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Terror Tape Shows bin Laden Press Conference from 1998
Aired August 20, 2002 - 14:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: First up this hour, Osama bin Laden's chilling call for war against Jews and Americans. It comes in a news conference of sorts from May '98, a news conference that got little or no notice in the Western world because the reporters were hand-picked Asians. It comes to light now as part of that remarkable library of al Qaeda tapes uncovered and obtained in Afghanistan by CNN.
Here with "Roots of Hatred" is CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The first to appear from Osama bin Laden's armored jeep as guns fire a welcoming salute, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's right hand man, and inspirational ally. Exiting from the other side of the vehicle, bin Laden leads the way, accompanied by his military adviser, Mohammed Atef. Atef is now dead, killed last November in coalition bombing.
But this day, the 26th of May, 1998, was Osama bin Laden's biggest day ever in public. And these pictures, from eastern Afghanistan, part of an exclusive library of Al Qaeda tapes CNN has obtained, have never been seen before.
Bin Laden is about to declare war on America.
OSAMA BIN LADEN (through translator): By God's grace, we have formed with other Islamic groups and Islamic nations in the world, a front called the Islamic Front, to do jihad against the crusaders and Jews.
ROBERTSON: Of all the Al Qaeda tapes CNN obtained, this stands out, a record of the event the terrorist leaders saw as history in the making for Al Qaeda.
(on camera): And do we know where this compound is?
PETER BERGEN, JOURNALIST: It's near Khwost (ph). It's a place called Zwarakili (ph).
ROBERTSON (voice-over): A day journalist Peter Bergen, who'd interviewed bin Laden for CNN the previous year, believes is incredibly significant.
BERGEN: Bin Laden is calling really in this very public way, with the military commander, the guy who probably planned September 11, and his number two, the guy who really is almost the brains of the operation Ayman Al-Zawahiri. They are going public. They are saying we are having this war against the United States.
ROBERTSON: A select group of Pakistani journalists, and one Chinese writer were invited to watch Al Qaeda launch its jihad on the Western world, which, while noted at the time, never got wide exposure, because no independent videotaping was allowed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you be taking any practical steps to materialize this jihad?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Ismail Khan was one of the journalists there that day.
ISMAIL KHAN, PAKISTANI JOURNALIST: We were given a few instructions, you know, on how to photograph, you know, and only take picture of Osama and the two leaders were going to sit close to him, nobody else.
ROBERTSON: Could security be the reason we have never seen the video before? That is a question we put to Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al Qaeda."
ROHAN GUNARATNA, AUTHOR, "INSIDE AL QAEDA": Making that tape public would compromise the security of Al Qaeda and of Osama bin Laden. They did not release that tape.
ROBERTSON: Perhaps bin Laden didn't want his enemies to know he always carried a weapon, or that even inside the building, attentive bodyguards exuded professionalism, worthy of presidential security, or maybe because there were others in the room that day they didn't want identified.
BERGEN: I recognize this bodyguard here from when we interviewed bin Laden in '97.
ROBERTSON: But neither Bergen nor the journalist at this press conference was allowed to take his picture. Another identity protected, bin Laden's interpreter who shows up on other tapes recovered by CNN as a military trainer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: While there were some who wanted to hide, there were others bin Laden wanted to highlight, like the two sons of Sheikh Abdul Rahman, the spiritual leader of those convicted of blowing up the World Trade Center in 1993.
Sheikh Rahman himself in a U.S. prison planning other attacks on New York. BERGEN: The significance of having Sheikh Rahman's sons at the press conference can't be underestimated. First of all, Sheikh Rahman's sons make it clear they have been fighting alongside bin Laden for many, many years, up to a decade. They also distribute at this press conference what they came to be the will of their father, Sheikh Rahman, calling for attacks on Americans, and the purported will states, you know, attack them on the sea, attack them on the land, attack them everywhere, attack their economy, and it's a very kind of a strong statement.
