Beweise oder nur Indizien? - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[HeiligerSchweinehund]

Gestern sollte doch Beweise für die Schuld bin Ladens geben.
Es gibt aber anscheinend keine (oder habe ich was verpasst?).
Scharping spricht weiter nur von Indizien und die Amis suchen
verzweifelt nach einer Verbindung, wie mir scheint. 350
Verhaftungen in den USA bisher, 0 bis 2 vorübergehende
Verhaftungen in Deutschland, von dem aus doch alles geplant
und gesteuert sein sollte.

[michaoj]

abwarten und tee trinken.

[Dr.MichaelMyers]

heute sollen der NATO die Beweise vorgelegt werden

[HeiligerSchweinehund]

Also doch nichts in der Hand:
"Wolfowitz legte auch nicht, wie es erwartet worden war, Beweise für eine Verbindung zu dem
Terroristen Osama bin Laden und seiner Organisation El Kaeda vor. Bin Laden wird von den
USA als Hauptverdächtiger für die Anschläge genannt."

Könnte es sein, daß Atta und seine Komplizen alles selbst geplant haben? Daß also nicht
Afghanistan aber Deutschland das Land ist, in dem die gefährlichsten Terroristen wohnen?

[Donizetti]

Daß also nicht Afghanistan aber Deutschland das Land ist, in dem die gefährlichsten Terroristen wohnen

Die wohnen nicht nur hier, die...

http://www.solidaritaet.com/neuesol/1998/50/schily.htm

http://www.br-online.de/politik/ard-report/2001/report_0402/…

[StanleyBeamish]

http://www.number-10.gov.uk/news.asp?newsID=3025



Responsibility for the terrorist atrocities in the United States
[14 November 2001]

Responsibility for the terrorist atrocities in the United States



The Government has published a further document summarising both the public and newly declassified material linking Usama Bin Laden and the Al Qaida network to the terrorist atrocities of 11 September 2001. It updates the document published by the Prime Minister on 4 October. The update has been produced to remind people why we are engaged in this action, and to publish new information.







Ein von obiger Seite downloadbares Dokument:
http://194.72.226.73/Culpability_document.txt
---------------------------------------------------------------------

This document does not purport to provide a prosecutable case against Usama Bin Laden
in a court of law. Intelligence often cannot be used evidentially, due both to the strict rules
of admissibility and to the need to protect the safety of sources. But on the basis of all the
information available HMG is confident of its conclusions as expressed in this document.


RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE TERRORIST ATROCITIES IN
THE UNITED STATES, 11 SEPTEMBER 2001
AN UPDATED ACCOUNT


INTRODUCTION

1. The clear conclusions reached by the government are:

- Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida, the terrorist network which he
heads, planned and carried out the atrocities on 11 September
2001;

- Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida retain the will and resources to
carry out further atrocities;

- the United Kingdom, and United Kingdom nationals are
potential targets; and

- Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida were able to commit these
atrocities because of their close alliance with the Taleban
régime, which allowed them to operate with impunity in
pursuing their terrorist activity.

2. The material in respect of 1998 and the USS Cole comes
from indictments and intelligence sources. The material in respect
of 11 September comes from intelligence and the criminal
investigation to date. The details of some aspects cannot be given,
but the facts are clear from the intelligence.

3. The document does not contain the totality of the material
known to HMG, given the continuing and absolute need to protect
intelligence sources.


SUMMARY

4. The relevant facts show:

Background

- Al Qaida is a terrorist organisation with ties to a global
network, which has been in existence for over 10 years. It
was founded, and has been led at all times, by Usama Bin
Laden.

- Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida have been engaged in a jihad
against the United States, and its allies. One of their stated
aims is the murder of US citizens, and attacks on America’s
allies.

- Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida have been based in
Afghanistan since 1996, but have a network of operations
throughout the world. The network includes training camps,
warehouses, communication facilities and commercial
operations able to raise significant sums of money to support
its activity. That activity includes substantial exploitation of
the illegal drugs trade from Afghanistan.

- Usama Bin Laden’s Al Qaida and the Taleban régime have a
close and mutually dependent alliance. Usama Bin Laden
and Al Qaida provide the Taleban régime with material,
financial and military support. They jointly exploit the drugs
trade. The Taleban régime allows Bin Laden to operate his
terrorist training camps and activities from Afghanistan,
protects him from attacks from outside, and protects the
drugs stockpiles. Usama Bin Laden could not operate his
terrorist activities without the alliance and support of the
Taleban régime. The Taleban’s strength would be seriously
weakened without Usama Bin Laden’s military and financial
support.

- Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida have the capability to
execute major terrorist attacks.

- Usama Bin Laden has claimed credit for the attack on US
soldiers in Somalia in October 1993, which killed 18; for the
attack on the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in
August 1998 which killed 224 and injured nearly 5000; and
was linked to the attack on the USS Cole on 12 October
2000, in which 17 crew members were killed and 40 others
injured.

- They have sought to acquire nuclear and chemical materials
for use as terrorist weapons.

In relation to the terrorist attacks on 11 September

5. After 11 September we learned that, not long before, Bin
Laden had indicated he was about to launch a major attack on
America. The detailed planning for the terrorist attacks of 11
September was carried out by one of UBL’s close associates. Of
the 19 hijackers involved in 11 September 2001, it has been
established that the majority had links with Al Qaida. A senior Bin
Laden associate claimed to have trained some of the hijackers in
Afghanistan. The attacks on 11 September 2001 were similar in
both their ambition and intended impact to previous attacks
undertaken by Usama Bin laden and Al Qaida, and also had
features in common. In particular:

- Suicide attackers

- Co-ordinated attacks on the same day

- The aim to cause maximum American casualties

- Total disregard for other casualties, including Muslim

- Meticulous long-term planning

- Absence of warning.

6. Al Qaida retains the capability and the will to make further
attacks on the US and its allies, including the United Kingdom.

7. Al Qaida gives no warning of terrorist attack.


THE FACTS

Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida

8. In 1989 Usama Bin Laden, and others, founded an
international terrorist group known as “Al Qaida” (the Base). At
all times he has been the leader of Al Qaida.

9. From 1989 until 1991 Usama Bin Laden was based in
Afghanistan and Peshawar, Pakistan. In 1991 he moved to Sudan,
where he stayed until 1996. In that year he returned to
Afghanistan, where he remains.

The Taleban Régime

10. The Taleban emerged from the Afghan refugee camps in
Pakistan in the early 1990s. By 1996 they had captured Kabul.
They are still engaged in a bloody civil war to control the whole
of Afghanistan. They are led by Mullah Omar.

11. In 1996 Usama Bin Laden moved back to Afghanistan. He
established a close relationship with Mullah Omar, and threw his
support behind the Taleban. Usama Bin Laden and the Taleban
régime have a close alliance on which both depend for their
continued existence. They also share the same religious values
and vision.

12. Usama Bin Laden has provided the Taleban régime with
troops, arms and money to fight the Northern Alliance. He is
closely involved with Taleban military training, planning and
operations. He has representatives in the Taleban military
command structure. He has also given infrastruture assistance and
humanitarian aid. Forces under the control of Usama Bin Laden
have fought alongside the Taleban in the civil war in Afghanistan.

13. Omar has provided Bin Laden with a safe haven in which to
operate, and has allowed him to establish terrorist training camps
in Afghanistan. They jointly exploit the Afghan drugs trade. In
return for active Al Qaida support, the Taleban allow Al Qaida to
operate freely, including planning, training and preparing for
terrorist activity. In addition the Taleban provide security for the
stockpiles of drugs.

14. Since 1996, when the Taleban captured Kabul, the United
States government has consistently raised with them a whole range
of issues, including humanitarian aid and terrorism. Well before
11 September 2001 they had provided evidence to the Taleban of
the responsibility of Al Qaida for the terrorist attacks in East
Africa. This evidence had been provided to senior leaders of the
Taleban at their request.

15. The United States government had made it clear to the
Taleban régime that Al Qaida had murdered US citizens, and
planned to murder more. The US offered to work with the
Taleban to expel the terrorists from Afghanistan. These talks,
which have been continuing since 1996, have failed to produce
any results.

16. In June 2001, in the face of mounting evidence of the Al
Qaida threat, the United States warned the Taleban that it had the
right to defend itself and that it would hold the régime responsible
for attacks against US citizens by terrorists sheltered in
Afghanistan.

17. In this, the United States had the support of the United
Nations. The Security Council, in Resolution 1267, condemned
Usama Bin Laden for sponsoring international terrorism and
operating a network of terrorist camps, and demanded that the
Taleban surrender Usama Bin Laden without further delay so that
he could be brought to justice.

