Andrew Marshall: However evil, bin Laden's words have grabbed the world

It is not surprising that George Bush and Tony Blair would like to limit the spread of Osama bin Laden's broadcast after the events of 11 September. Any communications consultant worth a Soho lunch will tell you that the main battle is to win control of the agenda. As far as much of the Arab world is concerned, Bin Laden has grabbed it. However evil or wrong we might think his words, they will have a powerful impact around the world.

Above all, his broadcast appeals to a sense of humiliation, oppression and victimisation that is common in the Middle East. "What the United States tastes today is a very small thing compared to what we have tasted for tens of years," he said. "Our nation has been tasting this humiliation and contempt for more than 80 years. Its sons are being killed, its blood is being shed, its holy places are being attacked, and it is not being ruled according to what God has decreed. Despite this, nobody cares."

For many Muslims, his words, appearance and overall message will resonate. Here is a man in a combat jacket with a rifle, in the mountains: the image he wants to project is of the underdog, the oppressed and the struggle. By contrast, when Tony Blair appears, he is a man in a suit in an office.

What will have concerned Western policymakers is Bin Laden's ability to tie together several struggles that the West would prefer went unlinked. The presence of US forces in Saudi Arabia has long been his prime cause; Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have become increasingly salient to him. "One million Iraqi children have thus far died in Iraq although they did not do anything wrong," said bin Laden. "Israeli tanks and tracked vehicles also enter to wreak havoc in Palestine, in Jenin, Ramallah, Rafah, Beit Jala, and other Islamic areas and we hear no voices raised or moves made."

One other phrase will have sent shudders down spines in Whitehall, Washington and Riyadh. "The winds of faith and change have blown to remove falsehood from the [Arabian] peninsula of Prophet Mohamed, may God's prayers be upon him," he said.

The US may lean on Al-Jazeera, the television station that broadcast the bin Laden tape. But he does not need satellite broadcasts to get his message over. Videotapes do the same thing, with much less technology. One recruiting tape, according to a Middle Eastern expert who has seen it, contains "a beautifully edited montage of Muslims being killed, wounded, beaten", in the Occupied Territories, Chechnya, Iraq, Lebanon, Indonesia and Kashmir.

There are frequent cuts to bin Laden speaking calmly to an unseen audience in the demeanour of a religious teacher. "He is the calm centre, the steadying rudder, in the storm of assaults on Islam," says the expert.

This is the man whose image appears on T-shirts, placards and posters around the Middle East. To us, he may seem the personification of evil. But to many in his audience in the region, he is a hero; perhaps more. Many will even doubt that he was responsible for the attacks on Washington and New York. There is a malicious and evil rumour circulating in Muslim countries and on the internet that the perpetrators were agents of Israel's Mossad, and that 4,000 Israelis employed at the World Trade Centre stayed at home on 11 September.

The West will expend very large sums of money on media, psychological operations and propaganda in the next few months. But for all the covert radio stations, leaflets, and specially modified aircraft, one man with a video camera is winning the propaganda war in the Middle East so far.