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CNN Sunday Morning

Evidence Reported of bin Laden's Knowledge of Terrorist Attacks

Aired December 09, 2001 - 09:00   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: A discovery of a videotape in Afghanistan may be the most compelling evidence yet that Osama bin Laden was behind the September 11 attacks on America.

CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace joins us live with more on the significance of that tape.

Good morning to you, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Marty. Well, Marty, right at this moment the White House neither confirming nor denying this report.

The report in today's edition of the Washington Post, U.S. officials telling the Post that they discovered during a search of a private home in Jalalabad, a videotape of Osama bin Laden. And the significance of this videotape, if, again, it is true, it would be really the first direct linkage between Osama bin Laden and the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Now again, the "Washington Post" reporting that U.S. officials have reviewed this tape this week, and then they took it to some outside source to confirm its legitimacy.

On the tape apparently, bin Laden is talking to a group of people at the time when the first plane hit the World Trade Center.

Now this is a videotape we're showing, just some file footage, not the same tape. And then he says that more is coming. Also on that tape, apparently, bin Laden saying that the damage to the World Trade Center much greater than he had expected, that he had expected the towers to fall from the top to where the airplane hit the two Twin Towers, but that he never expected the total collapse.

And there you see, obviously, live pictures of the recovery efforts and damage efforts underway continuing at the World Trade Center.

Again the significance here, U.S. officials have all along said that they believed bin Laden definitely linked to, behind the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, but they haven't provided detailed evidence to date. Now according to the "Washington Post," U.S. officials are deciding whether or not to release this tape to the public. Again as for the White House, I talked to a deputy communications director here, Jim Wilkinson, who said, quote, "we can not confirm or deny this report. As a matter of practice, we do not comment on matters of intelligence or military activity."

So far, really, the British have been the ones leading the way in terms of providing evidence about the linkage between bin Laden and these attacks. You might ask, Marty: Why wouldn't the Bush administration, if it does have this videotape, why wouldn't it want to release it to the public?

Well there might be some concerns. U.S. officials have been working very hard to improve the credibility of the United States, particularly in the Arab and Muslim world, and there might be some concern about how Arabs and Muslims might take to this tape if the United States or the White House is the source of its release.

So again, officially, White House officials not confirming or denying the report. But again, the "Washington Post" saying that this videotape, the first direct linkage between bin Laden and the September 11 attacks -- Marty.

SAVIDGE: Well Kelly, what do you mean by that? I mean if the videotape gets out there, if it's Osama bin Laden, what is the concern if it says exactly as the White House or as others are claiming it says?

WALLACE: Well again, that's a good question because if it, again, is a videotape of Osama bin Laden and if he is saying the things that U.S. officials are telling the "Washington Post," then what could be the question? There's a lot of sensitivity, Marty. That's really the main issue here.

The U.S. has sort of set up this coalition information center with offices in London and Islamabad in part because of concerns that Arabs and Muslims have not been getting the message to -- getting the message that this is not a campaign against Muslims, not a campaign against the people of Afghanistan, but a campaign against Osama bin Laden.

So maybe it will just be a sensitivity, that the U.S. might not want to be the source of its release. But again, obviously as you noted, the contents of the tape, if they are what they say they are, would be hard to dispute -- Marty.

SAVIDGE: It would be pretty damning evidence, yes. Thanks very much, Kelly Wallace at the White House.

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