Bin Laden calls for US boycott over climate change

AL-QAEDA leader Osama bin Laden yesterday blamed the US and western industrial nations for climate change and called for a boycott of the dollar and US products to halt “the wheels of the American economy”.

In a taped message broadcast by al-Jazeera as economists and ministers met at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the author of the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks admitted that getting rid of the dollar would “have great consequences and grave ramifications”. But he said it was “the only means to liberate humanity from slavery and dependence on America”.

He argued that such a stand would also hamper US military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.Bin Laden, who has previously addressed global warming, said: “Discussing climate change is not an intellectual luxury but a necessity.”

He held western countries responsible for desertification, floods, global warming and hunger in the Third World, and called for “drastic” rather than partial solutions to climate change.

Bin Laden castigated the former US administration headed by George W Bush for refusing to adhere to the Kyoto protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He accused the former US president and congress of rejecting the agreement under pressure from multinationals which “are behind speculation and monopolies and rises in prices . . . and they are behind globalisation and its tragic results”.

Al-Qaeda’s elusive leader condemned financial bailouts to help such companies deal with the global financial meltdown.

“When these perpetrators fall victim to the evil they committed, heads of state rush to rescue them using public money.”

He agreed with US political thinker Noam Chomsky, who has said the US government conducts its affairs like the Mafia.

The broadcast came less than a week after he praised Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab for the failed attempt to blow up a US aircraft over Detroit on Christmas Day. Bin Laden said the message of this operation, which he claimed for al-Qaeda, was that the US “should not dream of security until [Muslims] enjoy it as a reality in Palestine”.

The authenticity of the latest message has not been verified, but an organisation which monitors Muslim militant websites said the earlier tape appeared to have been made by Bin Laden.

The al-Qaeda leader has not been seen for eight years, although he is believed to be holed up on the Afghan-Pakistan border.