Bin Laden Has Nuclear Arms, He Tells Paper — ‘A leading
Pakistani newspaper published an interview with Osama
bin Laden today in which he said, “We have chemical and
nuclear weapons as a deterrent and if America used them
against us, we reserve the right to use them.” ‘ He declined to answer an interviewer’s question about how and where he had obtained the weapons.
(A)sked… if he could justify the deaths of “innocent
people,” including hundreds of Muslims, in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on
the United States, Mr. bin Laden called this a “major point of jurisprudence,” replying that,
“America and its allies are massacring us in Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir
and Iraq. The Muslims have the right to attack America in reprisal.” He
said, “The Sept. 11 attacks were not targeted at women and children. The real targets were America’s
icons of military and economic power.”Mr. bin Laden blamed the “entire America” for “anti-Muslim policies.”
“The American people should remember that they pay taxes to their government, they elect their
president, their government manufactures arms and gives them to Israel and Israel uses them to massacre
Palestinians,” he said.Late in the interview, Mr. bin Laden allowed that “there are many innocent and good-hearted people in
the West.” But, he said, “The Jewish lobby has taken America and the West hostage.”
[US analysts, while recognizing that bin Laden has made efforts to acquire nuclear materials, consider it unlikely that he has succeeded. How much can we rely on such assurances, especially in the face of such a convoluted reasoning that would rationalize and propel their indiscriminate use?]
Ananova, admittedly one of those more sensationalistic British media sites, goes further:
Bin Laden may have shipped nuclear bomb to US: “Osama bin Laden may have already shipped weapons of mass destruction to the US.
Pakistan’s Frontier Post says the Al-Qaida network has transported nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons there.
It claims at least two briefcases containing nuclear weapons may have reached US shores.
The report says Pakistani and US investigators have been able to identify that at least one such weapon has been acquired by Al Qaida from Central Asian groups.
The device of Russian origin, can be activated through a timer or cell phone command.”
