George Bush with Bin Laden Family
From an article in 2004
(CBS/AP) In rhetoric similar to critical U.S. campaign headlines, Osama bin Laden accused President Bush of going to war for Iraq's oil, and said the American people would be the losers.
Bin Laden, whose al Qaeda network carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, proved he's kept a close eye on U.S. politics as he detailed al Qaeda's strategy of bleeding America bankrupt, even as Americans weighed their presidential votes largely on the issues of terror and the economy.
He provided a financial analysis of al Qaeda's destruction in his latest 18-minute video, a full transcript of which was posted Monday on the Internet.
According to bin Laden's math, each $1 al Qaeda has spent on strikes has cost the United States $1 million in economic fallout and military spending, including emergency funding for Iraq and Afghanistan.
"As for the size of the economic deficit, it has reached record astronomical numbers," bin Laden said, estimating the deficit at more than $1 trillion.
In reality, spending in the war against terror and other factors have resulted in an expected $377 billion shortfall for 2003 — the highest deficit since World War II when inflation is factored out. The total U.S. national debt is near the $7.4 trillion statutory limit.
Al-Jazeera aired about 14 minutes of bin Laden's 18-minute video Friday, but posted a full transcript Monday on its Internet site. U.S. intelligence officials also have seen the entire video.
Bin Laden credited the holy warriors he fought with against the Soviets in Afghanistan two decades ago with having "bled Russia for 10 years, until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat."
"So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy," bin Laden said in the tape that appeared near the end of a U.S. campaign that has focused on the war on terror as well as the foundering U.S. economy.
Bin Laden claimed al Qaeda was winning its war with the United States, and that U.S. defense contractors linked to President Bush "like Halliburton and its kind" were also benefiting, while the losers were "the American people and their economy."
The only term Republicans should get in 2008 is a prison term.