Akbar Hashemi’s Memoirs – February 12, 2003

Al Jazeera TV has aired a new tape of bin Laden asking his supporters to take action against the United States if the war with Iraq starts and to attack any Arab leader who cooperates with the United States.

Full text of the newspaper:

The third meeting of the NATO Council failed to resolve the dispute regarding the aid to Turkey in the possible Iraq war.  Some political circles in Germany have criticized the German government's veto regarding aid to Turkey;  At the same time, they consider Germany's confrontation with America's war policy to be dangerous and cause Germany's isolation. America has also announced that it may withdraw its military forces from Germany, as if 71,000 of the 250,000 American military forces outside the United States are in Germany. 
George Tenet's report to the US Senate last night added to the anxiety of the American people, and the government has also announced that people should store three days' worth of food at home. 
 Al Jazeera TV [news network] aired a new tape of [Osama] Bin Laden, [the leader of al-Qaeda], in which he asked his supporters, even though he considers the Iraqi regime to be a deadly regime, to take action against the United States in the event of a war with Iraq and to attack any Arab leader who cooperates with the United States.  Especially if Turkey, the center of the former Islamic caliphate, wants to attack a Muslim country. America and England use this tape and the report of the head of the CIA to raise the war fever.  Iraq rejected the proposal of Germany and France regarding the presence of UN forces in Iraq;  America had rejected it before.  
The issue of the hypocrites [= the People's Mojahedin Organization] is also of interest as Saddam [Hussein]'s partner and partner in suppressing the Iraqi people and terrorism, and they are deeply worried about what will be their fate if war breaks out.  Especially since a documentary film has recently been released on French television, which has exposed their terrorist records. 
In Afghanistan, the conflict has intensified and the American planes have bombed areas where the opposition forces might be present.  [Hamid] Karzai, [head of the interim government] has expressed his concern about the lack of attention to Afghanistan's problems due to the Iraq crisis and has asked Pakistan to prevent the attack on Afghanistan from its own borders.  
Western media, in front of the large presence of people in yesterday's march, have become passive and pass it by in silence. 
I went to Tehran University for the Eid al-Adha prayer; contrary to expectations, a good crowd had come.  After the prayer, I delivered two sermons about the Kaaba, Masjid al-Haram, Mecca, Hajj, and the conditions of the day and America's extravagances and warmongering.   I returned home. 
Mr. Hossein Hashemian, [cousin], came home for lunch and gave a report on the progress of the preliminary work of the water transfer project from Chaharmahal Bakhtiari to Rafsanjan.  Agricultural Bank has accepted with conditions to be the agent of the plan to obtain loans from abroad and also to collect more payments.  In order to transfer 200 million cubic meters of water per year.  It is supposed to be divided into 40,000 shares and each share will be priced at 10 million tomans, which will cover almost the entire cost of the project. 
In the south of the Philippines, there was a clash between soldiers and rebels and 60 people were killed.  During the Mena ceremony in Saudi Arabia, 14 people were killed and many were injured.  In America, a huge explosion disabled gas pipelines in a wide area.