Osama bin Laden disrupted the US election campaign yesterday, releasing his first videotape in more than a year to deride President George W. Bush and warn of possible new September 11th-style attacks.
Mr Bush had failed Americans with his Middle East policies, deceiving the nation and putting it at risk from further al-Qaeda strikes, bin Laden said. The speech was his clearest claim yet of responsibility for the strikes in 2001.
Appearing in a video released from hiding to Al Jazeera television four days before the US presidential poll and gesturing with a finger to stress points, he said the September 11th attacks would not have been so severe had Mr Bush been alert.
"Despite entering the fourth year after September 11th, Bush is still deceiving you and hiding the truth from you and therefore the reasons are still there to repeat what happened," he said.
It looked like a deliberate attempt to influence the US election on Tuesday. But he made little mention of Mr Bush's Democratic challenger John Kerry, saying only: "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al-Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands and each state which does not harm our security will remain safe."
Al-Qaeda sympathisers attacked trains in Madrid in March just before a Spanish general election, an act that some analysts said contributed to the defeat of the government, which had allied itself with Mr Bush by sending troops to Iraq.
Bin Laden said he thought of the idea of attacking the US skyscrapers when he saw Israeli aircraft bombing tower blocks in Lebanon in 1982.
The Bush administration resembled "corrupt" Arab governments, he said, reading from a sheet of paper. His voice was strong and he appeared in fair health, his full beard a mixture of white and dark grey.