Bin Laden Tells US To Convert To Islam.

Osama bin Laden on Sept. 7 appeared for the first time in three years in a videotape released before 9/11's sixth anniversary, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they wanted the war in Iraq to end. ABC News said the videotape was 30 minutes long and appeared to have been recently made, since bin Laden referred to both French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was elected in May, and new British PM Brown.

In a short excerpt on al-Jazeera, bin Laden was shown seated as he talked, wearing a white robe and turban and beige cloak. His trimmed beard was shorter than in his last video, issued in 2004, and was fully black - apparently dyed, since in past videos it had turned nearly entirely gray.

Bin Laden made no overt threats and did not directly call for attacks. Instead, he addressed Americans, lecturing them on the failures of their leaders to stop the war in Iraq despite growing public opposition in the US, saying: "There are two solutions to stopping it. One is from our side, and it is to escalate the fighting and killing against you. This is our duty, and our brothers are carrying it out. The second solution is from your side. I invite you to embrace Islam. It will also achieve your desire to stop the war as a consequence, because as soon as the war-mongering owners of the major corporations realise you have lost confidence in your democratic system and have begun to look for an alternative, and this alternative is Islam, they will run after you to please you and achieve what you want to steer you away from Islam".

Bin Laden said President Bush was repeating the mistakes of Soviet leaders by refusing to acknowledge losses in Iraq. "How similar is your position today to their position approximately two decades ago", the Qaeda leader said in a reference to the former Soviet Union's operations in Afghanistan. He also said US Democrats had failed to stop the war in Iraq because of the power corporations wielded in the US.