An
Exclusive Interview with Osama Bin Ladin
Talking With Terror’s Banker
ABCNEWS.com
June 9, 1998
SOMEWHERE INSIDE AFGHANISTAN, May 28 —
Armed Islamic militants led ABCNEWS Correspondent John Miller and his crew by
foot through the mountains of southern Afghanistan to the secret hideaway of
Osama Bin Ladin. The Saudi Arabian multimillionaire has ordered his private
terror network to kill Americans and Jews within the next few weeks. Here is
Miller’s interview with the man the U.S. government considers the world’s
most dangerous terrorist.
Osama Bin Ladin spoke plainly about his
enemies. Some key points:
John Miller: Mr.
Bin Ladin, to Americans you are an interesting figure: A man who comes from a
background of wealth and comforts who ended up fighting on the front lines. Many
Americans would think that’s unusual.
Osama Bin Ladin:
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The exact location of Bin Ladin’s Afghan hideaway is
a closely guarded secret.
(Magellan Geographix/ABCNEWS.com)
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Thanks be to Allah. It is hard for one to understand if the person does not
understand Islam. In our religion we believe that Allah created us to worship
him. Allah is the one who created us and blessed us with this religion, and
orders us to carry out the holy struggle “jihad” to raise the word of Allah
above the words of the unbelievers.
We believe this is a form of worship we must follow
despite our financial ability. This is a response to Westerners and secularists
in the Arab world who claim the reason for the awakening and the return to Islam
is financial difficulties. This is untrue. In fact, the return of the people to
Islam is a blessing from Allah, and their return is a need for Allah.
This is not a strange issue. During the days of jihad,
thousands of young men who were well off financially left the Arabian Peninsula
and other areas and joined the fighting—hundreds of them were killed in
Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya. We pray Allah grants them martyr status.
John Miller: You
have been described as the “World’s Most Wanted Man.” There is word that
the American government intends to put a price on your head in the millions for
your capture. Do you think about that? Does it worry you?
Osama Bin Ladin:
Praise be to Allah. It does not worry us what the Americans think. What worries
us is pleasing Allah. The Americans impose themselves on everyone who believes
in his religion and his rights. They accuse our children in Palestine of being
terrorists. Those children that have no weapons and have not even reached
maturity. At the same time they defend a country with its airplanes and tanks,
and the state of the Jews, that has a policy to destroy the future of these
children.
Clinton stands after Qana and defends the horrible
massacre that severed the heads of children and killed about 100 persons.
Clinton stands and claims Israel has the right to defend itself. We do not worry
about American opinion, or the fact the place prices on our heads.
We as Muslims believe that our fate is set. If the
whole world decides to get together and kill us before our time has come, we
will not die, our livelihood is set. No matter how much pressure America places
on the regime in Riyadh to freeze our assets and to prevent people from
contributing to this great cause, we rely on Allah.
John Miller: You
have said, “If the Americans are so brave they will come and arrest me.” Do
you think that is something my country will try?
Osama Bin Ladin:
We have seen in the last decade the decline of the American government and the
weakness of the American soldier who is ready to wage Cold Wars and unprepared
to fight long wars. This was proven in Beirut when the Marines fled after two
explosions. It also proves they can run in less than 24 hours, and this was also
repeated in Somalia. We are ready for all occasions. We rely on Allah.
Fatwa
Against Americans
John Miller: Mr. Bin Ladin, you have issued a fatwa
calling on all Muslims to kill Americans where they can, when they can. Is that
directed at all Americans, just American military, just Americans in Saudi
Arabia?
Osama Bin Ladin:
As we mentioned before, Allah ordered us in this religion to purify Muslim land
of all non-believers, and especially the Arabian Peninsula where the Ke’ba is.
After WWII, the Americans became more aggressive and oppressive, especially in
the Muslim world.
We are surprised this question is coming from
Americans. Each action will solicit a similar reaction. We must use such
punishment to keep your evil away from Muslims, Muslim children and women.
American history does not distinguish between civilians and military, and not
even women and children. They are the ones who used the bombs against Nagasaki.