18. Despite the evidence provided by the US of the responsibility
of Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida for the 1998 East Africa
bombings, despite the accurately perceived threats of further
atrocities, and despite the demands of the United Nations, the
Taleban régime responded by saying no evidence existed against
Usama Bin Laden, and that neither he nor his network would be
expelled.

19. A former Government official in Afghanistan has described
the Taleban and Usama Bin Laden as “two sides of the same coin:
Usama cannot exist in Afghanistan without the Taleban and the
Taleban cannot exist without Usama”.

Al Qaida

20. Al Qaida is dedicated to opposing ‘un-Islamic’ governments
in Muslim countries with force and violence.

21. Al Qaida virulently opposes the United States. Usama Bin
Laden has urged and incited his followers to kill American
citizens, in the most unequivocal terms.

22. On 12 October 1996 he issued a declaration of jihad as
follows:

“The people of Islam have suffered from aggression, iniquity
and injustice imposed by the Zionist-Crusader alliance and
their collaborators . . .

It is the duty now on every tribe in the Arabian peninsula to
fight jihad and cleanse the land from these Crusader
occupiers. Their wealth is booty to those who kill them.

My Muslim brothers: your brothers in Palestine and in the
land of the two Holy Places [Saudi Arabia] are calling upon
your help and asking you to take part in fighting against the
enemy – the Americans and the Israelis. They are asking
you to do whatever you can to expel the enemies out of the
sanctities of Islam.”

Later in the same year he said that

“terrorising the American occupiers [of Islamic Holy Places]
is a religious and logical obligation”.

In February 1998 he issued and signed a ‘fatwa’ which included a
decree to all Muslims:

“. . . the killing of Americans and their civilian and military
allies is a religious duty for each and every Muslim to be
carried out in whichever country they are until Al Aqsa
mosque has been liberated from their grasp and until their
armies have left Muslim lands.”

In the same ‘fatwa’ he called on Muslim scholars and their leaders
and their youths to

“launch an attack on the American soldiers of Satan”

and concluded:

“We – with God’s help – call on every Muslim who believes in
God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God’s order to
kill Americans and plunder their money whenever and
wherever they find it. We also call on Muslims . . . to launch
the raid on Satan’s US troops and the devil’s supporters
allying with them, and to displace those who are behind
them.”

When asked, in 1998, about obtaining chemical or nuclear
weapons he said “acquiring such weapons for the defence of
Muslims [is] a religious duty”, and made the following claim in an
interview printed in the Pakistan newspaper Dawn in November
2001:

“I wish to declare that if America used chemical or nuclear
weapons against us, then we may retort with chemical and
nuclear weapons. We have the weapons as deterrent.”

In an interview aired on Al Jazira (Doha, Qatar) television he
stated:

“Our enemy is every American male, whether he is directly
fighting us or paying taxes.”

In two interviews broadcast on US television in 1997 and 1998 he
referred to the terrorists who carried out the earlier attack on the
World Trade Center in 1993 as “role models”. He went on to
exhort his followers “to take the fighting to America”.

23. From the early 1990s Usama Bin Laden has sought to obtain
nuclear and chemical materials for use as weapons of terror.

24. Although US targets are Al Qaida’s priority, it also explicitly
threatens the United States’ allies. References to “Zionist-
Crusader alliance and their collaborators”, and to “Satan’s US
troops and the devil’s supporters allying with them” are references
which unquestionably include the United Kingdom. This is
confirmed by more specific references in a broadcast of 13
October, during which Bin Laden’s spokesman said:

“Al Qaida declares that Bush Sr, Bush Jr, Clinton, Blair and
Sharon are the arch-criminals from among the Zionists and
Crusaders . . . Al Qaida stresses that the blood of those
killed will not go to waste, God willing, until we punish these
criminals . . . We also say and advise the Muslims in the
United States and Britain . . . not to travel by plane. We also
advise them not to live in high-rise buildings and towers.”

25. There is a continuing threat. Based on our experience of the
way the network has operated in the past, other cells, like those
that carried out the terrorist attacks on 11 September, must be
assumed to exist.

26. Al Qaida functions both on its own and through a network of
other terrorist organisations. These include Egyptian Islamic
Jihad and other north African Islamic extremist terrorist groups,
and a number of other jihadi groups in other countries including
the Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and India. Al Qaida also
maintains cells and personnel in a number of other countries to
facilitate its activities.

