Bin Laden Blasts US for Causing Climate Change

Osama bin Laden's having a busy week: Just days after applauding the would-be Christmas bomber, he's issued a broadside against the US for its role in creating global warming. In a new audiotape, aired in part on Al-Jazeera television today, he urges the world to boycott American goods and the US dollar. The al-Qaeda chief says the way to combat climate change is to bring "the wheels of the American economy" to a halt.

Bin Laden calls global warming a grave threat— "Speaking about climate change is not a matter of intellectual luxury; the phenomenon is an actual fact" —and says he singled out the US from other industrialized nations because of George W. Bush's failure to sign the Kyoto pact.