Bin Laden finally claims 9/11 attacks: Al-Jazeera

ArabNews, Saudi Arabia ^ | 9-10-02

[Oldeconomybuyer]

DOHA, 10 September — Suspected terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden was heard claiming responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in video clips aired by Qatar’s Al-Jazeera satellite television yesterday. Al-Jazeera also broadcast footage of militants which it said were among those Al-Qaeda members who carried out the 9/ 11 attacks.

The video showed them pouring over flying manuals and aerial maps of the Pentagon, one of the group’s targets along with New York’s World Trade Center.

The militants were filmed in the Afghan city of Kandahar "a few months" before heading to the United States to carry out the attacks that left about 3,000 dead, the station said.

Meanwhile, over still photos of the hijackers, Bin Laden’s voice was heard naming some of the attackers in the Sept. 11 strikes, including Egyptian Muhammad Atta who he said "led the group which destroyed the first tower" of the World Trade Center.

Describing the attacks as "the New York and Washington raids," Bin Laden praised "the men who changed the course of history and cleansed the (Arab-Islamic) nation from the filth of treacherous rulers and their subordinates."

Apart from Atta, Bin Laden named Lebanese Ziyad Al-Jarrah, Marwan Al-Shehhi from the United Arab Emirates, "who destroyed the second tower" of the World Trade Center, and Hani Hanjour (from Taif) "who destroyed the Pentagon."

Al-Jazeera showed photographs of Hamza Al-Ghamdi (alias Julailib Al-Ghamdi), Saeed Al-Ghamdi (alias Mutaz Al-Ghamdi), Wael Al-Shehri (alias Abu Suleiman) and Ahmad Naami (Abu Hisham), whose names, like those cited by Bin Laden, figure on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) list of suicide hijackers.

Al-Jazeera said it had obtained the videotape which was "recently" recorded by Al-Qaeda to mark the first anniversary of the attacks. It said it would air the full video today.

But the Doha-based channel did not shed light on the whereabouts of Bin Laden, whose fate has been the subject of intense speculation for months.

Al-Jazeera also aired footage of one of the hijackers saying in his "will" that he was trained by Bin Laden. "May God reward all those who trained me and made possible this glorious act, notably the fighter and Mujahed (Islamic warrior) Osama Bin Laden, God protect him," said Saudi kamikaze Abdul Aziz Al-Omari.

Al-Omari, who according to the FBI was one of five suicide hijackers who slammed an American Airlines Boeing 767 into the north tower of the World Trade Center, was shown wearing a gray robe with his shoulder-length hair turbaned in a keffiyeh (checkered headdress).

The Sept. 11 attacks were "a message to all infidels and to America to leave the Arabian Peninsula and stop supporting the cowardly Jews in Palestine," he said. "Let it be known that we can bring you and other enemies down," Al-Omari said, addressing the United States.

It was the first time Bin Laden directly claimed responsibility for the attacks, Al-Jazeera said. However, a spokesman for Al-Qaeda also claimed the strikes in a videotape aired by the MBC television on April 17. "We were able to hit the head of the infidels on his own turf," Suleiman Abu Ghaith said in that tape. "God ordered us to terrorize the infidels, and we terrorized the infidels."

For its part, the US Defense Department released on Dec. 13 a private videotape of Bin Laden found in Afghanistan last fall. The footage showed Bin Laden meeting with supporters and claiming responsibility for the attack on the World Trade Center.

"We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all," Bin Laden said on that tape. But many people in Islamic circles and the Arab world cast doubt on it as inauthentic or doctored and not the smoking gun touted by US officials at the time.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

In this video grab taken from the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television station on Monday, Abdul Aziz Al-Omari, one of the plane hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, reads a statement. (AFP)

[goldstategop]

May they roast in Hell for all eternity with 72 Devils skewering them inside and out.

[dennisw]

Who's that Moooooooslim hippy/feggala with the long hair? Is that Lance Bass?

[I still care]

I posted this comment on another thread but I am looking for some good answers.

According to many Arabs on the street, it wasn't Osama that did it but the Jews that destroyed the World Trade Center. Many believe this vehemently, that it was a Jewish plot to villify Muslims. I am wondering, how are they going to spin this in the Arab countries, now these tapes are being released? (And you notice, they weren't released while the debate was going on there)

[Oldeconomybuyer]

The hearalded "Arab Street" is more a threat to the local dictatorship than it is to western civilization. Second, since the majority of the suicide hijackers were Saudi citizens, it's a pretty difficult case to make that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks unless, of course, the case was presented before Judge Ito. Last, as for the "spin" in Arab counties, the consulting firm of Carville, Begalla, and Atta has been hired by al-Jazerra to help shape the Islamist talking points.

[I still care]

So many of them believe that though. I don't have any links to those threads, but I have seen post after post referring to this. I think it was about 65% of all Arabs believed that it was done by Jews, not Arabs. But now they are actually admitting it on Al Jahzeera, so I was just wondering. Not that they will condemn it. They probably WISHED they had done it. But a lot of them had an overload of righteous indignation about being setup by a "Jewish Conspiracy".

[Lockbox]

Lying is cultural trait of Arabs, says Barak

Gee lying all this time..........

[Guillermo]

Muslims will now say that the Jews run Al-Jazeera, and forged the videos.

[Guillermo]

Read post #8.

That's another reason why "producing evidence" is useless, because, no matter what you show them, they will never believe it.

[I still care]

Well, if I produced the evidence I know it sure wouldn't be believed. But being it is coming from Al Jahzeera and consists of the hijackers boasting about it, I thought they might. I did see one article, not recent, of that they were claiming it was just supposed to be a hijacking and then at the last second Mossad stepped in, commandeered the jet from the hijackers and did the deed. What nuts.

[Guillermo]

Back to my original point: Al-Jazeera is now a Zionist tool.