Bin Laden says he has nuclear weapons, opposition takes key city

AFP via Yahoo! News ^ | Saturday November 10, 12:04 PM | AFP

[Pericles]

Saturday November 10, 12:04 PM

Bin Laden says he has nuclear weapons, opposition takes key city

Osama bin Laden told a Pakistani newspaper in an interview released he had nuclear and chemical weapons, warning the United States he was ready to use them in retaliation for a similar US attack.

Bin Laden, the Saudi-born Islamic militant who is Washington's top suspect in the September 11 attacks that left some 5,000 dead in the United States, told Dawn newspaper: "We have chemical and nuclear weapons as a deterrent."

"I wish to declare that if America used chemical or nuclear weapons against us, then we may retort with chemical and nuclear weapons," he said in an exclusive interview.

A senior White House official said Washington had no immediate comment on the report.

Bin Laden's latest salvo came after Afghan opposition forces backed by US bombers captured the strategic city of Mazar-i-Sharif, dealing a major blow to the ruling Taliban and scoring a breakthrough for the US-led military campaign.

The Pentagon and British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed the advance after the opposition Northern Alliance announced it had seized the key northern city.

"We have the entire city. The Taliban didn't put up a fight. They ran away," said Mohammad Ashraf Nadeem, a spokesman for Atta Mohammad, one of the three Northern Alliance generals involved in the attack.

The Taliban confirmed that opposition troops had entered the city, according to the Afghan Islamic Press.

"We are liking what we're hearing," a top Pentagon official said on condition of anonymity late Friday, citing reports from US troops on the ground and reconnaissance imagery.

"What we're hearing is that they could have taken the entire city, that the Taliban resistance has just fallen apart and there are just large numbers of defectors," he said. "We hope all those things are true."

US Vice President Dick Cheney told the Sun, a popular British tabloid, that US forces were making "significant progress" but declined to say whether the Northern Alliance would soon try to advance toward the capital Kabul.

Meanwhile, a top aide to bin Laden said the Taliban and the extremist al-Qaeda network remained intact after one month of US-led air strikes.

"In his speech yesterday, President (George W.) Bush lied in saying they had destroyed the al-Qaeda organization and the Taliban forces. In fact, they have not," Ayman al-Zawahri told Al-Jazeera satellite news channel, adding that 1,600 civilians had been killed thus far in the campaign.

The US-led military campaign targets the Taliban for harboring bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, accused of masterminding the suicide plane strikes.

The offensive on Mazar-i-Sharif represents an important step in the US-led campaign. Occupying the city would enable opposition forces to link up with US ground troops based in nearby Uzbekistan and would also provide a needed land bridge to allow humanitarian aid to reach the north of the country.

Alliance leaders said they had thrown 7,000-8,000 fighters into the battle and that US special forces had provided guidance. They said dozens of Taliban troops were killed.

Nadeem said most of the 200,000 civilians of Mazar-i-Sharif had fled the city.

The US bombing campaign has won the support of governments around the world but has raised tensions in the Muslim world, particularly in Pakistan where Islamic radicals have reacted with fury to their government's backing for US strikes.

Pakistani religious parties held a day of protests to coincide with Friday prayers but failed to draw the large crowds organizers had envisioned.

In one clash, police opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators who blocked a major highway and railway some 500 kilometers (310 miles) southwest of Islamabad, killing four protesters.

In addition to the demonstrations, Pakistani militants have sent thousands of armed tribesmen across the frontier to support the Taliban regime, with whom they have ethnic and ideological links.

On Friday, a spokesman for the Harakat Jehadi Islamic militant group said about 4,000 Islamic volunteers, mainly Pakistanis, had been dispatched from Kabul to assist in the defence of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Apart from Mazar-i-Sharif, the struggle between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban has been concentrated on two other fronts -- one 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Kabul and one in the northeast near the Tajik border near Taloqan.

The exiled Afghan government's ambassador in London said a broader offensive against the Taliban was imminent.

"Things have changed militarily," Wali Masood said, "The Taliban forces are weakening north of Kabul as well as in Mazar-i-Sharif. Within a few days, bigger and larger programmes will be launched by us in our area."

But US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the Northern Alliance should harass the Taliban in Kabul but stay out of the capital, at the risk of causing "real difficulties".

On the US homefront, the Bush administration launched a slick new multimedia campaign aimed at convincing the world that the war on terrorism is not aimed at Islam.

But the campaign got off to a rocky start when, moments after its unveiling, US officials announced new visa restrictions for Muslim men.

Under the new restrictions, Muslim men from selected countries will have to complete a detailed questionnaire asking about past military service, weapons training and travel, and then wait 20 days for their visas while the information is studied in Washington by a terrorist task force.

Meanwhile, Powell said US planes would not stop bombing targets linked to al-Qaeda over Ramadan, since bin Laden would continue to plot terrorist attacks through the Muslim holy month, despite his avowed devotion to Islam.

[Pericles]

Suitcase Nukes Raise Concern (The Turkish Nuclear Bazaar)

[Pericles]

More:

Bin Laden says he has nuclear and chemical weapons

Saturday November 10, 10:34 AM

Osama bin Laden said in an interview with a Pakistani newspaper that his group has nuclear and chemical weapons and he is prepared to use them.

"I wish to declare that if America used chemical or nuclear weapons against us then we may retort with chemical and nuclear weapons," Dawn newspaper quoted bin Laden as saying in an exclusive interview in Kabul.

