OBL Claims Fight of 'Blessed Terrorism'

Dec. 26, 2001 -- Osama bin Laden accused U.S. officials of being criminals because of their attacks in Afghanistan, and claimed on a videotape released today that al Qaeda terrorism is "blessed terrorism" because it avenges oppression of Muslims.

Bin Laden made the remarks — immediately denounced by U.S. officials as "ludicrous" — in an excerpt of a longer statement to be broadcast on the Arabic-language al Jazeera news channel. Al Jazeera today broadcast the excerpt, in which bin Laden denounced U.S. attacks as "crusader hatred toward Islam." The station promised to release the full statement on Thursday.

On the tape, bin Laden claims the message marks three months since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America. However, it could not immediately be established exactly when the tape was recorded.

"It has become very clear that the West generally, but America especially, bears an indescribable amount of crusader hatred toward Islam," bin Laden says on the excerpt, according to a translation by ABCNEWS. "These people who claim to represent humanity and freedom, we saw here their true criminality. All you need to kill a human being is seven grams of shrapnel. … But because America hates the Taliban so much, and because it hates the Muslims, it [dropped] on our brothers on the front lines bombs that weigh seven tons each.

"[U.S. officials say] it is their right to exterminate people as long as they are Muslim, and not American," bin Laden adds. "This is true crime, clear and blatant."

Citing oppression of Muslims in various parts of the world, including the plight of the Palestinians, bin Laden concludes, "our terrorism against America is blessed terrorism."

The United States blames bin Laden for the Sept. 11 attacks, and began a military assault on Oct. 7 against Afghanistan's former Taliban government after the Taliban ignored U.S. demands to turn over bin Laden or members of his al Qaeda organization.

A U.S. Central Command spokesman today denounced bin Laden's new comments, saying: "Any statement that the U.S. is against any type of religion is ludicrous, because we're not. On the same night the bombing started, we started dropping food, because we were trying to show that we did not have a problem with the people of Afghanistan, only with the al Qaeda and the Taliban and their ruthless regime."

‘Terrorism Is Largely Defeated’

The Taliban regime has since fallen, and a new interim Afghan government was sworn in this past weekend. Several Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden, remain on the loose, but Afghanistan's interim prime minister said today he believes terrorism and terrorists have largely been driven out of the country.

"Some may be still here, but I don't think they are in large numbers," Hamid Karzai said today, as his cabinet met for a second time since taking office this weekend. "I think that terrorism is largely defeated in Afghanistan and the Taliban have completely vanished as a political and military force."

Nevertheless, American commanders say they still are encountering small pockets of resistance. And Karzai and Afghanistan's interim foreign minister said they still see the need for American forces to continue their operations in Afghanistan, to make sure any such pockets get wiped out.

"They need to fight terrorism right now physically inside Afghanistan, to bring them out of their hideouts and to deliver them to justice, to international justice and to Afghan justice," Karzai told The Associated Press.

Afghan soldiers and U.S. special forces — with the help of robotics and imaging devices that allow them to safely peer around corners — continue to scour the caves, tunnels, mountains and valleys in the Tora Bora region of eastern Afghanistan for bin Laden or anyone else from his al Qaeda organization.

Pentagon sources tell ABCNEWS that Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. commander of the Afghanistan war effort, now is leaning against a plan to shortly send in extra U.S. Marines to assist the searches. Military officials said the current method of searching has worked well enough so far, so it was decided that sending hundreds more U.S. troops was not worth the risk.

As many as 500 Marines had been preparing for the job. Officials said the extra Marines still might be sent in later.

So far, opposition forces have found stockpiles of ammunition and handfuls of al Qaeda holdouts, but no sign of bin Laden. There are reports that claim bin Laden has died.

Yemen and Beyond

As mopping up continues in Afghanistan, American officials have asked Yemeni officials to allow U.S. Marines to help hunt for al Qaeda members in Yemen, a small nation on the edge of the Arabian peninsula.

A U.S. diplomat told The AP that besides the request that Marines be allowed to join the chase, the United States has proposed setting up a joint task force in Yemen that would include officials from the CIA and other agencies to coordinate operations.

Bin Laden is said to have strong ties to Yemen, the birthplace of his father and the country where the USS Cole was attacked during a refueling stop last year, allegedly by his terrorist organization.

Earlier this month, Yemeni officials launched what appeared to be the most extensive crackdown by an Arab nation on bin Laden's terror network, attacking tribesmen and al Qaeda suspects in remote regions of the country.

On the diplomatic and financial front, Secretary of State Colin Powell today issued a statement designating two more groups — Lashkar e-Tayyiba and Jaish e-Mohammed — as foreign terrorist organizations. The groups are accused of terrorism in India and Pakistan, and the move requires U.S. financial institutions to block the groups' assets wherever possible.

Franks said Tuesday that anti-terrorism operations were being conducted "in a great many places" around the world in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Speaking to The AP, Franks said overt and covert U.S. military operations were underway in many locations, but did not offer details.

Bin Laden: Dead or Alive?

Franks has vowed forces will sift through rubble in Afghanistan until they find bin Laden. However, U.S. and Afghan officials recently have been expressing uncertainty about bin Laden's whereabouts, and even whether he is alive or dead.

"I don't know where he is," Karzai said today. "We receive reports now and then that he may be here or there."

If the date bin Laden cites in the tape released today is truthful, he would have been alive as of about two weeks ago.

Over the weekend, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said he would not be surprised if bin Laden died in U.S. bombing attacks, and a Pakistani newspaper on Tuesday reported that bin Laden died earlier this month from natural causes.

Quoting "a Taliban leader who attended [bin Laden's] funeral" and saw his body, the Pakistan Observer reported that bin Laden had been suffering from a lung disease and died in mid-December for lack of proper medical care. The report said bin Laden had a Muslim burial "in his last abode," and died pleased with his anti-U.S. efforts. The Taliban source speculated the grave would not be found because, "I am sure that like other places in Tora Bora, that particular place too must have vanished."

Other media in the region have offered conflicting accounts in recent days, according to The Associated Press. They include published reports that bin Laden had his own men shoot him as a martyr as U.S. forces closed in, or that he died of kidney or stomach cancer. Widely circulated rumors also have bin Laden alive and on the run in Pakistan, Chechnya, Somalia or Saudi Arabia — perhaps accompanied by missing Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Karzai said today his government believes Omar still is hiding in Afghanistan, perhaps in the southwest mountains.

Hospital Standoff in Kandahar

In other developments:

Though the weapons have mostly disappeared from the streets of Kandahar, there still is an armed standoff at a Kandahar hospital. Eight al Qaeda fighters from Arab countries are holding off authorities from a few rooms on the second floor of the hospital. They showed up badly wounded more than two weeks ago as the city was falling. They had grenades strapped to their bodies and demanded to be treated, but threatened to blow themselves up if anyone except medical staff came near them. They're still there. The doctors are now afraid to go anywhere near them. They don't seem to have any way out, but the waiting game goes on.

There remains controversy over whether radioactive materials were found in a former Taliban or al Qaeda base near the U.S. Marines' Kandahar outpost. Military sources at the American base said they found some depleted uranium, but that it was part of some old Soviet missiles. However, U.S. Central Command has said that U.S. forces have not found any radiological material.

The government of Pakistan said today it arrested 43 Afghan nationals. The AP reports the government suspects the Afghans of being tied to Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, both of whose whereabouts remain unknown.