Can these bombs distinguish between infants and military? America does not have
a religion that will prevent it from destroying all people.
Your situation with Muslims in Palestine is shameful,
if there is any shame left in America. In the Sabra and Shatilla massacre, a
cooperation between Zionist and Christian forces, houses were demolished over
the heads of children. Also, by testimony of relief workers in Iraq, the
American led sanctions resulted in the death of over 1 million Iraqi children.
All of this was done in the name of American interests.
We believe that the biggest thieves in the world and the terrorists are the
Americans. The only way for us to fend off these assaults is to use similar
means.
We do not differentiate between those dressed in
military uniforms and civilians; they are all targets in this fatwa. Especially
since American officials were released after the Khobar bombing, asking all
American civilians to contact the security department in the embassy with
information on Muslims and activists. The fatwa includes all that share or take
part in killing of Muslims, assaulting holy places, or those who help the Jews
occupy Muslim land. World
Trade Center Bombing
John Miller: Ramzi Yousef was a follower. Do you
remember him? Did you know him?
Osama Bin Ladin:
Ramzi Yousef, after the World Trade Center bombing became a well known Muslim
personality, and all Muslims know him. Unfortunately, I did not know him before
the incident.
I remember him as a Muslim who defended Islam from
American aggression. He took this effort to let the Americans know that their
government assaults Muslims to insure Israeli interest, to insure Jews.
American will see many youths who will follow Ramzi
Yousef.
John Miller: Is
it true that when Ramzi Yousef was captured, he was in a guesthouse that you
were paying for?
Osama Bin Ladin:
What was broadcast in the news and what we learned is that he was captured in
Pakistan in a hotel.
Plot
to Kill the President
John Miller: Wali Khan Amin Shah was captured
in Manila. American authorities believed he was working for you, funded by you,
setting up training camps there and that part of his plan was to plan the
assassination of President Clinton during his trip to Manila.
Osama Bin Ladin:
Wali Khan is a Muslim youth. In Afghanistan, he is nicknamed “The Lion.” He
is one of the best youths. We were good friends. We fought together in the same
trench against the Russians until Allah sent them away in humiliating defeat.
You mentioned that he works for me—we do not have anyone who works for someone
else. We all work for Allah and await his reward. And regarding your mention of
his attempt to assassinate President Clinton, it is not surprising. I did not
know about it, but it is not surprising.
As I said, every action solicits a similar reaction.
What does Clinton expect from those whom he killed and assaulted their children
and mothers? This is not a surprising matter.
John Miller: Federal
Authorities in The United States are still investigating their suspicion that
you ordered and funded the attacks on the United States military in El Khohar
and Riyadh.
Osama Bin Ladin:
We roused the people, the Muslims, and carried fatwas from our Ulima after the
Saudi government imprisoned them to placate the American government. The most
prominent are Dhekh Salman ben Fahd al-Odeh, Safad ben Abdel Rahman el Awli.
So we carried these fatwas and roused the people to
eject this enemy from the holy land, some of the people listened, from among
them, Khaled el-Sa’eed, Abdel Azziz el Me’them, Hamood al Hajery and Misleh
el Samray. We pray Allah grants them martyr status. They have raised the head of
the Muslim nation high, and washed away some of the dishonor we had to bear by
the Saudi government’s collaboration with the American government in the land
of Allah.
We look at these young men as great heroes and martyrs
who followed the steps of the prophet peace upon him. We called and they
answered. We pray to Allah to accept them and bless their parents with patience.
John Miller: You
have been painted in America as a terrorist leader. To your followers you are a
hero. How do you see yourself?
Osama Bin Ladin:
As I said before, we do not worry about what America says. We look at ourselves
and our brethren as worshipers of Allah who created us to worship him and follow
his books and prophets. I am one of Allah’s worshipers. I worship Allah, which
includes carrying out the jihad to raise Allah’s word and evict the Americans
from all Muslim land.
Desire
to Destroy the U.S.