27. Usama Bin Laden heads the Al Qaida network. Below him is
a body known as the Shura, which includes representatives of other
terrorist groups, such as Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader Ayman
Zawahiri and prominent lieutenants of Bin Laden such as Mohamed
Atef (also known as Abu Hafs Al-Masri). Egyptian Islamic Jihad
has, in effect, merged with Al Qaida.

28. In addition to the Shura, Al Qaida has several groups dealing
with military, media, financial and Islamic issues.

29. Mohamed Atef is a member of the group that deals with
military and terrorist operations. His duties include principal
responsibility for training Al Qaida members.

30. Members of Al Qaida must make a pledge of allegiance to
follow the orders of Usama Bin Laden.

31. A great deal of evidence about Usama Bin Laden and Al
Qaida has been made available in the US indictment for earlier
crimes.

32. Since 1989, Usama Bin Laden has conducted substantial
financial and business transactions on behalf of Al Qaida and in
pursuit of its goals. These include purchasing land for training
camps, purchasing warehouses for the storage of items, including
explosives, purchasing communications and electronics equipment,
and transporting currency and weapons to members of Al Qaida
and associated terrorist groups in countries throughout the world.

33. Since 1989 Usama Bin Laden has provided training camps
and guest houses in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Sudan, Somalia and
Kenya for the use of Al Qaida and associated terrorist groups.
We know from intelligence that there are currently at least a dozen
camps across Afghanistan, of which at least four are used for
training terrorists.

34. Since 1989, Usama Bin Laden has established a series of
businesses to provide income for Al Qaida, and to provide cover
for the procurement of explosives, weapons and chemicals, and
for the travel of Al Qaida operatives. The businesses have
included a holding company known as ‘Wadi Al Aqiq’, a
construction business known as ‘Al Hijra’, an agricultural business
known as ‘Al Themar Al Mubaraka’, and investment companies
known as ‘Ladin International’ and ‘Taba Investments’.

Usama Bin Laden and previous attacks

35. In 1992 and 1993 Mohamed Atef travelled to Somalia on
several occasions for the purpose of organising violence against
United States and United Nations troops then stationed in Somalia.
On each occasion he reported back to Usama Bin Laden, at his
base in the Riyadh district of Khartoum.

36. In the spring of 1993 Atef, Saif al Adel, another senior
member of Al Qaida, and other members began to provide
military training to Somali tribes for the purpose of fighting the
United Nations forces.

37. On 3 and 4 October 1993 operatives of Al Qaida participated
in the attack on US military personnel serving in Somalia as part
of the operation ‘Restore Hope.’ Eighteen US military personnel
were killed in the attack.

38. From 1993 members of Al Qaida began to live in Nairobi
and set up businesses there, including Asma Ltd, and Tanzanite
King. They were regularly visited there by senior members of Al
Qaida, in particular by Atef and Abu Ubadiah al Banshiri.

39. Beginning in the latter part of 1993, members of Al Qaida in
Kenya began to discuss the possibility of attacking the US
Embassy in Nairobi in retaliation for US participation in
Operation Restore Hope in Somalia. Ali Mohamed, a US citizen
and admitted member of Al Qaida, surveyed the US Embassy as a
possible target for a terrorist attack. He took photographs and
made sketches, which he presented to Usama Bin Laden while Bin
Laden was in Sudan. He also admitted that he had trained
terrorists for Al Qaida in Afghanistan in the early 1990s, and that
those whom he trained included many involved in the East African
bombings in August 1998.

40. In June or July 1998, two Al Qaida operatives, Fahid
Mohammed Ali Msalam and Sheik Ahmed Salim Swedan,
purchased a Toyota truck and made various alterations to the back
of the truck.

41. In early August 1998, operatives of Al Qaida gathered in 43,
New Runda Estates, Nairobi to execute the bombing of the US
Embassy in Nairobi.

42. On 7 August 1998, Assam, a Saudi national and Al Qaida
operative, drove the Toyota truck to the US Embassy. There was
a large bomb in the back of the truck.

43. Also in the truck was Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al ‘Owali,
another Saudi. He, by his own confession, was an Al Qaida
operative, who from about 1996 had been trained in Al Qaida
camps in Afghanistan in explosives, hijacking, kidnapping,
assassination and intelligence techniques. With Usama Bin
Laden’s express permission, he fought alongside the Taleban in
Afghanistan. He had met Usama Bin Laden personally in 1996
and asked for another ‘mission.’ Usama Bin Laden sent him to
East Africa after extensive specialised training at camps in
Afghanistan.

