Osama Uncensored!

Osama bin Laden, in an interview with the Pakistani paper Ummat, claims that the United States has deliberately concealed the true enormity of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“According to my information,” says bin Laden, “the death toll is much higher than what the US government has stated. But the Bush administration does not want the panic to spread.”

The place and date of the interview with bin Laden, published on 28 September, were not revealed. His remarks were republished on the web site www.khilafa.com.

The comments attributed to bin Laden appear to bear out the report, first published in CounterPunch on September 26, that the perpetrators of the attack hoped and intended to kill a much higher number of people (as many as 250,000) than has appeared to be the case.

Clearly bin Laden is still claiming that the attacks were a much greater “success” than has been reported. However, he continues to deny direct responsibility for the attacks.

At one point in the interview he suggests that American Jews, still upset about the presidential election, may be responsible. (First they voted for Buchanan in Palm Beach, then this?)

He also suggests that America may have bombed itself in order to justify directing more money to intelligence agencies.

Or maybe Russia did it, or India, or Serbia, he suggests.

However, he continues, since the American system is “totally in control of the American Jews,” and “the American people are themselves the slaves of the Jews and are forced to live according to the principles and laws laid by them,” Israel should be punished for the attacks.

Why American Jews would attack a system that is “totally under their control” is not addressed in the interview. CP

David Vest is a writer, poet and piano player for the Cannonballs. A native of Alabama, he now lives in Portland, Oregon. Visit his webpage for samples of the Cannonballs’ brand of take no prisoners rock & roll and other Vest columns: http://www.mindspring.com/~dcqv