Osama bin Laden has vowed never to be captured alive and stated the United States had resorted to the same "barbaric" tactics used by Saddam Hussein, according to an audiotape, which was posted Monday on an Islamist Web site.
The tape is the complete version of one that was first aired last month on Al-Jazeera in which bin Laden offered the United States a long-term truce. "I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don't want to die humiliated or deceived," bin Laden said, in the 11-minute, 26-second tape.
"The jihad is continuing with strength, for Allah be all the credit, despite all the barbarity, the repressive steps taken by the American Army and its agents, to the extent that there is no longer any mentionable difference between this criminality and the criminality of Saddam."
Bin Laden also challenged Bush administration claims that it was better to fight "terrorists" in Iraq than on U.S. soil. "The war against America and its allies has not remained confined to Iraq as he (Bush) claims, but rather Iraq has become a point of attraction and recruitment of qualified forces," the speaker said.
"What's more, the mujahideen, by the grace of Allah, have been able to penetrate time after time all the security procedures undertaken by the oppressive countries of the alliance as evidence by what you have seen, in terms of bombings in the capital of the most important European states."
