Bin Laden Calls for Pakistan Flood Relief

Osama bin Laden has released a new video, but this time he wasn’t calling for violence—he was calling for the creation of a new aid group aimed at helping Muslims in general, and victims of Pakistan's massive floods in particular. “What governments spend on relief work is secondary to what they spend on armies,” the al-Qaeda leader said. “If governments spent [on relief] only 1% of what they spent on armies, they would change the face of the world for poor people.”

Bin Laden urged “people with hearts to move quickly to save their brothers and sisters,” setting up a “well-funded” relief group to develop impoverished Muslim regions, and study areas at risk of flooding. It’s al-Qaeda’s third video concerning the flood in recent weeks, though the other took more militaristic tones, according to the AP. US officials fear the terror group will win some Pakistani hearts and minds by exploiting frustrations over the government’s sluggish response to the disaster. (More Osama bin Laden stories.)