CNN reports:

Parts of audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden aired Sunday on an Arabic-language TV network in which the al Qaeda leader attacks the West for cutting off funds to the Palestinian Hamas-led government.

Al-Jazeera, which is based in Qatar, said the new tape is from bin Laden. CNN could not immediately confirm the tape’s authenticity.

The speaker on the tape says “the opposition to the Hamas government is proof of the crusade against Muslims.”

The remarks about the halting of funds suggest the tape is relatively recent. The United States and some other Western nations have officially halted contributions to the Palestinian government since Hamas took over.

Reuters:

Al Qaeda’s leader Osama bin Laden said Western efforts to isolate the Palestinian Hamas government and the Darfur crisis in Sudan were examples of the West’s “crusader war” against Islam, according to an audiotape aired on Sunday.

“This is a crusader-Zionist war,” said the speaker who sounded like the Saudi-born militant in the tape aired on Al Jazeera television.

“And they (Western leaders) do not want a truce unless it is from our side only … they insist on continuing their crusader campaign against our nation and to loot our wealth,” bin Laden said.

FOXNews.com/AP coverage. More here.

Hat tip: Right on the Right

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It’s a good time to read or re-read Robert Spencer’s excellent primer, Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades).

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