Osama bin Laden is attempting international foreign relations diplomacy with the EU? Something like that. Proving that he is every bit a politician on a mission, Osama bin Laden has released a recording in which he asks the EU to diplomatically ditch the U.S. and take forces out of Afghanistan.

There are a few things that strike me immediately on this one:
1.    Bin Laden is still alive. 8 years later.
2.    Bin Laden is doing this for shock value.
3.    Bin Laden has impeccable timing.

1.    8 years later, this guy is still alive. The U.S. has installed democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq, all on the pretense that we were looking for this guy. We have not found him, but he can still get messages out on the Internet. Embarrassing.
2.    He can’t seriously expect the EU to ally with him against the U.S.- that means he is just planting the seed of dissent, giving people something to think about, reminding everyone that it is possible to oppose the U.S.- that it may be radical now but someday…
3.    He does this during the G20 summit and just as things are ramping up for the Copenhagen Summit to give us one more thing to answer for? Good job.

"An intelligent man doesn't waste his money and sons for a gang of criminals in Washington," the US-based SITE Intelligence Group monitoring service quoted bin Laden as saying on Friday. "[...] And it is a shameful thing for a person to be in a coalition whose supreme commander has no regard for human life and intentionally bombs villagers from the air."

Ummm… how should we characterize the September 11 attacks? Not from a “coalition whose supreme commander has no regard for human life and intentionally bombs (flies a planes into) villagers (New York City citizens) from the air.” ?

If you want to try and play politics, bin Laden, you can’t be that blatant of a hypocrite. Bin Laden explains away attacks in London and Madrid by asking Europeans to see what “your American ally and his helpers” did in Afghanistan.

Right.

He also said that he al-Qaeda will retaliate "from the oppressor on behalf of the oppressed," the monitoring service added.

"If today Europe is suffering the travails of the economic crisis, and the heart of Europe is no longer number one in world exports, and America is reeling from the haemorrhage caused by the economic war, then how do think you will fare after America pulls out?” bin Laden is quoted as asking.
It’s terrifying to see that bin Laden is still out there, still attempting to instill fear in the world and still trying to give strength and encouragement to the radical forces that follow him. This guy is a nut. Alliance with the EU? No way.

But it does reaffirm that he is relevant- this guy puts a recording on the Internet from a cave in Afghanistan and I know about it the next day? That’s just as scary. Bin Laden is using social media.