| Subject: Bin Laden admits to attacks Confession claims towers 'legitimate targets' |
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Date Posted: 15:31:23 12/03/01 Mon
{Note: The following story so completely ties up all the loose ends and speculation, justifies media not carrying anything from Bin Laden, etc..It is most likely a "planted" story. Guess we will have to wait to see what Hollywood adds to it following the recent talks with producers on convincing the US the war is justified...Please note there is absolutely no way for us to verify the accuracy of either this story or the previous "interview" circulated via Native News...Ish}}
Bin Laden admits to attacks Confession claims towers 'legitimate targets'
David Bamber
Calgary Herald
http://www.canada.com/calgary/story.asp?id={91EAA166-B832-40AB-B30F-C63DF6C5F26F}
Osama bin Laden has for the first time admitted that his al-Qaeda group carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
In a previously undisclosed video which has been circulating for 14 days among his supporters, bin Laden confesses that "history should be a witness that we are terrorists. Yes, we kill their innocents."
In the footage, shot in the Afghan mountains at the end of October, a smiling bin Laden goes on to say the World Trade Center's twin towers were a "legitimate target" and the pilots who hijacked the planes were "blessed by Allah."
The killing of at least 4,537 people in the attacks was justified, he claims, because they were "not civilians" but were working for the American system.
Bin Laden also makes a direct personal threat for the first time against U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair and warns other nations to stay out of the conflict.
The video will form the centrepiece of Britain and America's new evidence against bin Laden, to be released Wednesday.
The footage, to which the Daily Telegraph obtained access in the Middle East Saturday, was not made for public release via the al-Jazeera television network used by bin Laden for propaganda purposes in the past. It is believed to be intended as a rallying call to al-Qaeda members.
In the video, bin Laden says: "The twin towers were legitimate targets, they were supporting U.S. economic power. These events were great by all measurement. What was destroyed were not only the towers, but the towers of morale in that country."
He freely admits to being behind the attacks: "If avenging the killing of our people is terrorism, then history should be a witness that we are terrorists. Yes, we kill their innocents and this is legal religiously and logically."
In a contradictory section, however, bin Laden justifies killing the occupants of the World Trade Center towers because they were not civilians -- Islam forbids the killing of innocent civilians, even in a holy war.
He says: "The towers were supposed to be filled with supporters of the economical powers of the United States who are abusing the world."
"Those who talk about civilians should change their stand and reconsider their position. We are treating them like they treated us."
Bin Laden goes on to justify his entire terror campaign.
"There are two types of terror, good and bad. What we are practising is good terror. We will not stop killing them and whoever supports them."
He directly threatens the lives of Bush and Blair.
"Bush and Blair don't understand anything but the power of force. Every time they kill us, we kill them, so the balance of terror can be achieved."
Bin Laden warns other nations to keep out of the conflict, implying they could face terror attacks if they do not.
In the video, he also claims responsibility for an unspecified terrorist outrage in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which he claims was sparked by secret messages in one of his videos. He admits for the first time using public pronouncements on video to whip up terrorism -- a danger about which the British and American governments have warned broadcasters.
It is significant that throughout the video he uses the personal pronouns "I" and "we" to claim responsibility for the attacks. In the past, he has spoken of the attackers only in the third person.
Bin Laden has publicly issued four previous videos since Sept. 11, always denying carrying out the atrocities.
He now claims to have access to nuclear and chemical weapons. Bin Laden made the claims on Friday night during an interview with the English language Pakistani newspaper Dawn.
Defence analysts, however, dismissed the claims. They said that although bin Laden could have access to nuclear material through links with Pakistan or former Soviet republics, he was unlikely to have the technology to cause an explosion.
U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking at the United Nations on Saturday, said he doesn't know whether bin Laden has nuclear weapons.
"The only thing I know for certain about him is he's evil" and that is "all the more reason to pursue him diligently," Bush said.
© Copyright 2001 Calgary Herald
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