RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE TERRORIST ATROCITIES IN THE UNITED STATES, 11 SEPTEMBER 2001
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The attached document
summarises both the public and newly declassified material linking Usama Bin
Laden and the Al Qaida network to the terrorist atrocities of 11 September 2001.
It updates the document published by the Prime Minister on 4 October.
The update has been
produced to remind people why we are engaged in this action, and to publish new
information:
·
There
is now information linking the majority of the hijackers with Al Qaida, rather
than just the three originally stated.
·
A
senior Bin Laden associate has admitted since 4 October to have trained some of
the hijackers in Afghanistan.
·
Bin
Laden's own statements and those of his lieutenants since 4 October have also
been increasingly self-incriminatory. He
has made no attempt to deny responsibility for the attacks:
-
On 7 October he said: "Here is
America struck by God Almighty ...so that its greatest buildings are destroyed...I
swear to God that America will not live in peace before peace reigns in
Palestine, and before the army of the infidels depart the land of Mohammed".
-
On 9 October one of his spokesmen praised the 11 September atrocities as "a
good deed" which "transferred the battle into the US heartland".
He warned "the storm of plane attacks will not abate".
-
On 13 October, one of his associates broadcast direct threats referring back to
11 September: "we...advise the Muslims in the United States and Britain...not
to travel by plane. We also advise
them not to live in high-rise buildings and towers".
·
Bin
Laden has come closest to admitting responsibility in an inflammatory video made
on 20 October which has been circulating among supporters of the Al Qaida
network:
-
Referring to the attacks on US buildings: "It is what we instigated for a
while, in self-defence…So if avenging the killing of our people is terrorism,
let history be a witness that we are terrorists".
-
He also issued explicit threats: "Bush
and Blair...don't understand any language but the language of force.
Every time they kill us, we kill them, so the balance of terror is
achieved".
-
He pledged to continue the campaign of terror:
"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 again admitted to terrorism: "The
bad terror is what America and Israel are practising against our people...what
we are practising is the good terror that will stop them doing what they are
doing".
·
In
an interview to the Pakistani paper Dawn in November 2001, he again made a
number of self-incriminatory threats and statements.