- WASHINGTON - Usama bin Laden
claims he calculated in advance how many casualties "the enemy"
would suffer on Sept. 11, according to administration descriptions of a
videotape that President Bush said "just reminded me of what a murderer
he is."
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- "For those who see this tape, they realize that
not only is he guilty of incredible murder, he has no conscience and no
soul," Bush told reporters Monday.
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- Pentagon officials told Fox News that, if released, it
would be them putting out the tape seized in Afghanistan and not the White
House.
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- Administration officials confirmed this and said that
the release of the tape will "probably" happen on Wednesday.
The officials gave no details as to how the tape will be distributed.
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- The president asked intelligence experts to make certain
their sources will not be compromised if the White House releases the tape.
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- Two senior administration officials said privately that
Bush was leaning toward making the tape public, but was holding off on
a final decision while intelligence officials recheck their Arabic translation
and anything that might betray intelligence-gathering methods.
-
- White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said that the
president "wants to share information with the American people. He
thinks it's important for people to know what Usama bin Laden has said
in this regard."
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- But releasing the video would counter the administration's
demand that bin Laden's taped statements be pulled from American airwaves
so as not to give the terrorist mastermind a vehicle for propagating his
message.
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- "We have not sought opportunities to provide Usama
bin Laden with air time, TV time," Fleischer said.
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- Bush has seen the tape and read a translation of its
contents, which are disgusting, Fleischer said.
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- "The president's reaction was this shows everything
that we've always known - that Usama bin Laden was behind the attacks against
our country, and what an evil man anybody could be to be satisfied and
find joy in the killing of thousands of innocents," Fleischer said.
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- According to those who have been privvy to the tape,
bin Laden tells a cleric on the video that he was pleasantly surprised
by the extent of damage from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The tape was
discovered during the search of a private home in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
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- The suspected mastermind of those suicide hijackings
recalls tuning in to news shows that day and waiting to hear reports about
the destruction, a U.S. official said.
-
- Bin Laden also says that after the first plane struck,
he told those with him that more devastation was coming. Some of his comments
suggest that not all the hijackers knew they would die. "He claims
piety by leading people to deaths that they very well were not aware of,"
Fleischer said.
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- This video is different from earlier footage that administration
officials thought contained coded messages for bin Laden operatives outside
Afghanistan, Fleischer said. "This does not appear to be prepackaged
propaganda. This appears to be a conversation that was taped when he was
talking with other people."
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- A key consideration for the administration is whether
releasing the tape would help win over Muslims who doubt the veracity of
U.S. claims that bin Laden was behind the attacks.
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- Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, said Monday the tape should be made public. "I believe
if you have a choice between treating the American people at arm's length
and as adults, you treat them as adults, and they should have the opportunity
to see this tape," he said on CBS' The Early Show.
-
- "It is ... equally important that the world see
this tape because there are still some places where there is suspicion
about whether there is evidence to link bin Laden to the events of Sept.
11," Graham said.
-
- The same stance was taken by Sens. Joseph Biden D-Del.,
who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.
"The world needs to see this," Hagel said Sunday on CNN's Late
Edition.
-
- On the other hand, Gehad Auda, a professor of political
science at Cairo's Helwan University, said broadcast of the tape would
create a "propaganda splash" but "not cause any turnover
in public opinion."
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- "It won't make a difference to those who are hostile
to America whether the tape is made public or not," Auda said. "This
is a matter of belief, not a matter of clarifying information."
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- Cheney said it is not his decision whether to release
the tape but indicated there was reluctance to do so. "We've not been
eager to give the guy any extra television time," he said.
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- The tape provides clear proof the leader of the Al Qaeda
network was behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
that killed about 3,300 people, the vice president said on NBC's Meet the
Press.
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- The tape shows bin Laden being interviewed or meeting
with a cleric. He speaks in Arabic and discusses the terrorist attacks,
according to Cheney, who said he had seen parts of the tape.
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- The Al Qaeda leader expresses surprise and pleasure at
the amount of damage done to the World Trade Center, the official said.
Another official said bin Laden indicates on the tape he had expected the
twin towers to collapse only down to the level of where the planes struck.
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- Bin Laden's comments show he had specific advance knowledge
of the time, method and location of the attacks, said administration officials.
They declined to reveal how the United States obtained the tape, which
one described as amateurish and apparently made with a handheld video camera.
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- Bin Laden has not publicly taken responsibility for the
attacks, though he has praised them. U.S. officials have said they intercepted
communications tying bin Laden or associates to the attacks, but have refused
to release any materials, citing intelligence concerns.
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- Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz expressed irritation
that anyone would doubt bin Laden's guilt.
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- "I don't know what it takes to convince some people,"
he said on CNN. "We had absolutely clear-cut evidence before that
tape turned up."
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- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- http://www.foxnews.com
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- Comment
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- Absurdity Of Claims Of Found bin Laden Video
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- From TOP_VIEW
top_view@planetmail.com
12-11-1
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- This is on a par with the "hijacker's passport"
miraculously surviving the WTC attack fairy tale.
-
- The Bush machine is now claiming that somehow or other,
from the wreckage, devastation and ruination which once was a sovereign
nation called Afghanistan (now to be called East Crawford, TEXAS), they
somehow by incredible COINCIDENCE were able to "FIND" an INTACT
video cassette which JUST HAPPENS (get THIS!) to depict their "most-hated"
enemy (or is that their Carlyle Group investment partner????) Osama bin
Laden!!
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- And even more incredibly COINCIDENTAL, this 'home video,'
that someone just HAPPENED to find, just HAPPENS to show Osama talking
about --GUESS WHAT?!!...the World Trade Center attacks of September 11.
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- And another Guess What?: This video supposedly retrieved
from the hellish lunar landscape of former Afghanistan SUPPOSEDLY depicts
bin Laden expressing support for the WTC attacks, and saying things like
the devastation was greater than he or anyone else would have imagined:
which it WAS.
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- The purported video furthermore supposedly shows the
purported bin Laden saying he supported the strike against the U.S., along
with other comments - MUCH like comments BROADCAST on Philippines radio
mere HOURS after the WTC attack made by US chess grandmaster BOBBY FISCHER.
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- Although NOWHERE on this dubious video being referred
to constantly now by Bush administration - even by their OWN accounting
of its contents - does this purported 'bin Laden' EVER say unequivocally
and explicitly: "I (we) take FULL RESPONSIBILITY for the WTC attack.
I DID IT"
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- The Bush administration insists on saying that this latest
video provides some kind of "hard proof" that bin Laden IS/WAS
the party responsible.
-
- Bin Laden and many others of his ilk have NEVER been
the least bit "shy" about taking responsibility for other assaults
they've carried out prior to September 11 against US military and/or government
targets, so why has bin Laden never made public (to our knowledge) an unequivocal
admission of responsibility?
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- Because he didn't do it, that's why -- as much as he,
like BOBBY FISCHER, may have endorsed or supported the action on the grounds
that, for many reasons, America "had it coming" (FISCHER'S words,
NOT bin Laden's).
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- So, let's see the tape. But when we do, let's all remember
how easy it can be to create video propaganda these days. Especially if
the tape is shaky or otherwise unfocused. If so, we'll probably be told
it was taken by an intelligence agent who had penetrated bin Laden's inner
circle and had an ultra-small camcorder concealed in his Taliban turban...
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