Bin Laden urges Americans to convert to Islam

Bin Laden urges Americans to convert to Islam
Appears for 1st time in 3 years in videotape released ahead of 9/11 anniversary

Usama bin Laden appeared for the first time in three years in a videotape Friday released ahead of the 6th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end, according to a transcript obtained by FOX News.

The videotape, which runs about 30 minutes long, appeared to have been recently made, since bin Laden refers to the Democratic victory in Congress and to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was elected in May.

Bin Laden made no overt threats and did not directly call for attacks, according to the transcript. Instead, he addresses Americans, lecturing them on the failures of their leaders to stop the war in Iraq despite growing public opposition in the U.S.

"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," bin Laden said, according to the transcript.

"The second solution is from your side," he said. "I invite you to embrace Islam."

"It will also achieve your desire to stop the war as a consequence, because as soon as the warmongering owners of the major corporations realize that 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," he said.

U.S. officials said there were "no overt threats" against the United States.

Soon after Washington announced it had the video, all the Islamic militant Web sites that usually carry statements from Al Qaeda went down and were inaccessible, in an unprecedented shutdown.

The reason for the shutdown was not immediately known.

Evan H. Kohlmann, a terrorism expert at globalterroralert.com, said he suspected it was the work of Al Qaeda itself, trying to find how the video leaked to U.S. officials.

"For them this is totally disruptive that the U.S. government could have a copy before their targeted audience does," he said. "They could be concerned and trying to plug the leak quickly."

The Homeland Security Department said Friday it had no credible information warning of an imminent threat to the United States, and analysts noted that Al Qaeda tends to mark the Sept. 11 anniversary with a slew of messages.

White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto called the tape "a reminder to everyone that terrorists are out there and they are actively trying to kill Americans and threaten our interests."

"This is why we need to be more vigilant and more persistent in our pursuit of terrorists," Fratto said. "We will continue to pursue them. And it reminds us that need to be certain that our intelligence professionals have all the tools they need to continue to disrupt their activities."

The video ends bin Laden's longest period without a message. The Al Qaeda leader has not appeared in new video footage since October 2004, and he has not put out a new audiotape in more than a year.

Al Qaeda's media arm, Al-Sahab, announced bin Laden's new message Thursday in a banner advertisement on an Islamic militant Web site that included a photo of him.

"Soon, God willing, a videotape from the lion sheik Usama bin Laden, God preserve him," the advertisement read, signed by Al-Sahab. Such announcements are usually put out one to three days before the video is posted on the Web.

One difference in bin Laden's appearance was immediately obvious in the video. Bin Laden's beard appears to have been dyed, a popular practice among Arab leaders, said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute, a Washington-based group that monitors terror messages.

Over the last few years, Al Qaeda leaders appear to have gotten better at distributing their missives, the intelligence official said. They are using subtitles and different languages and using the Internet to distribute them, rather than depending on a particular television station or network.