John Miller: No one expected the mujahideen to
defeat the Russians in Afghanistan that caused a surprise to everyone. What do
you see as the future for the American involvement in the Middle East and taking
on groups like yours?
Osama Bin Ladin:
NATO, that America created, we know it spent $455 billion American dollars in
improving weaponry to protect Europe and America from Russia, and they did not
fire a single shot. Allah stood with the Muslims, the Afghani mujahideen, and
those who fought with them from other Muslim countries. We fought against the
Russians and the Soviet Union until, not to say we defeated them, but Allah
defeated them, they became non-existent. There is a lesson to learn from this
for he who wishes to learn.
The Soviet Union entered in the last week of 1979, in
December, and with Allah’s help their flag was folded December 25 a few years
later and thrown in the trash, and there was nothing left to call Soviet Union.
We are sure of Allah’s victory and our victory
against the Americans and the Jews as promised by the prophet peace be up on
him: “Judgment day shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, whereas
the Jews will hide behind trees and stones, and the tree and the stone will
speak and say ‘Muslim, behind me a Jew come and kill him’, except for the
al-Ghargad tree, which is a Jewish plant.”
We are sure of our victory. Our battle with the
Americans is larger than our battle with the Russians. The Americans made a very
stupid mistake that no one has made before. They attacked the Muslim symbol, the Kibla, of 200 million people. The reaction was very encouraging by the Muslim
scholars and the youth.
We predict a black day for America and the end of the
United States as United States, and will be separate states, and will retreat
from our land and collect the bodies of its sons back to America. Allah willing.
The
Saudi Royal Family
John Miller: What do you see as the future of
the Saudi Royal family and their involvement with America and United States
military?
Osama Bin Ladin:
History has an answer to your question. Any government that sells its peoples’
interests and betrays its people and takes actions that removes it from the
Muslim nation will not succeed.
We predict that the Riyadh leader and those with him
that stood with the Jews and Christians and forfeited Al-Haramien, the holy
shrines, to Jews and Christians with American identities or other will
disintegrate. They have left the Muslim nation.
We predict that like the Iran Royal family, the Shah,
they will disperse and disappear. After Allah gave them property on the most
sacred land and gave them wealth that is unheard of before from oil, still they
sinned and did not value Allah’s gift. We predict destruction and dispersal
after they in a great devastation against the Muslim nation, especially what
happens to the Muslim people of Iraq.
The prophet said, “A woman entered hell because of a
cat. She did not feed it and blocked it from finding food on its own.” She is
going to hell for blocking cat to death, but what say to those who agreed and
gave reason for the hundreds of thousands of troops to blockade millions of
Muslims in Iraq?
John Miller: Do
you think the Saudi government wants the American military to stay?
Osama Bin Ladin:
This does not a make a difference, since American opposition, aggression and
greed still exists. They came by word of government. It does not make a
difference if the government wants you to stay or leave, you will leave when the
youth send you the wooden boxes and the coffins, and you will carry in it the
bodies of American troops and civilians. This is when you will leave.
The Muslim masses are moving towards liberating the
Muslim worlds. Allah willing, we will win.
His
Next Targets
John Miller: Describe the situation when your
men took on the Americans in Somalia? Where you there?
Osama Bin Ladin:
After Allah honored us with victory in Afghanistan, and justice prevailed and
the killing of those who slaughtered millions of Muslims in the Muslim
republics, it cleared from Muslim minds the myth of superpowers. The youth
ceased from seeing America as a superpower. After leaving Afghanistan they
headed for Somalia and prepared for a long battle, thinking that the Americans
were like the Russians, but they were surprised when the Americans entered with
300,000 troops, and collected more troops from the world—5,000 from Pakistan,
5,000 from India, 5,000 from Bangladesh, 5,000 from Egypt, Senegal and others
like Saudi Arabia.