"We have chemical and nuclear weapons as a deterrent," he added.

Dawn is Pakistan's oldest English language newspaper and one of its most respected publications.

It said the interview was carried out Friday by Hamid Gul, editor of Ausaf newspaper. Gul is writing a book on bin Laden, the accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington in which more than 5,000 died.

In the interview, bin Laden did not deny he was involved in the attacks but he justified them saying: "The September 11 attacks were not targeted at women and children. The real targets were America's icons of military and economic power."

The United States launched air strikes against Afghanistan on October 7 in a bid to force the Taliban militia to hand over bin Laden.

[Keith]

Well, that is proof he doesn't have them...if he did, he wouldn't say, he'd just use them.

[Pericles]

More:

Bin Laden brandishes nuclear threat against US

[Pericles]

fyi

[Lion's Cub]

Well, that is proof he doesn't have them...if he did, he wouldn't say, he'd just use them.

Wrong. Israel Finds Radiological Backpack Bomb
Regarding the arrest, a U.S. government official said: "There was only one individual involved. He was from Pakistan."

[Lion's Cub]

But US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the Northern Alliance should harass the Taliban in Kabul but stay out of the capital, at the risk of causing "real difficulties".

I assume he's saying that the Pakistan government would be overthrown if Kabul is taken by the Northern Alliance. If so, the idea that the Pushtan might accept the old King seems rather remote.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

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[onyx]

Bin-Laden's nukes --- Use 'em or lose 'em. We shall prevail.

[TN4Liberty]

From the FR link you cited:

He emphasized it was not a so-called nuclear suitcase bomb.

snip

But former CIA counter-terrorism official Vince Cannistraro has no patience with such accounts: "All talk of bin Laden having a nuclear suitcase bomb is crap," he said.

An explosive that throws around radiologival material, as the story describes being detected in Isreal, is not a nuclear (fission/fusion) weapon. There are more violent ways to attack people. Bombs like this appear to be designed to make an area uninhabitable until it can be decontaminated, which may take some time. I don't like the fact that these are out there, but do not even approach the level of destruction a nuclear device.

[soapboxsallie]

If b Laden had nukes or chemicals, he would have used them on America long ago. The noose is tightening for Laden, and it fits his neck perfectly. Let freedom ring!

[wayne_shrugged]

Bin Laden says he has nuclear weapons, opposition takes key city

If he did, he would not have hesitated to use them first against the World Trade Center instead of low-tech box cutters...

Bin Laden is for show -- he would have given his best "shot" first, then terrorized us with the potential of more to come...

Flick...I'm bored by these terrorists. Drop a few "daisy cutters" on their stupid *sses!

[archy]

But what kind of criminal American war profiteer would sell nukes to Bin Laden faction of rabid Muslims, or go into other business deals with them, enriching their war chest to further their anti-Western goals? Only the lowest sort of treasonous war profiteer woould do a thing like that.

-archy-/-

[Tunehead54]

In the interview, bin Laden did not deny he was involved in the attacks but he justified them saying: "The September 11 attacks were not targeted at women and children. The real targets were America's icons of military and economic power."

Just collateral damage I guess. Yo! Youse guys in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Yemen, Etc. You can expect some mega-collateral damage coming your way. Buh-bye!

[texasbluebell]

I think it's interesting that he doesn't say he has biological weapons. Guess he doesn't want to admit to being behind the anthrax...

[cerberus]

Imho bin Laden is just blowing smoke. The cave is shaking, the dialysis machine is busted and they can't get gasoline in for the Honda generator. Don't believe for a minute that he won't use nuclear, chemical, or whatever weapons he has. The fact that he says he would use them "in retaliation" suggests to me that his sick and dastardly world is crumbling around him.

[American in Israel]

Well if Palestinians are any example, Bin Laudin has a 50/50 chance of vaporizing himself playing with "the bomb".

"Ok Mohammad, take that brass hammer and hit the red button if you see anybody, no I mean Amer...FLASH!

[Keith]

Read the full article.

"He emphasized it was not a so-called nuclear suitcase bomb. "

It was a "dirty" radiological bomb. Nasty as that is, it's different and can be made from waste or medical equipment. While this is radiological in nature, it is nowhere near as destructive, or as technolgically difficult to make, as a nuclear explosive. That is what I was referring to. I agree that it is still plenty nasty enough to worry about...it shows an intent to "Chernobylize" an area of an American city. I imagine that it's easier to detect because of the lower amount of radiological shielding as well. I know this probably seems like splitting hairs, as opposed to atoms (sorry, couldn't resist) but I think we need to stop peeing ourselves as a country over what this bonehead is capable of.

[Nate505]

[i]In the interview, bin Laden did not deny he was involved in the attacks but he justified them saying: "The September 11 attacks were not targeted at women and children. The real targets were America's icons of military and economic power." [/i] Unlike Afghanistan, our women actually work in skyscrapers. Of course, even if Afghani women could work, they couldn't work in skyscrapers, as they probably don't exist over there...

[justa-hairyape]

Well, that is proof he doesn't have them...if he did, he wouldn't say, he'd just use them.

Using that logic, we should assume he may have biological weapons and possibly has used them. He is deftly afraid of nuclear weapon attacks. You can see it in his condemnation of our use of nukes to end the Japanese war effort in World War II. One well placed mushroom cloud where Laden could see it and he would surrender promptly. IMHO.