- DUBAI (Reuters) - Following
is a transcript of the videotaped comments of Osama bin Laden as broadcast
by Qatar's al-Jazeera television on Wednesday.
-
- Bin Laden, shown dressed in a camouflage combat smock
and with a submachinegun at his side, spoke in Arabic:
-
- "Three months after the blessed attacks against
the international infidels, against the main infidel America, and after
almost two months have passed since the start of the vicious Crusade against
Islam, we would like to talk about some of the facts that these events
have revealed.
-
- "These events have revealed a lot of very important
issues to Muslims. It is very clear that the West in general, spearheaded
by America, holds an indescribable amount of Crusader loathing for Islam,
and that those who have lived all these months under the constant bombing
by different types of U.S. planes know this for a fact.
-
- "How many villages were annihilated without committing
any crime? How many, if we calculate, millions of people were made homeless
during the biting cold, and how many of these oppressed men, women and
children are now sheltering in tents in Pakistan? They have not committed
any crime. America launched this campaign based on a suspicion.
-
- "Those who claim to uphold humanitarian values and
freedom, we saw their true criminal nature. A shell weighing seven grams
is sufficient and actually more than sufficient (to kill) a human being
but America, because it loathes the Taliban and Muslims to such an extent,
used on our brothers on the frontlines projectiles weighing as much as
seven tonnes and those who can calculate know that this is equivalent to
seven million grams when seven grams are sufficient for a human being.
-
- "When the youths, may Allah accept them as martyrs,
detonated (the bomb) in Nairobi less than two tonnes, America said this
is a terrorist strike and this is a weapon of mass destruction. (But) when
it uses two bombs each weighing seven million grams, there is no shame
in that.
-
- "And the (U.S.) Minister of Defence comes out after
they bombed whole villages without just cause, just to terrorise people
and to make them fear hosting or coming near Arabs... and he says that
this is our right. It is their right to annihilate people as long as they
are Muslims and not Americans. This is crime in its clearest form. All
you hear about (them) making a mistake, that is a clear lie. A few days
ago, they hit what they claimed were al Qaeda targets in Khost and they
directed a missile at a mosque, although they said they made a mistake.
Investigations proved that Muslim ulema (scholars) were praying Taraweeh
(special Ramadan prayers) and that they had a meeting after the prayers
with the hero... Sheikh Jalal al-Din Haqqani who was one of the most senior
mujahideen against the Soviet occupation and who rejected the U.S. occupation
of Afghanistan.
-
- "They hit the mosque while the Muslims were in prayer,
killing 150 of them but Sheikh Jalal survived, may Allah bless his life.
-
- "This is the Crusader loathing, so let those who
repeat words without thinking about its consequences and they say we denounce
terrorism. Our terrorism against the United States is blessed, aimed at
repelling the oppressor so that America stops its support for Israel."
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