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CNN Live Sunday

Some Egyptians Give Credence to bin Laden Statement

Aired November 04, 2001 - 15:15   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Osama bin Laden has issued a call to all Muslims for unity against the United States. His words came shortly before a meeting of Arab justice ministers in Cairo, Egypt.

CNN's James Martone with reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES MARTONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 22-year-old Ahmed Samir, a student of commerce, takes a lunch break from studies to eat with his fiance. They heard the bin Laden statements, along with many other Egyptians. He says bin Laden is right, but that the world misunderstands this.

"He is doing the correct thing. He wants to defend the Arab people, but this is not understood," he says.

Under bin Laden directives, Nahad Sallah, a lawyer, says we should cut with the U.N. of course. She says the U.N. did nothing to help Palestine, nor Afghanistan.

And Magdi Hussein Telfi (ph), a technician, says the war on Afghanistan is religious and targeting Islam. That, he says, is why the U.S. has hit Libya, Iraq and now Afghanistan, all Muslim countries.

The bin Laden statements came shortly before a meeting in Cairo of Arab justice ministers. The ministers are discussing in part a treaty meeting to combat terrorism. The bin Laden statements were not officially discussed, but apparently referring to the Saudi-born military, Saudi Arabia's justice minister said this.

ABDULLAH EL SHEIK, SAUDI JUSTICE MINISTRY: There are those, unfortunately, who try to link terror actions with what is Islamicly correct, but if actions have no basis and the real concepts and truth of Islam.

MARTONE: Sudan, which the U.S. bombed for suspected terrorist activity in 1998 said the bin Laden statements only heighten the anger among Muslims already upset over images of Afghan civilians being killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to combat terrorism, but we should get the culprit rather than the innocent old people, children, ladies. MARTONE: Muhammed Mussah, an Egyptian salesman agrees.

"What happened to economic sanctions and the CIA?" he asks. He says too many people are dying to get just one man. And the papers are full of innocents getting killed in the way.

James Martone, CNN, Cairo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLEY: Statements like those in favor of bin Laden's cause are exactly what the Bush administration is working against. For more on how the White House is trying to counter the sentiment in the region, we turn to CNN's White House correspondent Major Garrett -- Major.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Donna, the administration is well aware of these discordant voices in the Arab world. And what they're trying to do is accentuate the positive, look at other voices throughout the Arab world.

For example, today in Damascus, Syria, the Arab League met. And the foreign ministers there agreed that Osama bin Laden was distorting, generally speaking, his war against the United States in a statement yesterday, calling those who belong to the United Nations and the United Nations itself either infidels or hypocrites.

The administration believes gives them strength because many of the Arab nations who belong to the United Nations. Let's point out, for example, that Syria is now a member of the Security Council. Those Arab nations have used the United Nations to put forward their causes, for example, trying to work out an arrangement between the Palestinians and the Israelis. The U.N. has been a quite active player in that. Many Arab nations believe it is the U.N.'s role there, and has been helpful in trying to work out a deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

So the Bush administration wants not only to rely on the stakeholders throughout the Arab world, these moderate Arab nations, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, but others in saying, look, Osama bin Laden is not only hijacking your faith, he is hijacking the political institutions, the international institutions you and your nations have tied their fate to.

So if you're going be with bin Laden, you're only going to be against us, but you're going to be against the very institutions you've joined to try to work out your grievances. So the United States believes yesterday was a very important day for it, as it tries to get this message to the Muslim and Arab world that bin laden has really distorted the message and made it harder for him, not easier, to win favor in the Arab world -- Donna.

KELLEY: And Major, you know, the President has talked about the economy being shocked by the September 11 attacks. And so he'll look at that during the week ahead, along with airline security.

GARRETT: Well, those are going to be the two hottest domestic issues here in Washington. A lot of what the public will be seeing of President Bush this week is going to deal with the coalition, international speeches meant to solidify the international coalition against terror. But there's going to be a tremendous amount of behind the scenes work on airline security and economic stimulus.

Everyone knows that the Airline Security bill passed by the House just late last week is vastly different from the Senate bill. Today on the Sunday talk shows, both representatives of the House and the Senate seem to be hardening their positions. It appears the President's going to have to use his wartime popularity to break that deadlock, break that logjam, to try to get a solution that he finds acceptable.

If not, White House advisers continue to tell CNN, he withholds the right to put out an executive order and take care many of these airline security issues himself, if he can't get Congress to act.

As far as the stimulus bill, White House economic advisers do concede that even $75 billion in tax cuts, which the President wants, is not really enough to completely jump-start an economy that's $10 trillion in size. What they do believe, however, is a stimulus package like that would create a better psychology, not only for businesses, but for consumers.

Democrats though don't want tax cuts that high. They want more direct federal spending. Another big disagreement there, one the President will have to try to break himself. But there's no executive order, Donna, that allows him to put out a tax cut.

KELLEY: Major Garrett at the White House, thank you very much.

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