Now this is interesting, because the Telegraph had said that: "The footage, to which the Telegraph obtained access in the Middle East yesterday, was not made for public release via the al-Jazeera television network used by bin Laden for propaganda purposes in the past. It is believed to be intended as a rallying call to al-Qa'eda members." (source)
So why would an in-house tape need an interviewer, presumably from the media? What is odder still is that the Telegraph article indicates that its employees "had access" to the tape, which I would assume means viewing it. Yet suddenly there is only a transcript available. Someone is undoubtedly pulling our leg, but just who, the Telegraph or the Blair government? In fact, did the tape ever exist at all?
So this alleged confession, totally contradictory to what bin Laden allegedly said back in late September in the Ummat interview, turns out to be smoke and mirrors, and the Telegraph article totally unprovable, the whole piece possibly being Tabloid journalism or outright propaganda. Take you pick.
In my last article I quoted at length from the underreported Ummat interview with bin Laden on September 28 wherein he allegedly denies masterminding 9/11, but this was also not his only public denial. At the cost of being a little redundant, I want to quote from Nicholas Kollerstrom, PhD of the London 9/11 Sceptics, who goes into greater detail:
On September 12th a Pakistani newspaper reported OBL's first denial that he had been involved in the event of 9/11, then on the 16th OBL's assistant Abdul Samad faxed a message to the Afghan Islamic Press (in Islamabad, Pakistan) that was broadcast by al-Jazeera in Quatar. In it OBL declared, 'I categorically state that I have not done this,' adding that he had an agreement with Mohammed Omar, chief Mullah of the Taliban in Afghanistan, that prohibited his involvement in such political activity. A week later, on 22nd September he gave a longer set of replies to questions from the Pakistani newspaper 'Ummaut':
"I was not involved in the September 11 attacks in the United States nor did I have knowledge of the attacks. There exists a government within a government within the United States. The United States should try to trace the perpetrators of these attacks within itself; to the people who want to make the present century a century of conflict between Islam and Christianity......"
On the 20th September, OBL was officially designated by President Bush as responsible for the attacks. Then on 23rd Secretary of State Colin Powell promised that a paper would shortly be ready with the supporting evidence. Although announced repeatedly, no such paper ever appeared. A letter by OBL of 24th September urges Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan to stand firm against aggression from the 'Crusaders,' and contains no hint that he might have been involved in the event of 9-11, still less any approval of the notion of attacking America. (source)
So thus far we have quite a muddle. On the one hand we have communiqués from bin Laden denying any involvement in 9/11, and on the other hand we have Britain and the United States declaring that they have proof of bin Laden's complicity, without, however, ever revealing this proof. In propaganda warfare, this would be considered somewhat of a stalemate. What would suddenly tip the scales in Bush's and Blair's favor, so that their allegations would suddenly win the day internationally?
We have already alluded to the answer above. The finger on the scale would be the "American video".
The American Video
As doubts about bin Laden's complicity in 9/11 lingered in the world's consciousness even after America launched its invasion of Afghanistan on October 7, suddenly on December 13, 2001, startling information flashed across TV screens and over airwaves that a video tape had just been released by the Pentagon which the Bush administration claimed clearly proves that Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of the horrific attacks. Here is what was broadcast on PBS's Newshour that day:
JIM LEHRER: A most chilling videotape was made public today. The pentagon released a tape of Osama bin Laden discussing the successful attacks of September 11. Administration officials said it makes clear that bin Laden was the mastermind behind the operation. Ray Suarez begins our report.
RAY SUAREZ: The tape bore a label indicating it was made on November 9. Administration officials wouldn't reveal exactly how or when they got it, except to say it was found in a house in Jalalabad after anti-Taliban forces moved in. The U.S. Government translated the Arabic conversation and provided subtitles. The tape, which has a home video quality, shows bin Laden sitting on the floor in a bare room in a house in Kandahar. With him are several other men, including two aides and an unidentified cleric, or Sheikh. Bin Laden, identified on screen as UBL, made it clear he planned the September 11 attacks.
Bin Laden says, "We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all. Due to my experience in this field I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only." (Translated) "This is all that we had hoped for."
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