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American Morning

Editor Discusses Bin Laden E-mail

Aired March 28, 2002 - 08:26   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: An Arab newspaper in London published an e-mail today it says may have been sent by Osama bin Laden. The message denounces the Saudi peace plan that was adopted by the Arab League earlier this morning.

Now, the editor of the paper, Abdul Bari Attwan joins us now from London.

Good morning. Thank you very much for being with us, sir.

Just to give our audience an idea of what this e-mail said, we're going to put part of it up on the screen now. I'm going to read it out loud. It says, "The Jews try in vain to flee, finding no refuge and becoming exposed to exploding bodies that make them taste death and chased by horror."

And I think we have a second part of this. We may not have it on the screen, but it goes on to say, describe the suicide bombings in Israel and the September 11 attacks as the "great events" and the "blessed jihad."

Mr. Attwan, why are you so convinced these are, in fact, from Osama bin Laden?

ABDUL BARI ATTWAN, EDITOR, "AL-QUDS": Actually, because Osama bin Laden and his group's recently turned to the Net and to the e- mails to distribute their materials. And they issued several magazines on the Net. And we received about three issues of them before.

The second thing, it carries the same language, the same terminology which Osama bin Laden used in his previous communiques and previous tapes.

Third, it coincides with the Arab summit and he knows or his group knows actually now all the attention is concentrated on Beirut, where the Arab leaders are discussing the Saudi peace plan. So he would like actually to denounce this peace plan.

So the timing is extremely important and the language is really indicative that it is Osama bin Laden. But I cannot verify it. He is not living at 10 Downing Street or the White House so I can have a fix on (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to make sure that it is his. ZAHN: Have you heard from any of these governments you just mentioned, from the British government or the U.S. government, wondering about the authenticity of this e-mail?

ATTWAN: Well, actually, there are a few inquiries about it, whether it is genuine, authentic, or not. But, you know, my answer all the time is, you know, we received it by, in our general e-mail and we looked at it. We believe it is, it could be Osama bin Laden communique and until now, actually, we circulated it yesterday and we passed it to the White House, the agencies. And until now we haven't received anything, which indicated that, you know, our assessment was wrong.

ZAHN: Is it true that you've met Osama bin Laden before?

ATTWAN: Yes, I did. I viewed him in 1996, in November of 1996 in Tora Bora and that was a lengthy interview. And since then -- yes, I do hear you.

ZAHN: OK, please carry on, Mr. Attwan. Obviously...

ATTWAN: Hello...

ZAHN: ... there's some feedback coming into your earpiece.

ATTWAN: Oh, yes...

ZAHN: Carry on about what you learned from Osama bin Laden and what is also consistent with what he told you then and what appears to be in these e-mails that you're examining now.

ATTWAN: Yes, actually, you know, I interviewed him in November 1996 in Tora Bora and since then I have been following this phenomenon and writing about it in our newspaper and several other newspapers. I think, you know, this is the same language he used. He supported the suicidal attacks against the Israelis. He wanted to distance himself from the Arab leaders, from the Saudi peace initiative. He considered it, you know, or considered Prince Abdullah, who presented it to the summit, as a traitor.

So the man is really consistent in his approach, in his ideology and, again, you know, he is talking about killing the Jews and these kind of things, which is exactly the same language he used in his fatwah, which he issued in February of 1998.

ZAHN: And Mr. Attwan, at a time where the "Christian Science Monitor" and other news organizations are reporting that Osama bin Laden has been sighted some time within the last seven days -- I know you said you found the timing of this curious -- do you have any way of finding exactly where this e-mail was sent from?

ATTWAN: Well, I think, you know, it is -- I am not an expert, actually, to be honest, in e-mails and these kind of things. But it definitely, you can't tell. I tried to, I asked our people in our newspaper whether they can tell the origin of this e-mail. They said no, they cannot tell. It just came to our, you know, general e-mail address and that's all. I don't know whether there is other ways to find out, but personally I can't really make sure that where it comes from.

ZAHN: Well, it certainly has caused a lot of debate here and consternation and examination.

Mr. Attwan, thank you very much for sharing the content of this e-mail received and we'll keep our audience posted on its authenticity. Thank you very much. Appreciate your time.

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