CNN airs defiant bin Laden's October interview

Friday February 1, 12:11 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden, accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks, said two weeks after the United States started hunting for him in Afghanistan that "the battle has moved inside America," in an interview shown by CNN on Thursday.

The interview was conducted on October 21 by the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera network, which said it decided not to show it because it was not newsworthy, but CNN obtained the videotape and aired it despite protests from Al-Jazeera.

"The battle has moved inside America. We will work to continue this battle, God permitting, until victory or until we meet God," bin Laden said in the interview.

"I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed," bin Laden said in the interview as the U.S. war on terrorism raged in Afghanistan. "The U.S. government will lead the American people in -- and the West in general -- into an unbearable hell and a choking life."

The U.S. war against bin Laden and his now ousted Taliban protectors in Afghanistan began on Oct. 7 but Washington is still hunting bin Laden and is not sure if he is alive or dead.

CNN said on Thursday it had obtained the Al-Jazeera interview, which was bin Laden's first broadcast interview after September 11, from a "non-government source."

Bin Laden appeared to reject U.S. charges of his role in the attacks in New York and Washington that killed more than 3,000 people.

"America has made many accusations against us and many other Muslims around the world. Its charge that we are carrying out acts of terrorism is unwarranted."

But he then added, "If inciting people to do that is terrorism, and if killing those who kill our sons is terrorism, then let history be witness that we are terrorists."

ANTHRAX 'PUNISHMENT'

Asked if he was behind the deadly anthrax attacks in the United States that began after the Sept. 11 attacks, bin Laden said, "These diseases are a punishment from God and a response to oppressed mothers' prayers in Lebanon and Palestine."

During the interview conducted by Al-Jazeera's reporter in Kabul, he ridiculed White House concerns that two other on-camera statements he has issued since Sept. 11 might carry hidden messages.

"They made hilarious claims. They said that Osama's messages have codes in them to the terrorists. It's as if we were living in the time of mail by carrier pigeon, when there are no phones, no travelers, no Internet, no regular mail, no express mail and no electronic mail. I mean, these are very humorous things. They discount people's intellect," bin Laden said.

CNN defended its airing of the interview despite protests from Al-Jazeera, which had said its exclusive interview did not meet its standards and was not newsworthy.

"Once that videotape was in our possession, we felt we had to report on it, and show it because it is extremely newsworthy," said Eason Jordan, CNN's chief news executive.

Al-Jazeera said it was severing its relationship with CNN and taking "the necessary action to punish the organizations and individuals who stole this video and distributed it illegally."

Al-Jazeera has not disclosed where the hour-long interview was conducted.

CITED SOMALIA

Bin Laden also cited the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan and the United States' failed 1993 mission in Somalia as examples to suggest a U.S. defeat in Afghanistan was possible.

"We believe that the defeat of America is possible, with the help of God, and is even easier for us -- God permitting -- than the defeat of the Soviet Union was before."

In Somalia, U.S. forces pulled out after 18 U.S. special operations personnel were killed during a raid against a warlord faction in the capital Mogadishu.

"Our brothers with Somali mujahedeen and God's power fought the Americans. God granted them victory. America exited dragging its tails in failure, defeat, and ruin," bin Laden said.

The reference to the Soviet Union was to the war that drove Moscow's troops out of Afghanistan.

His claim that victory was possible against U.S. forces came just a few weeks before the collapse of his Taliban supporters in Afghanistan and the dispersal of his hard-core al Qaeda network.