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CNN Live At Daybreak
Target: Terrorism: Interview of Osama Bin Laden Biographer Hamid Mir
Aired October 31, 2001 - 08:23 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: To Americans, Osama bin Laden is the face of terror, but the man handpicked to write bin Laden's biography doesn't believe he's the mind of terrorism. He says bin Laden is only the front man for the al Qaeda terrorist network. Hamid Mir is editor of the Pakistani newspaper "Ausaf." His biography of bin Laden is due out in December.
He joins us from Islamabad.
Good to have you with us, sir.
HAMID MIR, OSAMA BIN LADEN BIOGRAPHER: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: First of all, I'm curious how you got this assignment -- if you can boil it down to a fairly short story.
MIR: Osama bin Laden gave an interview to CNN's Peter Bergen, and when I saw that interview, I tried my best to contact him, to reach him, to interview, and it was materialized through Taliban. And then, I conducted many interviews with him.
When I was interviewing him in May, 1998, in that interview, I was asking some difficult questions from him, especially about his hatred against the Americans. So I was asking him to convince me about his views in the light of the teachings of Islam. So during the (AUDIO GAP) some of his colleagues, who were sitting around him, were getting in an argument with me, because I was asking difficult questions.
So Osama bin Laden tried to calm down them, and told them that he's a journalist. He wants a good story; that's why he's asking difficult questions. He has already written a book on the life of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was the ex-minister of Pakistan, so don't leave. So at that time, I offered him that if he is ready to ignore some of my critical observations about him, I would like to write his biography. And that's how we agreed with his condition that I will not distort any facts.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Mir, we, in the West, know Osama bin Laden through images we see briefly and through deeds that he has been connected to. You know him as a person. How would you describe him as a human being? MIR: You see, as a human being, he is very soft spoken. He is very simple. He is a man with patience, because when I asked difficult things to him, he answered me with patience.
But I must tell you that for one part of the world, he is a terrorist, and for the other part of the world, he is (AUDIO GAP).
But he is, I think, overprojected, especially in the Western media. I don't think that he is that charismatic, because he is not a good orator. He is not a leader. He doesn't have the qualities of a good leader, but definitely he is a good fighter. He is very brave. He is courageous.
And if, I think, the Americans change their policies, at least in the Middle East, he will suffer. I think he will lose his popularity, because he is a hero for the Arabs and for some Muslims, by default. He is not a hero because of his ideology; he is a hero by default because of some faults in the American policies. He is exploiting some issues, which he has not created. The issues are created by the Americans.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Mir, we're going to show some pictures, that videotape that was released after the bombing began on October 7. This is a little piece of videotape that has been analyzed many times over. And sitting to the left of Osama bin Laden is Ayman al- Zawahiri, who, many people say, might be, in some sense, the brains behind this organization. Are you among those?
MIR: Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri was acting as his translator, when I was interviewing him second time. And when I was asking difficult questions to Osama bin Laden, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri was (AUDIO GAP) him. I think that Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri is a person who is more a hardliner than Osama bin Laden. And some (AUDIO GAP) Dr. Ayman al- Zawahiri is the mastermind behind Osama bin Laden.
O'BRIEN: I hesitate to ask a final question, because I'm afraid we're going to lose that satellite signal. I want to thank you for your time, Hamid Mir, who is the official biographer of Osama bin Laden -- an interesting distinction to have on the resume, I suppose. Thank you for being with us out of Islamabad.
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