Bin Laden's Disembodied Voice Warns Against Executing 9/11 Terrorists

Once again, the disembodied voice of Osama bin Laden has made threats against the United States. This time, he warns the US against executing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other al Qaeda terrorists implicated in the 9/11 attacks.

In a brief 74-second audio tape aired on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden said if the U.S. decides to execute any al-Qaida suspects in its custody — and explicitly mentioned Mohammed — his terror network would kill American captives.

The terror leader said such a decision "would mean the U.S. has issued a death sentence against whoever of you becomes a prisoner in our hands."

It was not immediately clear whether al-Qaida is currently has any US captives, but the Haqqani group — the Pakistan-based Taliban faction closest to al-Qaida — is holding an American soldier it captured in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009. It released a video of him in December.

Bin Laden said U.S. President Barack Obama is following in the footsteps of his predecessor George W. Bush by escalating the war in Afghanistan, being "unjust" to al-Qaida prisoners and supporting Israel in its occupation of Palestinian land.

In a veiled threat, bin Laden said Americans had previously thought their homeland was beyond the reach of his group until the 9/11 attack.

Considering that al Qaeda has previously murdered thousands of Americans while they were at work and traveling on aircraft and hundreds of others around the world at embassies, businesses, restaurants, subways and trains, the claim that they'll murder more Americans if the US decides to execute al Qaeda terrorists isn't exactly a new threat. It's the same threat we've been experiencing since the mid 1990s and should not stop the US from dispensing justice against Mohammed and his fellow terrorists, even if it means executing them under the laws of the United States.