Terrorist as Eco-Crusader? Bin Laden Blames U.S. for Global Warming

Has Osama bin Laden gone green?

Probably not, but the al-Qaeda leader has called on the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other developed countries for global warming, the Associated Press reports. Bin Laden said drastic measures are needed to halt environmental catastrophe, and proposed "bringing the wheels of the American economy to a halt."

"We should stop dealings with the dollar and get rid of it as soon as possible," he said in a tape broadcast on Al-Jazeera. "I know that this has great consequences and grave ramifications, but it is the only means to liberate humanity from slavery and dependence on America."

The new tape is the second from the al-Qaeda leader in less than two weeks. A recording released last week featured bin Laden praising the attempted bombing of an airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day, and connected al-Qaeda's global jihad with the plight of the Palestinan people.

It was the first message from bin Laden directed at climate change, and one of the few to be almost entirely devoid of religious language. He blamed Western industrialized nations for hunger, desertification and flood around the world, and said that only "drastic solutions . . . not solutions that partially reduce the effect of climate change," are the way to address the threat.

Bin Laden also expressed hope that a concerted effort to impede the American economy would frustrate the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- a return to familiar ideological territory for him. Most of his previous statements have been warnings to the United States that its role in the Middle East and elsewhere overseas would be answered with terrorist attacks.