The youth were surprised at the low morale of the
American soldiers and realized more than before that the America soldiers are
paper tigers. After a few blows, they ran in defeat and America forgot about all
the hoopla and media propaganda after leaving the Gulf War and destroying
infrastructure—and destroying baby formula factories, all civilian factories,
bridges and dams that help planting food—about being the world leader, and the
leader of the new world order. After a few blows, they forgot about this title
and left, dragging their corpses and their shameful defeat and stopped using
such titles. And they learned in America that this name is larger then them.
When this took place, I was in Sudan, and this great
defeat pleased me very much, the way it pleases all Muslims.
Allah willing the next victory will be in Hejaz and Najd,
Saudi Arabia, and it will make the Americans forget the horrors of Vietnam and
Beirut.
John Miller: Many
Americans believe that fighting army to army like what happened in Afghanistan
is heroic for either army, but setting off bombs killing civilians and innocents
like the World Trade Center is terrorism.
Osama Bin Ladin:
He is using talk that they are not following. After our victory in Afghanistan
and defeating the Russians, the world media, lead by the American media, started
a campaign against us that is still going on today despite the fact that the
Russians left in l989, almost 10 years ago. They have carried out this campaign
accusing us of being terrorists without any action being taken by the mujahideen
against the real terrorists, the Americans. That is one side.
On the other side, American policy does not admit to
differentiating between civilians, military, and child, human or animal.
Examples I mentioned before are Nagasaki and Hiroshima where they tried to
eliminate a whole people.
When it comes to Muslims, there is testimony from
Westerners and Christians who testified to the death of hundreds of thousands of
our children in Iraq. And there is Qana, Sabra and Shattila, Dir Yasin and
Bosnia.
The crusaders continued their slaughter of our mothers,
sisters and children. America every time makes a decision to support them and
prevent weapons from reaching the Muslims, and allow Serbian butchers to
slaughter Muslims.
You do not have a religion that prevents you from
carrying out these actions and therefore you do not have the right to object to
like treatment. Every action solicits a reaction. It is a punishment that fits
the crime. At the same time, our primary target are military and those in its
employment.
Our religion forbids us to kill innocents—children,
women who are not combatants. Women soldiers who place themselves in the battle
trenches receive the same treatment as fighting men.
Coordination
of Global Terror
John Miller: Is there a high council of the
leaders of different groups like yours that decides on ways and means to attack
Americans?
Osama Bin Ladin:
After the Americans entered the Holy Land, many emotions were roused in the
Muslim world, more than we have seen before. A great meeting took a place a few
days ago in Pakistan, and it was attended by 150 scholars in Pakistan. The goal
of the meeting was to work toward liberating the Holy Land and coordinate
efforts between Muslim masses in the area.
Also, with Allah’s blessings, scholars from
Afghanistan, India and other Muslim nations’ individual fatwas were passed,
but here great joint fatwas were passed. The cooperation is expanding between
general supporters of this religion. From this effort, the International Islamic
Front for the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders was formed, which we are a member
of with other groups. It has a higher council to coordinate rousing the Muslim
nation to carry out jihad against the Jews and the crusaders.
John Miller: The
American People by the large do not know the name Osama Bin Ladin, but they soon
will. Do you have a message to the American people?
Osama Bin Ladin:
I say that the American people gave leadership to a traitorous leadership. This
became very clear and especially in Clinton’s government. The American
government, we think, is an agent that represents the Israel inside America. If
we look at sensitive departments in the present government like the defense
department or the state department, or sensitive security departments like the
CIA and others, we find that Jews have the first word in the American
government, which is how they use America to carry out their plans in the world
and especially the Muslim world.
The presence of Americans in the Holy Land supports the
Jews and gives them a safe back. The American government, in a time where there
are millions of Americans living on the street and those living below the
standard of living and below the poverty line, we find the American government
turning toward helping Israel in occupying our land and building settlements in
the Holy Land.
The American government is throwing away the lives of
Americans in Saudi Arabia for the interests of the Jews. The Jews are a people
who Allah cited in his holy book the Koran as those who attacked prophets with
lies and killings, and attacked Mary and accused her of a great sin. They are a
people who killed Allah’s prophets—would they not kill, rape and steal from
humans?
