Transcript of Osama bin Laden Video (Part 1)
— -- In mid-November, Osama Bin Laden spoke to a room of supporters, possibly in
Kandahar, Afghanistan. These comments were video taped with the knowledge of Bin
Laden and all present.
EDITOR'S NOTE: 39 minutes into tape, first segment of the bin Laden meeting, beginsafter footage of helicopter site visit
Shaykh: (…inaudible…) You have given us weapons, you have given us hope and we thank Allah for you. We don't want to take much of your time, but this is the arrangement of the brothers. People now are supporting us more, even those ones who did not support us in the past, support us more now. I did not want to take that much ofyour time. We praise Allah, we praise Allah. We came from Kabul. We were verypleased to visit. May Allah bless you both at home and the camp. We asked the driver totake us, it was a night with a full moon, thanks be to Allah. Believe me it is not in thecountry side. The elderly…everybody praises what you did, the great action you did, which was first and foremost by the grace of Allah. This is the guidance of Allah and the blessed fruit of jihad.
OBL: Thanks to Allah. What is the stand of the Mosques there (in Saudi Arabia)?
Shaykh: Honestly, they are very positive. Shaykh Al-Bahrani (phonetic) gave a goodsermon in his class after the sunset prayers. It was videotaped and I was supposed tocarry it with me, but unfortunately, I had to leave immediately.
OBL: The day of the events?
Shaykh: At the exact time of the attack on America, precisely at the time. He (Bahrani)gave a very impressive sermon. Thanks be to Allah for his blessings. He (Bahrani) wasthe first one to write at war time. I visited him twice in Al-Qasim.
OBL: Thanks be to Allah.
Shaykh: This is what I asked from Allah. He (Bahrani) told the youth: "You are askingfor martyrdom and wonder where you should go (for martyrdom)?" Allah was incitingthem to go. I asked Allah to grant me to witness the truth in front of the unjust ruler. Weask Allah to protect him and give him the martyrdom, after he issued the first fatwa. Hewas detained for interrogation, as you know. When he was called in and asked to sign, hetold them, "don't waste my time, I have another fatwa. If you want me, I can sign both atthe same time."
OBL: Thanks be to Allah.
Shaykh: His position is really very encouraging. When I paid him the first visit about ayear and half ago, he asked me, "How is Shaykh Bin-Ladin?" He sends you his specialregards. As far as Shaykh Sulayman 'Ulwan is concerned, he gave a beautiful fatwa,may Allah bless him. Miraculously, I heard it on the Koran radio station. It was strangebecause he ('Ulwan) sacrificed his position, which is equivalent to a director. It wastranscribed word-by-word. The brothers listened to it in detail. I briefly heard it beforethe noon prayers. He ('Ulwan) said this was jihad and those people were not innocentpeople (World Trade Center and Pentagon victims). He swore to Allah. This wastransmitted to Shaykh Sulayman Al (('Umar)) Allah bless him.
OBL: What about Shaykh Al-((Rayan))?
Shaykh: Honestly, I did not meet with him. My movements were truly limited.
OBL: Allah bless you. You are welcome.
Shaykh: (Describing the trip to the meeting) They smuggled us and then I thought thatwe would be in different caves inside the mountains so I was surprised at the guest houseand that it is very clean and comfortable. Thanks be to Allah, we also learned that thislocation is safe, by Allah's blessings. The place is clean and we are very comfortable.
OBL: (…Inaudible…) when people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse. This is only one goal; those who want people to worship the lord of the people, without following that doctrine, will be following the doctrine of Muhammad, peace be upon him.
(OBL quotes several short and incomplete Hadith verses, as follows):
"I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad."
"Some people may ask: why do you want to fight us?"
"There is an association between those who say: I believe in one god and Muhammad ishis prophet, and those who don't (…inaudible…)
"Those who do not follow the true fiqh. The fiqh of Muhammad, the real fiqh. They arejust accepting what is being said at face value."
OBL: Those youth who conducted the operations did not accept any fiqh in the popularterms, but they accepted the fiqh that the prophet Muhammad brought. Those young men(…inaudible…) said in deeds, in New York and Washington, speeches that overshadowed all other speeches made everywhere else in the world. The speeches are understood by both Arabs and non-Arabs-even by Chinese. It is above all the media said. Some of them said that in Holland, at one of the centers, the number of people who accepted Islam during the days that followed the operations were more than the people who accepted Islam in the last eleven years. I heard someone on Islamic radio who owns a school in America say: "We don't have time to keep up with the demands of those who are asking about Islamic books to learn about Islam." This event made people think (about trueIslam) which benefited Islam greatly.
