Bin Laden vows never to be captured alive

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-02/20/content_521880.htm

Bin Laden vows never to be captured alive

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden promised never to be captured alive and declared the US had resorted to the same "barbaric" tactics used by Saddam Hussein, according to an audiotape purportedly by the al-Qaida leader posted Monday on a militant Web site.

The tape appeared to be a complete version of one that was first broadcast Jan. 19 on Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite channel, in which bin Laden offered the United States a long-term truce but also said his al-Qaida terror network would soon launch a fresh attack on American soil.

"I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don't want to die humiliated or deceived," bin Laden said. He also said US actions in Iraq were comparable to the actions of the ousted Iraqi leader.

The tape's release in January came days after a US airstrike in Pakistan that was targeting bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, and reportedly killed four leading al-Qaida figures, including possibly al-Zawahri's son-in-law. There was no mention of the attack on the segments that were broadcast.