British cite videotape tying bin Laden to attacks

LONDON —  Osama bin Laden all but admits masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in a new video circulating clandestinely among his supporters in the Middle East, according to a report released Wednesday by the British government.

The taped interview, made Oct. 20 in the mountains of Afghanistan, apparently was intended to rally further action among members of bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network. In it, bin Laden goes further than ever toward acknowledging responsibility for the attacks, using language that is more direct than in any of the other interviews that have been made publicly available, according to segments of the video quoted in the report.

“It was what we instigated for a while, in self defense. And it was in revenge for our people killed in Palestine and Iraq,” bin Laden said when asked about the attacks on New York and the Pentagon. “So if avenging the killing of our people is terrorism, let history be a witness that we are terrorists.”

In contrast with the four previous videotaped interviews granted by bin Laden since Sept. 11 that were publicized to the world by the Persian Gulf-based Al Jazeera television network, this video was circulated only within Al Qaeda. In the earlier interviews, bin Laden had praised the attacks but had referred to them indirectly, analysts note. This was the first time he used the words “I” and “we” in relation to the hijackings, hinting at a more direct involvement.

“The bad terror is what America and Israel are practicing against our people, and what we are practicing is the good terror that will stop them doing what they are doing,” he is quoted as saying.

Bin Laden also threatened further attacks. “Every time they kill us, we will kill them, so the balance of terror can be achieved,” he said. “The battle has been moved inside America, and we shall continue until we win this battle or die in the cause and meet our maker.”

Details of the video were contained in a 23-page report released by the office of Prime Minister Tony Blair that claims to contain further evidence of bin Laden’s guilt, based on declassified intelligence.

This report updates and expands on a report issued Oct. 4 by Blair’s government just days before the first air strikes against Afghanistan were launched. A government spokesman said this report is aimed at the “ever dwindling number of people around the world who believe Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were not responsible.”

Prepared before the dramatic fall of Kabul, the report does not address how the new realities in Afghanistan may affect bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Rather, it seemed intended to bolster support in Britain and elsewhere for the U.S.-led military campaign.

Blair, who has remained America’s most stalwart ally in the anti-terrorism war, frequently taking the lead in trying to convince allies of the campaign’s merits, said the “self-incriminatory” comments in the video added to an incontrovertible body of evidence implicating bin Laden.

“The intelligence material now leaves no doubt whatever of the guilt of bin Laden and his associates,” Blair told Parliament. He added that there is now evidence that a “majority” of the hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 attacks had links to Al Qaeda, whereas earlier it had only been possible to link three of them to bin Laden.

Most of the evidence presented is deliberately vague, with names and dates omitted out of concern for the need to protect intelligence sources. Much of it repeats information already widely available in the U.S., though it hints at the existence of new information. “There is evidence of a very specific nature relating to the guilt of bin Laden and his associates that is too sensitive to release,” the report states.

A copy of the video had earlier been obtained by a British newspaper, the Sunday Telegraph, which further quoted bin Laden as attempting to justify the killing of civilians in the attacks on the World Trade Center because those who died “were supporters of the economical powers of the United States who are abusing the world.”

“Yes, we kill their innocents, and this is legal religiously and logically,” the newspaper quoted bin Laden as saying.

Blair later appealed to the people of Afghanistan to assist in the capture of bin Laden, reminding Afghans that the $5 million reward still stands.