Shaykh: Hundreds of people used to doubt you and few only would follow you until thishuge event happened. Now hundreds of people are coming out to join you. I remember avision by Shaykh Salih Al-((Shuaybi)). He said: "There will be a great hit and peoplewill go out by hundreds to Afghanistan." I asked him (Salih): "To Afghanistan?" Hereplied, "Yes." According to him, the only ones who stay behind will be the mentallyimpotent and the liars (hypocrites). I remembered his saying that hundreds of people willgo out to Afghanistan. He had this vision a year ago. This event discriminated betweenthe different types of followers.
OBL: (…Inaudible…) 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. (…Inaudible…) due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for.
Shaykh: Allah be praised.
OBL: We were at (…inaudible…) when the event took place. We had notification since the previous Thursday that the event would take place that day. We had finished our work that day and had the radio on. It was 5:30 p.m. our time. I was sitting with Dr. Ahmad Abu-al-((Khair)). Immediately, we heard the news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We turned the radio station to the news from Washington. The news continued and no mention of the attack until the end. At the end of the newscast, they reported that a plane just hit the World Trade Center.
Shaykh: Allah be praised.
OBL: After a little while, they announced that another plane had hit the World TradeCenter. The brothers who heard the news were overjoyed by it.
Shaykh: I listened to the news and I was sitting. We didn't…we were not thinking about anything, and all of a sudden, Allah willing, we were talking about how come we didn't have anything, and all of a sudden the news came and everyone was overjoyed andeveryone until the next day, in the morning, was talking about what was happening andwe stayed until four o'clock, listening to the news every time a little bit different,everyone was very joyous and saying "Allah is great," "Allah is great," "We are thankfulto Allah," "Praise Allah." And I was happy for the happiness of my brothers. That daythe congratulations were coming on the phone non-stop. The mother was receivingphone calls continuously. Thank Allah. Allah is great, praise be to Allah.
(Quoting the verse from the Koran)
Shaykh: "Fight them, Allah will torture them, with your hands, he will torture them. Hewill deceive them and he will give you victory. Allah will forgive the believers, he isknowledgeable about everything."
Shaykh: No doubt it is a clear victory. Allah has bestowed on us…honor on us…and hewill give us blessing and more victory during this holy month of Ramadan. And this iswhat everyone is hoping for. Thank Allah America came out of its caves. We hit her thefirst hit and the next one will hit her with the hands of the believers, the good believers,the strong believers. By Allah it is a great work. Allah prepares for you a great rewardfor this work. I'm sorry to speak in your presence, but it is just thoughts, just thoughts.By Allah, who there is no god but him. I live in happiness, happiness…I have notexperienced, or felt, in a long time. I remember, the words of Al-Rabbani, he said theymade a coalition against us in the winter with the infidels like the Turks, and others, andsome other Arabs. And they surrounded us like the days…in the days of the prophet Muhammad. Exactly like what's happening right now. But he comforted his followers and said, "This is going to turn and hit them back." And it is a mercy for us. And a blessing to us. And it will bring people back. Look how wise he was. And Allah will give him blessing. And the day will come when the symbols of Islam will rise up and it will be similar to the early days of Al-Mujahedeen and Al-Ansar (similar to the earlyyears of Islam).
And victory to those who follow Allah. Finally said, if it is the same,like the old days, such as Abu Bakr and Othman and Ali and others. In these days, in ourtimes, that it will be the greatest jihad in the history of Islam and the resistance of thewicked people.
Shaykh: By Allah my Shaykh. We congratulate you for the great work. Thank Allah.
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(Transcript and annotations independently prepared by George Michael,translator, Diplomatic Language Services; and Dr. Kassem M. Wahba, Arabic languageprogram coordinator, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns HopkinsUniversity. They collaborated on their translation and compared it with translations doneby the U.S. government for consistency. There were no inconsistencies in thetranslations.)
Note: The tape is approximately one hour long and contains three differentsegments: an original taping of a visit by some people to the site of the downed U.S.helicopter in Ghazni province (approximately 12 minutes long); and two segmentsdocumenting a courtesy visit by Bin Laden and his lieutenants to an unidentified Shaykh,who appears crippled from the waist down. The visit apparently takes place at aguesthouse in Kandahar. The sequence of the events is reversed on the tape — the end of his visit is in the beginning of the tape with the helicopter site visit in the middle and thestart of the Osama bin Laden visit beginning approximately 39 minutes into the tape. Thetape is transcribed below according to the proper sequence of events.Due to the quality of the original tape, it is NOT a verbatim transcript of everyword spoken during the meeting, but does convey the messages and information flow.