Washington, Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Osama bin Laden vowed that the U.S. ``devil'' will be beaten in Iraq and exhorted the Arab nation to engage in urban warfare to inflict maximum casualties, according to a tape the U.S. says it believes is authentic. ``The devil is going to be overcome and defeated,'' the al- Qaeda terrorist leader purportedly said on the audiotape that was broadcast by the Qatar-based al-Jazeera television network and picked up in the U.S. and translated by Fox television. He urged Iraqis to ``try to have the war take as long as possible, because the thing the enemy is really most afraid of is to fight a city war.'' Bin Laden's statement, if confirmed, may bolster the Bush administration's claim that attacking Iraq is a justified response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the face of skepticism voiced by allies such as France and Germany.
The dollar fell from an eight-week high against the yen, U.S. stocks dropped for the fifth day in six and oil prices, which had already surged to their highest in more than two years, were boosted in late trading after the broadcast of the tape. ``We do worry about the contents of the message,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on al-Jazeera, an Arabic- language station that reaches audiences throughout the Middle East, after the broadcast of the audiotape.
`Danger to Us All'
``We know that al-Qaeda is out there, that they're still a danger to us all,'' Boucher said. ``This tape didn't just threaten the United States, he threatened half a dozen Arab governments -- Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Yemen. He's threatening the whole world.'' Secretary of State Colin Powell disclosed the existence of the tape today during a congressional hearing, saying it would make clear that al-Qaeda is actively supporting Iraq's regime. ``Once again he speaks to the people of Iraq and talks about their struggle and how he is in partnership with Iraq,'' Powell told the Senate Budget Committee, describing a transcript of the audiotape that he said the Bush administration received in advance of the al-Jazeera broadcast. ``This nexus between terrorists and a state that is developing weapons of mass destruction can no longer be looked away from and ignored,'' Powell said.
`We Have Ways'
The State Department declined to say how it obtained the transcript of the tape in advance. ``We have ways of finding things out,'' Boucher said. Both Powell and Boucher said they believe the tape to be authentic, though they did not elaborate. The Arabic-language broadcast came as the Bush administration continued trying to convince reluctant European allies of the need for military action if Iraq doesn't comply with United Nations disarmament demands. France, Germany and Belgium have also been blocking efforts within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to provide support for Turkey, NATO's only Muslim majority nation, in the event of war with neighboring Iraq. Ambassadors from NATO's 19 governments adjourned today without resolving the dispute over whether sending Patriot missiles to Turkey, in advance of a firm UN decision on war against Iraq, would increase the risk of war. The NATO ambassadors are due to meet again tomorrow morning.
Do `Right Thing'
``I hope NATO will be doing the right thing,'' Powell told Congress, warning that the 53-year-old trans-Atlantic military alliance ``is breaking itself up because it will not meet its responsibilities.'' The audiotape today was the first such message attributed to bin Laden since one broadcast by al-Jazeera in November. While the Bush administration highlighted the tape as further proof of an Iraqi connection to al-Qaeda, the administration had asked U.S. broadcasters in the past not to play his messages out of concern that bin Laden and his followers might be trying to incite anti-U.S. violence. The speaker in today's message concentrated on rallying Iraqis to repel the expected U.S.-led attack. It described bin Laden's success in avoiding U.S. efforts to kill or capture him in the war in Afghanistan that followed the Sept. 11 attacks. The administration last week raised its domestic threat indicator to the ``high risk'' level, or ``orange,'' on Feb. 7 over concern about new al-Qaeda attacks.
Tenet Warning
The director the Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet, told Congress today that al-Qaeda terrorists are preparing to strike ``softer'' targets that may not be as well protected as prominent landmarks. Al-Qaeda may seek to attack lightly guarded places, including shopping malls and universities, while still seeking larger targets, Tenet told the Senate Intelligence Committee. The voice in the audiotape called U.S. allies ``traitors.'' He said Muslims shouldn't be troubled by the socialist origins of Hussein's ruling Ba'ath party because they have a common enemy in the U.S. Bin laden has previously criticized Hussein, who runs a secular state. That comment helps demonstrate Powell's argument, in his presentation last week to the UN Security Council, that al-Qaeda is willing to overlook its political differences with Hussein to forge an anti-Western alliance, Boucher said. ``We're not claiming more than exists,'' Boucher said. ``We're talking about contacts, we're talking about safe haven, we're saying Iraq has given a harbor to this group.'' The contacts include ``eight high-level meetings through the 1990s,'' he said.
While the Bush administration contends most Iraqis would welcome the end of Hussein's rule, the speaker in the audiotape advised Iraqis to oppose a U.S. attack, including building trenches such as those employed in the Afghan conflict. ``Airplanes were dumping all kinds of hell on top of us where we were,'' he said. ``We were really hit by the smart bombs as well.'' Still, he said, ``we were able to hold our positions and we kept on repulsing them.'' ``We hope that our brothers in Iraq will do the same,'' he said, according to the tape. //www.quote.bloomberg.com/