44. As the truck approached the Embassy, Al ’Owali got out and
threw a stun grenade at a security guard. Assam drove the truck
up to the rear of the Embassy. He got out and then detonated the
bomb, which demolished a multi-storey secretarial college and
severely damaged the US Embassy, and the Co-operative bank
building. The bomb killed 213 people and injured 4500. Assam
was killed in the explosion.

45. Al ‘Owali expected the mission to end in his death. He had
been willing to die for Al Qaida. But at the last minute he ran
away from the bomb truck and survived. He had no money,
passport or plan to escape after the mission, because he had
expected to die.

46. After a few days, he called a telephone number in Yemen to
have money transferred to him in Kenya. The number he rang in
Yemen was contacted by Usama Bin Laden’s phone on the same
day as Al ‘Owali was arranging to get the money.

47. Another person arrested in connection with the Nairobi
bombing was Mohamed Sadeek Odeh. He admitted to his
involvement. He identified the principal participants in the
bombing. He named three other persons, all of whom were Al
Qaida or Egyptian Islamic Jihad members.

48. In Dar es Salaam the same day, at about the same time,
operatives of Al Qaida detonated a bomb at the US Embassy,
killing 11 people. The Al Qaida operatives involved included
Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil and Khaflan Khamis Mohamed. The
bomb was carried in a Nissan Atlas truck, which Ahmed Khfaklan
Ghailani and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, two Al Qaida
operatives, had purchased in July 1998, in Dar es Salaam.

49. Khaflan Khamis Mohamed was arrested for the bombing.
He admitted membership of Al Qaida, and implicated other
members of Al Qaida in the bombing.

50. On 7 and 8 August 1998, two other members of Al Qaida
disseminated claims of responsibility for the two bombings by
sending faxes to media organisations in Paris, Doha in Qatar, and
Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

51. Additional evidence of the involvement of Al Qaida in the
East African bombings came from a search conducted in London
of several residences and businesses belonging to Al Qaida and
Egyptian Islamic Jihad members. In those searches a number of
documents were found including claims of responsibility for the
East African bombings in the name of a fictitious group, ‘the
Islamic Army for the liberation of the Holy Places’.

52. Al ‘Owali, the would-be suicide bomber, admitted he was
told to make a videotape of himself using the name of the same
fictitious group.

53. The faxed claims of responsibility were traced to a telephone
number, which had been in contact with Usama Bin Laden’s cell
phone. The claims disseminated to the press were clearly written
by someone familiar with the conspiracy. They stated that the
bombings had been carried out by two Saudis in Kenya, and one
Egyptian in Dar es Salaam. They were probably sent before the
bombings had even taken place. They referred to two Saudis
dying in the Nairobi attack. In fact, because Al ‘Owali fled at the
last minute, only one Saudi died.

54. On 22 December 1998 Usama Bin Laden was asked by Time
magazine whether he was responsible for the August 1998 attacks.
He replied:

“The International Islamic Jihad Front for the jihad against
the US and Israel has, by the grace of God, issued a crystal
clear fatwa calling on the Islamic nation to carry on Jihad
aimed at liberating the holy sites. The nation of Mohammed
has responded to this appeal. If instigation for jihad against
the Jews and the Americans . . . is considered to be a crime,
then let history be a witness that I am a criminal. Our job is
to instigate and, by the grace of God, we did that, and
certain people responded to this instigation.”

He was asked if he knew the attackers:

“. . . those who risked their lives to earn the pleasure of God
are real men. They managed to rid the Islamic nation of
disgrace. We hold them in the highest esteem.”

And what the US could expect of him:

“. . . any thief or criminal who enters another country to
steal should expect to be exposed to murder at any time . . .
The US knows that I have attacked it, by the grace of God,
for more than ten years now . . . God knows that we have
been pleased by the killing of American soldiers [in Somalia
in 1993]. This was achieved by the grace of God and the
efforts of the mujahideen . . . Hostility towards America is a
religious duty and we hope to be rewarded for it by God. I
am confident that Muslims will be able to end the legend of
the so-called superpower that is America.”

55. In December 1999 a terrorist cell linked to Al Qaida was
discovered trying to carry out attacks inside the United States. An
Algerian, Ahmed Ressam, was stopped at the US-Canadian
border, and over 100 lbs of bomb-making material was found in
his car. Ressam admitted he was planning to set off a large bomb
at Los Angeles International airport on New Year’s Day. He said
that he had received terrorist training at Al Qaida camps in
Afghanistan and then been instructed to go abroad and kill US
civilians and military personnel.

