Pakistan Paper Says Bin Laden Denies U.S. Attack

Yahoo (reuters) ^ | 09/12/01

[Texaggie79]

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani newspaper said on Wednesday that Saudi militant Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) had denied responsibility for the terror attacks in the United States.

``The terrorist act is the action of some American group. I have nothing to do with it,'' the newspaper Khabrain quoted bin Laden as saying through ``sources close to the Taliban.''

The Urdu-language newspaper has a reputation for sensational reporting and there was no independent confirmation of the claim.

Two hijacked U.S. commercial planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center on Tuesday, causing both 110-story landmarks to collapse and killing thousands. Another hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon (news - web sites) in Washington.

Bin Laden, who commands Islamic fundamentalists willing to die attacking the United States which they see as the ultimate enemy, has been the target of a massive U.S. manhunt since 1998 when bomb attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people and injured 4,000.

Bin Laden is believed to live amid tight security near the Taliban's spiritual capital in the southern Afghan town of Kandahar or in the eastern town of Jalalabad, and the Taliban have rebuffed all attempts from abroad to secure his deportation.

The English-language News described the U.S. attacks as ''Doomsday for U.S.''

The paper said the attacks provided an occasion for the United States and other countries to ponder their foreign policy.

``For the rest of world it is time that a policy review is undertaken on all major flash-points -- the Middle East -- followed by South Asia where Kashmir (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites)...provide justification to militants to adopt violent ways to seek justice,'' the paper said.

[Texaggie79]

Oh, well... so much for that, he said he didn't have anything to do with it. < /sarcasm>

[KC_Conspirator]

Yes, and like OJ's denials, Osama is out looking for the real killers.

[A Navy Vet]

And so what if he didn't. He needs to be taken out along with all the other murdering dogs and their protectors in our Grand Sweep.

[Kerensky]

Bin Laden is an engineer who would know how to maximize damage to structures. Since he now appears to be a high official of the Taliban regime, I think the appropriate response of the Bush administration would be to declare war on Afghan Taliban. Bin Laden denies responsibility, but has lauded the acts. He is at the very least an ally of the perpetrators.

Taliban slammed by Russia for naming Bin Laden as Commander in Chief