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America's New War: Fax Reportedly Sent by Osama Bin Laden

Aired September 24, 2001 - 10:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We have some breaking news now out of Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar says the United States can not get out of the terror crisis by killing him or suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden. He says until his troops are from the Persian Gulf area, stops the Palestinian crisis and leaves Islam alone, the crisis will continue. The statement, written in Arabic, was faxed to a news channel, Al-Jazera.

The translation into English is as followed: "America is still threatening with war and with attack against Afghanistan, to destroy Afghan entity with goal of killing Osama bin Laden. But we are telling Americans that you are not going to get out of this crisis by killing me, Omar, or Osama bin Laden."

And he basically in this letter implies three things need to be done. Here are the things he expects the United States to comply with: one, the removal of all of its military from the Gulf, stop its involvement in the Palestinian crisis, and America should leave Islam alone so Islam can be expressed freely. Once again, that is the statement coming from the Taliban supreme leader. We will have more on that on the other side of the break. Please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: We have more breaking news for you now. Let's go to Islamabad, Pakistan, where Christiane Amanpour stands by with information of a fax that Osama bin Laden has apparently sent. What do you know?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, let's start by showing you this piece of paper. You can clearly see that it is printed Arabic type, that has been faxed. It was faxed to the Al- Jazera television network, which is a well-known Arab satellite television network, with very good contacts around the Arab world. It was faxed to their correspondent in Kabul, Afghanistan, allegedly from Osama bin Laden, from an undisclosed location. The message is signed, your brother in Islam, Osama bin Laden.

To put it in context, this fax was then sent to CNN, also at the Al-Jazera headquarters in Qatar, and then we received it, and it has been translated, and it is, according to Al-Jazera, a message from Osama bin Laden. Basically, it is saying that is appealing to the Pakistanis to stand firm against any notion of cooperating in a military attack on Afghanistan. One of the key paragraphs here that we can read to you is that "We tell our Muslim brothers in Pakistan to use all their means to resist the American crusader forces in Pakistan and Afghanistan. So again, to put that into context, as you know, the Taliban have been saying that any attack on Afghanistan would be considered grounds for a holy war. And they've been saying that if anything like that happens, then all Pakistanis would be expected to rise up against it.

The statement also says that their is new Jewish, Christian crusader campaign led by the chief crusader, Bush, under the banner of the Cross. Well, of course, this appears to be attaching itself to one of the early comments President Bush made at the beginning of this crisis, calling the war on terror a crusade.

To put this in a little bit of context, there are so many inconsistencies coming out of Afghanistan and out of the Taliban right now that all we can tell you is what we've been told by an organization who we know have good contacts with the Taliban and with Osama bin Laden, who has been used by Osama bin Laden as a conduit in the past, and who says that they trust their correspondent with -- who has apparently great experience in this region, and with the Osama bin Laden group, and who's based in Kabul, Afghanistan and who got this fax.

But the Taliban are saying to us they don't know where Osama bin Laden is, so there's one inconsistency there and then. They also say that Osama bin Laden has been prevented by them over the last period of years from -- prevented from actually using faxes, or satellite equipment, or any communications equipment.

So as I say, and huge amount of inconsistencies. We have been given this fax by this network who says they have very good contacts there, and this is the latest information that is being now picked up by all sorts of news agencies around the world -- Paula.

ZAHN: But, Christiane, we should make a large reference to Osama bin Laden expressing sorrow over the loss of three people killed last week, right, in anti-U.S. demonstrations in Pakistan?

AMANPOUR: Right, I'm sorry. If I didn't mention that, that's what I meant to say. Basically, what he is saying is that these three people who were killed in these riots in Karachi -- well, demonstrations, are the first martyrs, as written here, in this new battle that he claims is against Islam. So yes.

ZAHN: And once, again, though, some of this squares up with statement that Mullah Mohammed Omar released earlier today, in spite of some of the other inconsistencies you were talking about.

AMANPOUR: Well, Mullah Omar apparently sent out a fax of his own, saying that the United States should pull its troops and forces out of the Gulf, and saying that the United States should show -- quote -- "less bias" against the Palestinians in the Middle Eastern conflict.

Look, this is impossible for us to properly verify. We have been standing here reporting for many days all the different comments that have been coming from the Taliban, coming out of Afghanistan, coming out of all sorts of places. This is just another piece of information that's coming out. It is not inconsistent with what they believe, obviously, and what they've been saying, that any sort of attack on Afghanistan would be considered a pretext and justification for a holy war.

So that is their position. But on the other hand, the Taliban have been also saying that Osama bin Laden has been shutdown, that he can't communicate, that he -- they don't even know where he is. So it's incredibly difficult to pinpoint.

But in the past, Osama bin Laden has been able to send out communications to this particular network, and you will find that experts on him have always said that he does manage to get his message and his word out, even before catastrophic incidents, and also when he's trying to appeal to others in the Muslim world.

ZAHN: Christiane Amanpour, thank you very much for that report.

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