Posted on 09/01/2002 2:22:27 PM PDT by TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
The US State Department has posted on one of its web sites a translation of a letter purportedly written this month by Osama bin Laden.
The site, which offers threat assessments to US companies doing business abroad, does not say the letter is genuine.
However, advertises a link to the translation under the heading "new security incident report" and asks readers to look at it.
"The attention of web site readers is invited to a purported letter by Osama bin Laden to the people of Afghanistan in late August 2002," the site said.
A password is required to access the actual translation of the four-page, handwritten, Arabic language letter, which was first released on Sunday by the Pakistan-based web site www.IslamOnline.net.
The two-page typewritten verbatim English translation was posted on the State Department web site a day later as a "special topic" of global interest.
Two State Department officials say the posting of the translation is not intended to imply bin Laden has written the letter.
"It's something that is out there that we think people should be aware of but we are not speaking to its authenticity," one official said.
"We're not making any comment on the contents of the letter but we thought the information in it was certainly topical and of interest to our constituents," a second official said.
However, in the past, Washington has been reluctant to publicise documents and videotapes purported to come from bin Laden.
US officials have balked at such releases even when the material supports their contention the Saudi dissident and his Al Qaeda network were behind the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
In the undated letter posted to the web site, the writer urges Afghans to launch a new jihad against US troops now in Afghanistan and predicts the fall of the United States.
IslamOnline said the document had been received by its correspondent in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, from an Afghan source who asked to remain anonymous.
US officials have said repeatedly that they do not know if bin Laden is dead or alive.
Darn...I was hoping to see IRAQI INDEPENDENCE DAY :)
Not the same "experts" the FBI used for the anthrax letters, I hope. They'd have come closer with a Chinese fortune cookie from Loui's....
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