Osama bin Laden: Economist, Environmentalist

Osama bin Laden took on an oddly populist tone for his second audiotape in the past week, as he blamed the failure of December’s climate change negotiations on the United States, while urging the world to drop the dollar as the globe’s default reserve currency. “Discussing climate change is not an intellectual luxury, but a reality,” he said, faulting the United States for rejecting the earlier Kyoto Protocols that would have set limits on greenhouse gas emissions. He added that “this is a message to the whole world about those who are causing climate change, whether deliberately or not, and what we should do about that.” Under the heading of “what to do”, bin Laden suggested that people and nations stop using the dollar in international trade in the “fastest possible time.”

Bin Laden went on to slam government bailouts of financial companies, saying that they were the ones who caused the global economic crisis in the first place. "When those perpetrators fall victims to the evil they had committed, the heads of states rush to rescue them using public money," he said. And if you’re curious as to what the world’s most wanted terrorist has been reading lately, the list seems to include noted linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky, who bin Laden cited during his audio message: “Chomsky was right when he pointed to a resemblance between American policies and the approach of mafia gangs. Those are the real terrorists,” bin Laden said referring to a recent editorial by Chomsky.

Bin Laden used his first audiotape to take credit for masterminding the failed Christmas Day airplane bombing attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, saying that America would not enjoy security until the occupation of Palestine ended.