They believe that all humans are created for their use,
and found that the Americans are the best-created beings for that use. The
American Government is driving America to destruction and those same ones have
no doubts about America being a superpower in the next decade.
So, we tell the American as a people, and we tell the
mothers of soldiers, and American mothers in general, if they value their lives
and those of their children, find a nationalistic government that will look
after their interests and not the interest of the Jews.
The continuation of the tyranny will bring the fighting
to America, like Ramzi Yousef and others. This is my message to the American
people to look for a serious government that looks out for their interest and
does not attack others, their lands or their honor.
John Miller: Mr.
Bin Ladin, these are most of the questions we came with. Is there anything else
that I did not ask that you would like to add?
Osama Bin Ladin:
We would like to stress that we are on close contact with Muslim masses, praise
be to Allah. The issue of liberating Holy Lands is not my personal desire, but I
am just a worshiper of Allah and one of Allah’s soldiers in the Muslim nation.
The movement is driving fast and light forward. And I
am sure of our victory with Allah’s help against America and the Jews. We see
this then in the strength of the reaction, that every day the Americans delay
their departure, for every day they delay, they will receive a new corpse from
Muslim countries.
The Saudi Arabian government captured a few months ago
in Ramadan a number of missiles, anti aircraft missiles, SAM and stringer
missiles.
Can the America government explain to its people when a
SAM missile is launched against a passenger military airplane with 250 soldiers
abroad? Can they justify their deaths? What the Saudi Arabian government
captured is much less than what was not captured. The American government, if it
has anything left to hang on to, has no choice but to pull its sons from the
Holy Land especially and the Muslim land in general. And to refrain from
supporting in any way the Israeli government and Jews who occupy our land.
Relationship
with Sheik Abdel Rahman
We place the complete responsibility on the American
government of any attacks against Muslims and its support of regimes in our
countries against the best interest of the people. We also hold them responsible
for its attacks on Islamic symbols, Sheik Abdel Rahman, who is considered one of
most prominent Islamic scholars who Allah gave the courage to speak the truth.
We hear that he is in a bad health condition, and he is
a man beyond 60 years of age and is blind and America treats him badly. The
imprisonment of Sheik Omar is an attack on the Muslim religion, and countries.
We hold it completely responsible for the imprisonment of Sheik Omar and the
imprisonment of other Muslims in America.
My word to American journalists is not to ask why we
did that, but to ask what had their government done that forced us to defend
ourselves?
This is all I have to say.
John Miller: What
are you going to do, just picking a word or two, did he by any chance mention the
new fatwa issued by Abdel Rahman last week?
Osama Bin Ladin:
No.
John Miller: I
was wondering if you could tell me the story of the gun behind you and how you
got it? It is a kind of a legend in many ways, that during the Afghan war you
got it in hand-to-hand combat with Russians who were on a three day assault on
the camp.
Osama Bin Ladin:
We went through vicious battles with the Russians. It is enough to just say with
Russians, the are known in the West for their brutality and viciousness. They
used poisonous gas against us, and I was subjected to this. They used airplanes
against our position, and we lost many fighters, but we were able to deter many
commando attacks, unlike anything before.
John Miller: From
history, in 1897, Teddy Roosevelt was a wealthy man who grew up in a privileged
situation who fought on the frontline, put together his own team not from the
army, handpicked his own men and went into battle. You are like the Middle East
version of Teddy Roosevelt.
Osama Bin Ladin:
We are worshipers of Allah and we carry out our duties. Our duty is to call on
all nations to join the light. Our first duty is being people of this religion
and to fight for this religion.
Since we grew up, American weapons were on our heads
and the heads of our children and mothers, like in Qana and others.
The Westerners have been under the impression that we
are butchers. They just only need to look at their brother in Eastern Europe,
Turkey and Albania to see those who embraced Islam and lived happily with it for
centuries. The Westem masses have fallen under the effect of Jewish media who do
not broadcast on Muslims except that we butcher, and without showing that of
number of those us who were butchered is the biggest number.
It is our duty to lead people to light.
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