56. On 3 January 2000, a group of Al Qaida members, and other
terrorists who had trained in Al Qaida camps in Afghanistan,
attempted to attack a US destroyer with a small boat loaded with
explosives. Their boat sank, aborting the attack.

57. On 12 October 2000, however, the USS Cole was struck by
an explosive-laden boat while refuelling in Aden harbour.
Seventeen crew were killed, and 40 injured.

58. Several of the perpetrators of the Cole attack (mostly
Yemenis and Saudis) were trained at Usama Bin Laden’s camps in
Afghanistan. Al ‘Owali has identified the two commanders of the
attack on the USS Cole as having participated in the planning and
preparation for the East African Embassy bombings.

59. In the months before the September 11 attacks, propaganda
videos were distributed throughout the Middle East and Muslim
world by Al Qaida, in which Usama Bin Laden and others were
shown encouraging Muslims to attack American and Jewish
targets.

60. Similar videos, extolling violence against the United States
and other targets, were distributed before the East African
Embassy attacks in August 1998.

Usama Bin Laden and the 11 September attacks

61. Nineteen men have been identified as the hijackers from the
passenger lists of the four planes hijacked on 11 September 2001.
Many of them had previous links with Al Qaida or have so far
been positively identified as associates of Al Qaida. An associate
of some of the hijackers has been identified as playing key roles in
both the East African Embassy attacks and the USS Cole attack.
Investigations continue into the backgrounds of all the hijackers.

62. From intelligence sources, the following facts have been
established subsequent to 11 September; for intelligence reasons,
the names of associates, though known, are not given.

- In the run-up to 11 September, Bin Laden was mounting a
concerted propaganda campaign amongst like-minded groups
of people – including videos and documentation –
justifying attacks on Jewish and American targets; and
claiming that those who died in the course of them were
carrying out God’s work.

- We have learned, subsequent to 11 September, that Bin
Laden himself asserted shortly before 11 September that he
was preparing a major attack on America.

- In August and early September close associates of Bin Laden
were warned to return to Afghanistan from other parts of the
world by 10 September.

- Immediately prior to 11 September some known associates
of Bin Laden were naming the date for action as on or
around 11 September.

- A senior associate claimed to have trained some of the
hijackers in Afghanistan.

- Since 11 September we have learned that one of Bin Laden’s
closest and most senior associates was responsible for the
detailed planning of the attacks.

- There is evidence of a very specific nature relating to the
guilt of Bin Laden and his associates that is too sensitive to
release.

63. In addition, Usama Bin Laden has issued a number of public
statements since the US strikes on Afghanistan began. The
language used in these, while not an open admission of guilt, is
self-incriminating.

64. For example, on 7 October he said:

“Here is America struck by God Almighty in one of its vital
organs, so that its greatest buildings are destroyed. Grace
and gratitude to God . . . I swear to God that America will
not live in peace before peace reigns in Palestine, and before
all the army of infidels depart the land of Mohammed, peace
by upon him.”

65. On 9 October his spokesman praised the “good deed” of the
hijackers, who “transferred the battle into the US heartland”. He
warned that the “storm of plane attacks will not abate”.

66. On 20 October Bin Laden gave an inflammatory interview
which has been circulating, in the form of a video, among
supporters in the Al Qaida network. In the transcript, when
referring to the US buildings that were attacked, he says:

“It is what we instigated for a while, in self-defence. And it
was in revenge for our people killed in Palestine and Iraq.
So if avenging the killing of our people is terrorism, let
history be a witness that we are terrorists.”

Later in the interview he said:

“Bush and Blair . . . don’t understand any language but the
language of force. Every time they kill us, we will kill them,
so the balance of terror can be achieved.”

He went on:

“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.”

He also said:

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

67. Usama Bin Laden remains in charge, and the mastermind, of
Al Qaida. In Al Qaida, an operation on the scale of the 11
September attacks would have been approved by Usama Bin Laden
himself.

68. The modus operandi of 11 September was entirely consistent
with previous attacks. Al Qaida’s record of atrocities is
characterised by meticulous long-term planning, a desire to inflict
mass casualties, suicide bombers, and multiple simultaneous
attacks.

69. The attacks of 11 September 2001 are entirely consistent
with the scale and sophistication of the planning which went into
the attacks on the East Af