| Subject: Bin Laden admits guilt in terror attacks |
Author:
No name
| [ Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 15:43:32 12/03/01 Mon
{Note: Native News has no way of verifying the content of these news reports..I would note one thing, however, mention of the fact that the release of these tapes/videos are in order to bolster sagging support..somewhat along the lines of Bush's recent consult with Hollywood, perhaps...Ish}
Bin Laden admits guilt in terror attacks
11/11/2001 http://www.king5.com/terrorism/10013908_AA1111britainbinladen.html The Associated Press
LONDON - The British government will release new evidence against Osama bin Laden, including details of a videotape in which the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks calls the World Trade Center towers "legitimate targets," an official said.
The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported Sunday that the videotape, seen by one of its reporters in the Middle East, shows bin Laden admitting for the first time that his Al-Qaida network hijacked the planes that toppled the twin towers in New York and damaged the Pentagon.
A senior White House official who has read the transcript, however, said that although bin Laden justifies the attacks and praises those who heed his call for a holy war, he falls short of actually claiming responsibility for the attacks.
Britain's Foreign Office said that it was aware of the tape and would publish details about it, along with other information on bin Laden's terrorist activities, later this week.
According to excerpts printed by the newspaper, bin Laden says the hijackers were "blessed by Allah to destroy America's economic and military landmarks." "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," he is also quoted as saying. "We will not stop killing them and whoever supports them."
The Sunday Telegraph said bin Laden also claims responsibility for an unspecified terrorist attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which he says was organized through secret messages hidden in one of his videos that has been broadcast.
The newspaper reported that the tape was not made for public release via the Arabic language al-Jazeera television network, which has aired several bin Laden statements, but has been circulating for two weeks among his supporters in the al-Qaida network.
The British Foreign Office said it would publish what it knows about the tape as part of an update to a lengthy report it published Oct. 4 detailing circumstantial evidence against bin Laden in the Sept. 11 attacks and other terrorist acts.
On Friday, a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said the government would release a dossier of evidence, including material from videos produced by bin Laden.
"I think it's time we gave a broad airing to some of the statements he has been making," the spokesman, Alastair Campbell, told reporters. "He has made a number of self-incriminatory statements about Sept. 11. He has made a number of genocidal statements against Jews and Americans."
British officials have expressed concern that public support for the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan has wavered. The United States launched the attacks on Oct. 7, after Afghanistan's ruling Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden and his fighters.
"Our view strongly is that the more people get to hear the kind of things he is saying, the more they will understand why he has to be dealt with," Campbell said Friday. "Every time he opens his mouth he incriminates himself."
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
] |
|
Feedback: 