Entire Osama bin Laden Statement Broadcast
Dec. 27 -- A gaunt and graying Osama bin Laden spoke to the Arab world in a 30-minute videotape broadcast on the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera today, rallying Muslims to his side with anti-Western rhetoric.
The Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that left nearly 3,200 dead should not be viewed as isolated acts, bin Laden said, but were in response to injustices perpetrated against Muslims by the United States and its allies around the world.
"The events of Sept. 11, they are just a reaction to this continued injustice against our children in Iraq, Palestine, Somalia, southern Sudan, Kashmir and elsewhere."
Bin Laden also called on Muslims to continue striking against America, especially against the U.S. economy — even while mentioning his own mortality.
"God willing, America's end is near. And it doesn't depend on my continued existence.," he said. "Whether Osama is killed or not, the awakening has begun."
Before Al Jazeera played the tape in its entirety, excerpts were released on Wednesday and earlier today. On the tape, bin Laden said those who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks were "only 19 secondary school students. I ask God that he will accept them and their deeds. They shook the throne of America and struck the American economy in its heart and hit the biggest military power in its heart, by the grace of God."
Bin Laden accused U.S. officials of being criminals because of their military attacks in Afghanistan, and claimed that al Qaeda terrorism is "blessed terrorism" because it avenges oppression of Muslims, according to an ABCNEWS translation.
Today's tape was the third released by America's most wanted man since Oct. 7, when the United States began its military campaign in Afghanistan. Bin Laden and his top aides have been at large, and there has been some speculation that the Saudi terror mastermind is dead.
U.S. Officials Denounce Bin Laden, Tape
As bin Laden's tape was broadcast, rumors continued to swirl regarding his whereabouts. In an interview with Reuters today, a spokesman for Afghanistan's interim Defense Ministry said bin Laden was hiding in neighboring Pakistan.
"Osama himself is under the protection of Maulana Fazalur Rehman in Pakistan, but we don't know for sure in which part," Mohamad Habeel said. Rehman, who is currently under house arrest, is head of the Pakistani Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam party and has been a long time supporter of bin Laden. Rehman today dismissed the report as "a big joke."
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