ephidryn, if you can read and understand Arabic, here is the link to the tape:
http://www.aljazeera.net/news/arabic/2003/2/2-11-15.htm
They are presenting it, with commentary, on the Al-Jazeera channel as well (if you have satellite there in Spain).
In listening to the tape, I would have to say the the BBC translation is good, and, more to the point, conveys the message well.
As to the questions asked above: “roofed and disguised” refers to the fact that the trenches were covered with dirt, rock, and wooden (sometimes cement) roofing material. They were able to hunker down for quite some time, and there is some evidence that they had supplies with them, in hopes of outlasting a long assault. The trenches were dug in quite well, and were hard to spot from the ground or the air; the observers had a hard time calling in support on specific targets, so there ended up being more of a carpet-bombing/rolling barrage aspect to the assault.
In fact, depending on what areas we decide to attack through on our way to Baghdad, his recommendations to the Iraqi people aren’t bad, from a tactical point of view; the Israelis were able to “hide in plain sight” during the October (or Yom Kippur) War of 1973, in the Sinai tank campaign. That battle occurred on more or less open terrain, and the Israeli anti-tank teams took a devastating toll on the surprised Egyptian tankers; they used trenches that they had dug in and camouflaged in the evenings, and let the main assault wave get deep into their defenses before opening fire. If we decide to avoid the plains of Iraq, and go through the northern, more mountainous areas (like Tikrit), then the trench plan is even better suited to defense; once we hit the cities, trenches can only serve to make matters slower and more dangerous.
Granted, I don’t think that Saddam will be listening much to ObL’s tactical advice; he sees him as an opportunist who happened to get some serious attention, but doesn’t really see the organization as a group of tactical geniuses. When it comes to terrorist or guerilla tactics, though, I’m sure that Saddam’s forces will be hitting the books on ways to keep themselves alive during the coming assault.
And no, ObL has no capability to declare anyone a martyr; even a sheikh can’t do that, regardless of how he has been given the title. Just as in Catholicism there is a “board” decision on saints, the same basic thing occurs in Islam; a group of the big guns get together and discuss such issues (usually they are imams, sometimes referred to as sheikhs, but actually higher up the food chain). Al-Azhar University in Cairo has long been the definitive body, but the imams in Saudi like to throw their two cents in as well. The only real exception to this rule is if the declaration is made by a sharif: in Islam, a sharif is one who is directly descended from the prophet Mohammed. Currently, both the King of Jordan (Abdullah) and the King of Morocco (Hassan V) are sharifs; as such, they do have the ability to “rule” on certain aspects of Islam. They usually stay out of the religious arena, though; the title is still respected, but they know better than to push too hard against the religious elite.
And as far as a link between Saddam and ObL: not in this tape. ObL doesn’t support Saddam at all, but does want to show solidarity with the Iraqi people. That’s it; as stated by others in the thread, even the administration’s most ardent backers would have a hard time using this recording to support their plans.
Hope this informs -
Greco