Washington – Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden has issued a new fatwa, or religious edict, banning any cooperation by Muslims with American forces and their allies in Afghanistan, according to a U.S. intelligence official familiar with the case.
Bin Laden was apparently motivated by recent reports of a U.S. need for added intelligence to aid its war effort in Afghanistan. The fatwa was issued using the social networking tool Twitter, and therefore was only 140 characters long, which is the maximum allowed in a Twitter post, or “tweet.”
According to the intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the case publicly, Bin Laden’s fatwa read:
Any and all cooperation with the Zionist-Crusaders is forbidden.They are weak while we are strong. Do not give in to the trickery of the inf
It is assumed that “inf” was intended to be the word “infidels,” and that bin Laden did not realize he had already exceeded the 140-character limit.
Bin Laden’s Twitter profile page has been blocked from public view by U.S. intelligence. According the official, bin Laden’s username was OBL111. He had posted no other “tweets,” and offered no picture or other identifying personal information on his profile page. Twitter allows users to “follow” other users’ updates, and be followed by users interested in their own updates. Bin Laden was apparently following Barack Obama and Leo Laporte.
