Osama bin Laden issues statement slamming U.S. role in Pakistan

(CNN) — Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden purportedly issued another statement Wednesday, saying U.S. policy in Pakistan has generated “new seeds of hatred and revenge against America.”

Al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language TV network, aired segments of what it said was a “voice recording by bin Laden.” This message comes as President Barack Obama begins his trip to the Middle East, where he is visiting Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and is to make a major speech to the Muslim world in Egypt on Thursday.

The message refers the conflict in Pakistan’s Swat Valley — where Pakistan’s troops are taking on Taliban militants, and it argued that President Obama is proving that he is “walking the same road of his predecessors to build enmity against Muslims and increasing the number of fighters, and establishing more lasting wars.”

The speaker cited strikes, destruction, and Obama’s “order” to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari “to prevent the people of Swat from implementing sharia law.

“All this led to the displacement of about a million Muslim; elders, women and children from their villages and homes. They became refugees in tents after they were honored in their own homes,” the message said.

“This basically means that Obama and his administration put new seeds of hatred and revenge against America. The number of these seeds is the same as the number of those victims and refugees in Swat and the tribal area in northern and southern Waziristan.

And, the message said, “the American people need to prepare to only gain what those seeds bring up.”

In March, bin Laden also issued purported messages. He called for Somalia’s new president to be overthrown and called Israel’s recent offensive in Gaza a “holocaust.”