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Bin Laden: "I Categorically State That I Have Not Done This"
ISLAMABAD,
Sept 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Osama Bin Laden on Sunday denied
any involvement in last week's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington,
new agencies reported.
"The U.S. is pointing the finger at me, but I categorically state that
I have not done this," bin Laden said in a statement faxed to the Pakistan-based
Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) private news agency.
"Those who have done it, they have done it in their personal interest,"
bin Laden said in the statement, which AIP said was sent to them by Bin Laden's
aide, Abdul Samad, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
It was the first time that bin Laden had issued an official personal denial of any involvement in the attacks.
Previous denials had been issued by unidentified aides or by officials
of the Taliban, the militia that controls most of Afghanistan.
Bin Laden said he did not have the means by which to organize the attacks
and talked of the many restrictions placed on his contacts with the outside
world by Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
"I'm living in Afghanistan. I'm a follower of Amir Ul-Momineen [Omar]
who does not allow me to participate in such activities," AFP quoted the
statement, written in Arabic, as saying.
The United States immediately accused bin Laden of being the prime suspect
in last week's attacks, which has so far left more than 5,000 people missing.
Bin Laden, a Saudi-born dissident, moved to Afghanistan in 1996 after being forced to leave Sudan.
The Taliban has refused demands to extradite him for trial in alleged
connection with a string of attacks on U.S. interests, including the 1998
bombing of two embassies in Africa in which more than 200 people died.
U.S. President George W. Bush Saturday declared that the United States
was "at war" with the "barbarians" responsible for the terrorist strikes
and called bin Laden a "prime suspect."
He promised "sweeping, sustained, and effective" retaliation for the attacks and issued a direct warning to bin Laden.
"If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he will be sorely mistaken," Bush said, AFP reported.
The tone of Bush's rhetoric has been seen as an attempt to mobilize
the nation for an imminent deployment of ground troops in Afghanistan in
a bid to eliminate bin Laden and topple the Taliban regime.
However, experts have warned against acting on circumstantial evidence that may not prove bin Laden was responsible.
The U.S. is rallying an international coalition in support of whatever action it decides to take.
On Saturday, the U.S. won a pledge of backing from Afghanistan's neighbor,
Pakistan, whose logistical support would be crucial for any attack on the
long war-torn Southwest Asian country.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has repeatedly stated that his
government is fully committed to backing the United States following Tuesday's
attacks on Washington and New York, BBC's online news service reported Saturday.
Shortly after the news of U.S. strikes, Musharraf said his government
"strongly condemned this most brutal and horrible act of terror and violence,"
adding that the world should unite to fight terrorism.
Pakistan's relations with the U.S. have fluctuated over the years.
The two countries were close, particularly in supporting the mujahideen
(fighters) during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s, but their
relationship has been more turbulent in recent years.
The United States has been widely accused by Pakistanis of being anti-Muslim
particularly due to its current support of India, which maintains a brutal
occupation in the "disputed" region of Kashmir, and for its backing of Israel
in the Middle East conflict.
The U.S. has also been widely condemned as the main force behind the
11-year U.N. sanctions against Iraq, especially with continuous U.S. and
British air-raids in the north and south of the country, under the banner
of "protecting the Kurdish and Shi'ite communities".
Pakistanis have further condemned the U.S. for imposing sanctions against
Pakistan for pursuing nuclear tests, a measure it refrained from taking before
Pakistan's nuclear rival, India, detonated their devices first.
Meanwhile, Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar's spokesman warned
the Pakistani president that cooperating with a U.S. military action would
prompt a backlash from his own people.
"Pakistan is a Muslim nation and the Pakistan government should look
at the views of its own people who don't want the U.S. to attack Afghanistan.
If they cooperate with the United States there will be very serious consequences
for Pakistan."
Pakistani newspapers reported Friday that the U.S. had requested the
use of the country's airspace to mount attacks on bin Laden's bases in neighboring
Afghanistan.
A decision to actively cooperate with a U.S. attack on Afghanistan would
represent a major departure for Pakistan, one of only three countries to
recognize the ruling Taliban.
For its part, Pakistan still says there is no evidence to link bin Laden
to the attacks and it desires evidence to help sway public opinion before
committing itself to any drastic step, the BBC reported.
"Pakistan … has a right to ask about the evidence on which the USA has
based its conclusion that Osama is the prime suspect," the Pakistani paper
The Nation reported.
"At the same time, Pakistan has definite problems in its relationship
with the USA, and a country which is under so many sanctions as Pakistan,
would certainly like to know why it should go beyond a bare minimum," The Nation added.
The paper also said that although the government has hard choices to make, it must keep the national interest in mind.
Meanwhile, referring to the Pakistani government's situation, the Taliban
warned that its fighters would retaliate with force if any neighboring country
provided assistance to the United States for an all-out attack on Afghanistan,
AIP reported.
"The possibility of a massive attack by our mujahideen [fighters]
cannot be ruled out if any neighboring country offers its ground or air bases
to U.S. forces," the agency quoted a Taliban foreign ministry statement as
saying.
"They might be compelled to enter into that country and responsibility
for the negative consequences would rest on that country," it said.
The Taliban statement again denied that Bin Laden could have been involved in the U.S. attacks.
The Afghan opposition's envoy to Iran, Mohammad Kheirkhah, said Saturday
that he hoped the United States would not attack his country in retaliation
for the September 11th attacks, and that any attack should "spare the people".
"I hope that my country is not the target of an American attack," Kheirkhah
told AFP. "But if, in the context of the anti-terrorist battle, the Americans
want to do something, let them act only against terrorists, while sparing
the people," he said.
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