ROBERTSON: Sheikh Rahman's involvement, says Bergen, key for Bin Laden, who uses his spiritual guidance as a religious fig leaf, from behind which he broadens his terror group's appeal to radicals. With hindsight, the important moments are easy to pick out.
For example, when Osama bin Laden hints at an attack on U.S. targets.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OSAMA BIN LADEN (through translator): And by God's grace, the men react to this call and they are going on this path. And they are doing a good job. By God's will, their actions are going to have a successful result in killing Americans and getting rid of them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Within 11 weeks, Al Qaeda attacked U.S. embassies, in Kenya and Tanzania, and perhaps almost as chilling, because it didn't happen.
Ayman Al-Zawahiri appears to justify an attack on the U.S. embassy in Cairo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI: And the CIA station in Cairo is the biggest station for the CIA outside America. There are more than 20,000 Americans in Egypt working with the CIA.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: A journalist asks bin Laden why he thinks he has the resources to take on the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OSAMA BIN LADEN (through translator): In Islam, there is a natural dignity to be respected, and whoever depends on God, God will give him victory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: For Bin Laden, the day seems to have been a success. He looks relaxed, even slightly elated, as he poses for photographs with journalists and entertains them over tea and candy. As the journalists prepare to leave, bin Laden looks somewhat less at ease. Notice how he flinches when a rocket-propelled grenade is launched nearby. As he inspects, the security laid on for his meeting, fighters are keen to show off their prowess.
Where these men are now remains a secret.
BERGEN: We know some bodyguards have showed up and the United States has captured some of bin Laden's bodyguards. Which ones exactly, what it means, I don't know.
ROBERTSON: If bin Laden is still alive, then likely his security detail will now be left visible. These pictures, however, an insight into just how seriously he takes self-preservation, an image never before seen, as he sets off to waste terror against the West.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson is joining us here for a bit of Q&A. Fascinating piece and a real insight into how bin Laden operates. You take a look at that security detail. Do you know where any of these characters are today?
ROBERTSON: We know that some of the security detail have been arrested, and perhaps some of them may be in Guantanamo Bay, and we know for sure that the overt nature of that security detail is not the way that Osama bin Laden has them detailed around him now. Very, very likely it is a much lower profile. We also know from coalition intelligence sources that Osama bin Laden, is in fact in the Northwest Frontier province of Pakistan, that area that is on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is an area that...
LIN: Very wild, very tribal.
ROBERTSON: Very tribal, an area that the Pakistani government doesn't fully control, an area that coalition forces are not able to, perhaps as freely as they like, able to penetrate. We also know, from these same sources, that Osama bin Laden had an operation on his arm about five or six weeks ago, and that was performed by Ayman al- Zawahiri, who is his right-hand man, but he is also a medical doctor as well, and apparently Osama bin Laden was injured during the Tora Bora bombing, we are told by these coalition sources.
LIN: Do you believe Osama bin Laden is still alive?
ROBERTSON: That is what our sources are telling us. These have been very reliable sources in the past, this is the best indication we have. Also, the Afghan foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, over the weekend said the same thing, so perhaps they have similar indications.
LIN: A man with such fascination to be his own definition of a public figure, holding these press conferences, videotaping himself, why is it that we haven't heard from him, then, in so many months?
ROBERTSON: That is a very good question. Maybe he is not in a position to do that. Maybe he feels that if he did do something like this, then it would be found out. Somebody would give something away, the videotape or the audiotape or whatever it is. Maybe that tape is there already, and it just hasn't been played out.
One of the things that you pick up in this May 1998 meeting, and has been played out again and again and again by al Qaeda, is statements tend to be a prelude to an action. In this case, it was the bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Bin Laden, refers to it directly in that meeting.
It is a possibility the next videotape he may be planning to release, may be associated with another event, we don't know. That is absolute speculation. But there has always been a precise nature to the way that they have released their portfolios, their manifestos, whatever, there has always been a reason.
LIN: All right. And the videotape we will be looking forward to, and the rest of your series all this week. Thank you very much. Nic Robertson.
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