Osama Bin Laden 'seeks to join Arab revolts'

Reports that Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted fugitive with a $50 million U.S. bounty on his head, has broken cover to move around Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent weeks has raised concern he may be planning a new major attack on the West.

But a specialist with access to Islamist militants says the objective may be even more dangerous: merging al-Qaida's war against the West with the wave of uprisings across the Arab world that largely target regimes allied to the United States.

The Arab pro-democracy revolts have toppled Presidents Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and currently threaten President Ali Abdullah of Yemen, where al-Qaida is particularly active, and Moammar Gadhafi of Libya.

Trouble is brewing too in the Persian Gulf, where Saudi Arabia and its regional allies have dispatched troops to the island kingdom of Bahrain to support the Sunni monarchy against protesters.

Many see the hand of Shiite Iran in the swelling gulf violence, with toppling the U.S.-allied monarchy of Saudi Arabia, one of the world's leading oil producers, as the ultimate target. (read more)