Hard-Line Islamic Militants in Pakistan Call Bin Laden Videotape a U.S. Fabrication
By Amir Zia Associated Press Writer
Published: Dec 14, 2001
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Hard-line Islamic militants in Pakistan said Friday that the videotape showing terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden chuckling about the devastation of Sept. 11 was fabricated by the United States to justify the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan.
"This videotape is not authentic," said Riaz Durrani, a spokesman of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, which spearheaded a series of violent pro-Taliban rallies in Pakistan. "Americans made it up after failing to get any evidence against Osama."
U.S. officials have said they hoped influential doubters in the Islamic world would be swayed by the tape. "I don't see how any rational person could come away thinking, anywhere in the world, that Osama bin Laden had nothing to do with the 9-11 events," said Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican.
Indeed, Pakistan's military-led government, which abandoned its ties to the Taliban and sided with the U.S.-led war on terrorism after Sept. 11, said the tape justified its action.
"Now today, what I can say is we have taken the right decision," said spokesman Gen. Rashid Quereshi.
But most Islamic and militant groups in Pakistan - which vehemently opposed President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led coalition - said the tape appeared to be concocted.
Ameeruddin Mughal, a spokesman for the outlawed Harkat-ul Mujahedeen, an Islamic militant group fighting in Indian Kashmir, said the tape showed somebody who resembles bin Laden - not the Saudi terrorist himself. In the age of computers and digital technology, it's not difficult to make a fake video, he said.
"The aim is to prolong the military operation in Afghanistan," he said.
The disjointed homemade videotape showed bin Laden dining with several lieutenants and an unidentified Saudi sheik. Bin Laden was shown saying in Arabic that the events of Sept. 11 "benefited Islam greatly."
Durrani said bin Laden would never express happiness over the killing of innocent people.
"Only a shallow, mad person would do such a thing," he said. "A man like Osama could never do this. It is all part of the American media war. ... They are annoyed that they have failed to get Osama or any of the Taliban leaders, and want to justify their bombing in Afghanistan."
The British-based Islamic group Al-Muhajiroun said the tape appeared to be of bin Laden, but was taken out of context.
Bin Laden was discussing not the attack at the World Trade Center, but an assault on U.S. military targets a few years ago in Saudi Arabia, said Sajeel Shahid, a spokesman for the group in Pakistan.
"Americans want to keep the Osama issue alive to justify their cruelty in Afghanistan," he said.
The rapid defeat of the Taliban under U.S. bombing and attacks by anti-Taliban forces has demoralized Islamic militants in Pakistan and took the steam out of their protests. But their sympathy toward bin Laden and the Taliban remain.
Even secular Pakistanis doubted the veracity of the tape. Iqbal Haider, a former senator from the party of ousted prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said he found it hard to believe that bin Laden would allow himself to be filmed confessing to the crime.
"It is hard to believe that a man who masterminds the September attacks which such secrecy and finesse could be that stupid and imprudent," he said. "I hate Osama and the Taliban because they inflicted incalculable damage on Muslims ... but it is hard to digest that he can be such a fool."
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