[rohrpost] Fwd: noch ein Interview mit Bin Laden

[Krystian Woznicki]

At 22:40 12.12.01 +0100, Ralf Bendrath wrote:

>Diesmal vom Al Jazeeras Korrespondent in Kabul, aufgenommen im Oktober
>nach dem Beginn der US-Angriffe. Al Jazeera hatte damals auf eine
>Ausstrahlung verzichtet. Ein Grund: Der Interviewer wurde von Bin Laden
>respektlos behandelt. Ein anderer Grund: Ein privates Treffen des
>US-Vizepr=E4sidenten Dick Cheney mit dem Emir von Katar, Shaykh Hamad
>Bin-Khalifah Al Thani, einige Tage zuvor, bei dem auch =FCber die Rolle
>von Al Jazeera gesprochen wurde. Das Video machte dann bei den
>Regierungen im arabischen Raum und sp=E4ter der USA und Gro=DFbritanniens
>die Runde, ist aber offiziell bis heute nicht ver=F6ffentlicht.
>RB
>
>New York Times
>December 12, 2001
>
>Interview With Bin Laden Makes The Rounds
>
>By James Risen and Patrick E. Tyler
>
>WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 =97 Al Jazeera, the Persian Gulf television network,
>obtained an exclusive interview with Osama bin Laden in October, the
>only television interview the terrorist leader has given since the war
>in Afghanistan began. But the network never broadcast the interview,
>partly because it revealed how much Mr. bin Laden had intimidated the
>network's correspondent, according to American and Middle Eastern
>government officials.
>
>Later, however, Britain and the United States secretly obtained copies
>of the interview, and on Nov. 14, British Prime Minister Tony Blair used
>it to buttress the West's public case that Mr. bin Laden was responsible
>for the Sept. 11 attacks.
>
>At the time, Mr. Blair did not identify the source of the tape, and said
>only that it was "an inflammatory interview, which has been circulating,
>in the form of a video, among supporters in the Al Qaeda network." Mr.
>Blair referred to the tape when he issued his second public statement
>detailing evidence collected by the United States and Britain to prove
>that Mr. bin Laden planned the Sept. 11 attacks.
>
>But American and Middle Eastern government officials now say that the
>tape was from the interview with Al Jazeera, believed to have been
>conducted on Oct. 20 somewhere in Afghanistan by a correspondent then
>working out of Kabul.
>
>The tape of the interview was produced earlier than the one discussed in
>recent days by the Bush administration in which Mr. bin Laden, speaking
>during a dinner, reportedly gloats about the attacks. That was a home
>movie of sorts; this is a professional television interview.
>
>Mr. Blair, quoting from Al Jazeera's interview, said that Mr. bin Laden
>declared that "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 quotes Mr. bin Laden as saying that "the bad terror is
>what America and Israel are practicing against our people, and what we
>are practicing is the good terror that will stop them doing what they
>are doing."
>
>The decision not to broadcast the tape is believed to have been made
>after Al Jazeera news executives reviewed it at their headquarters in
>Qatar. The tape shows Mr. bin Laden's refusal to answer the reporter's
>questions; instead he dictates both the questions and the answers. The
>correspondent for Al Jazeera, who has not been identified, appeared
>fearful and intimidated. "He looked like a wimp," said one government
>official.
>
>Al Jazeera officials in Doha, Qatar's capital, refused to respond fully
>to questions about the tape. Several of them denied knowing about an
>interview with Mr. bin Laden.
>
>Abrahim Helal, a news executive with the network, said in an interview
>that he did not know of any interview turned over to the British and
>American governments.
>
>Since Sept. 11, Mr. bin Laden is known to have granted only one other
>interview besides the one that Al Jazeera apparently decided not to
>broadcast. That was with a Pakistani newspaper reporter who was brought
>into Afghanistan to meet him. In addition, Mr. bin Laden released a
>videotaped statement on the day the United States-led military campaign
>began, Oct. 7.
>
>The United States and Britain have still not released the videotape from
>the Al Jazeera interview, and officials said there are no plans to do
>so.
>
>After Al Jazeera decided not to broadcast the tape, it began circulating
>among Arab government officials and others in the Middle East, and
>eventually both the United States and Britain separately obtained
>copies, officials said. "It seemed like people everywhere in the Middle
>East had seen the tape, including the King of Jordan," one official
>said.
>
>Al Jazeera officials did not hand over the tape directly to the British
>government for use in Prime Minister Blair's statement, and the British
>and the Americans appear to have obtained it from officials in Arab
>governments who were increasingly concerned by Al Jazeera's growing
>influence in the region.
>
>Prime Minister Blair decided not to reveal the tape's origin in part
>because the British government wanted to keep the focus on what Mr. bin
>Laden said in the tape, rather than on the work of Al Jazeera. American
>officials have also refused to discuss the circumstances surrounding the
>videotaped interview publicly to avoid harming the method in which it
>was obtained. When asked about the videotape, one American official said
>only that Al Jazeera has tried to be "responsible" in what does and
>doesn't broadcast.
>
>Al Jazeera's decision not to broadcast the interview with Mr. bin Laden
>followed a private meeting in October between Vice President Dick Cheney
>and the Emir of Qatar, Shaykh Hamad Bin-Khalifah Al Thani, about Al
>Jazeera's inflammatory, anti-American broadcasts. Qatar's ruling family
>has financed the network.
>
>American officials stress that Mr. Cheney's complaints about Al Jazeera
>were general in nature, but Al- Jazeera's decision not to air the tape
>followed the meeting in Washington.