door that will never be closed," Abu Ghaith said of the continuing air raids on Afghanistan. "America must know that the battle will not leave its land until America leaves our land; until it stops supporting Israel; until it stops the blockade against Iraq."

That echoed bin Laden's statement on Sunday, which aimed to cast the fight as one that pits the West and Israel against the interests of Muslims everywhere, particularly the Palestinians and Iraqis.

An editorial staffer at Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Qatar, Ibrahim Hilal, said the channel received the tape at its bureau in Kabul, the Afghan capital, Tuesday. Al-Jazeera did not say when the videotape was recorded. The station also broadcast bin Laden's statement Sunday.

Abu Ghaith wore a white turban, similar to that worn by Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks. He was dressed in white robes and stood against a dark brown background.

In closing his remarks, Abu Ghaith thanked god for the chance to wage holy war.

"The land of Afghanistan and the mujehedeen are being subjected to a full crusade with the objective of getting rid of the Islamic nation. The nation must take up its response and in the end I thank god for allowing us to start this jihad and ask God to give us victory in the face of our enemy and return them defeated."

Islamic fighters term themselves mujehedeen and bands of them were responsible, with large amounts of military aid from the United States, in fighting the Soviet Union to a standstill in Afghanistan.