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October 4
, 2001
This is the full text of the document,
entitled Responsibility for the Terrorist Atrocities in the
United States, released by the office of British Prime Minister
Tony Blair about the evidence against Osama Bin Laden.
This document does not purport to provide
a prosecutable case against Osama Bin Laden in a court of law.
Intelligence often cannot be used evidentially,
due both to the strict rules of admissibility and to the need
to protect the safety of sources.
But on the basis of all the information
available HMG is confident of its conclusions as expressed in
this document.
Introduction
1. The clear conclusions reached by the
government are: Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, the terrorist
network which he heads, planned and carried out the atrocities
on 11 September 2001; Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda retain the
will and resources to carry out further atrocities; The United
Kingdom, and United Kingdom nationals are potential targets;
and Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda were able to commit these
atrocities because of their close alliance with the Taleban
regime, which allowed them to operate with impunity in pursuing
their terrorist activity.
2. The material in respect of 1998 and
the USS Cole comes from indictments and intelligence sources.
The material in respect of 11 September comes from intelligence
and the criminal investigation to date. The details of some
aspects cannot be given, but the facts are clear from the intelligence.
3. The document does not contain the
totality of the material known to HMG, given the continuing
and absolute need to protect intelligence sources.
Summary
4. The relevant facts show: Background
Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organisation with ties to a global network,
which has been in existence for over 10 years. It was founded,
and has been led at all times, by Osama Bin Laden. Osama Bin
Laden and al-Qaeda have been engaged in a jihad against the
United States, and its allies. One of their stated aims is
the murder of US citizens, and attacks on America's allies.
Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda have been based in Afghanistan
since 1996, but have a network of operations throughout the
world.
The network includes training camps,
warehouses, communication facilities and commercial operations
able to raise significant sums of money to support its activity.
That activity includes substantial exploitation
of the illegal drugs trade from Afghanistan.
Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda and the Taleban
regime have a close and mutually dependent alliance.
Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda provide
the Taleban regime with material, financial and military support.
They jointly exploit the drugs trade.
The Taleban regime allows Bin Laden to operate his terrorist
training camps and activities from Afghanistan, protects him
from attacks from outside, and protects the drugs stockpiles.
Osama Bin Laden could not operate his
terrorist activities without the alliance and support of the
Taleban regime.
The Taleban's strength would be seriously
weakened without Osama Bin Laden's military and financial support.
Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda have the
capability to execute major terrorist attacks. Osama Bin Laden
has claimed credit for the attack on US soldiers in Somalia
in October 1993, which killed 18; for the attack on the US Embassies
in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998 which killed 224 and injured
nearly 5000; and were linked to the attack on the USS Cole
on 12 October 2000, in which 17 crew members were killed and
40 others injured.
They have sought to acquire nuclear and
chemical materials for use as terrorist weapons.
In relation to the terrorist attacks
on 11 September:
5. After 11 September we learned that,
not long before, Bin Laden had indicated he was about to launch
a major attack on America.
The detailed planning for the terrorist
attacks of 11 September was carried out by one of Osama Bin
Laden's close associates.
Of the 19 hijackers involved in 11 September
2001, it has already been established that at least three had
links with al-Qaeda.
The attacks on 11 September 2001 were
similar in both their ambition and intended impact to previous
attacks undertaken by Osama Bin laden and al-Qaeda, and also
had features in common. In particular:
Suicide attackers
(a) Co-ordinated attacks on the same
day
(b) The aim to cause maximum American
casualties
(c) Total disregard for other casualties,
including Muslims
Meticulous long-term planning (a) Absence
of warning.
6. Al-Qaeda retains the capability and
the will to make further attacks on the US and its allies, including
the United Kingdom.
7. Al-Qaeda gives no warning of terrorist
attack.
The facts
Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda
8. In 1989 Osama Bin Laden, and others,
founded an international terrorist group known as "al-Qaeda"
(the Base). At all times he has been the leader of al-Qaeda.
9. From 1989 until 1991 Osama Bin Laden
was based in Afghanistan and Peshawar, Pakistan.
In 1991 he moved to Sudan, where he stayed
until 1996. In that year he returned to Afghanistan, where he
remains.
The Taleban Regime
10. The Taleban emerged from the Afghan
refugee camps in Pakistan in the early 1990s.
By 1996 they had captured Kabul. They
are still engaged in a bloody civil war to control the whole
of Afghanistan. They are led by Mullah Omar.
11. In 1996 Osama Bin Laden moved back
to Afghanistan. He established a close relationship with Mullah
Omar, and threw his support behind the Taleban.
Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban regime
have a close alliance on which both depend for their continued
existence.
They also share the same religious values
and vision.
12. Osama Bin Laden has provided the
Taleban regime with troops, arms, and money to fight the Northern
Alliance.
He is closely involved with Taleban military
training, planning and operations. He has representatives in
the Taleban military command structure.
He has also given infrastructure assistance
and humanitarian aid. Forces under the control of Osama Bin
Laden have fought alongside the Taleban in the civil war in
Afghanistan.
13. Omar has provided Bin Laden with
a safe haven in which to operate, and has allowed him to establish
terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
They jointly exploit the Afghan drugs
trade. In return for active al-Qaeda support, the Taleban allow
al-Qaeda to operate freely, including planning, training and
preparing for terrorist activity.
In addition the Taleban provide security
for the stockpiles of drugs.
14. Since 1996, when the Taleban captured
Kabul, the United States government has consistently raised
with them a whole range of issues, including humanitarian aid
and terrorism.
Well before 11 September 2001 they had
provided evidence to the Taleban of the responsibility of al-Qaeda
for the terrorist attacks in East Africa.
This evidence had been provided to senior
leaders of the Taleban at their request.
15. The United States government had
made it clear to the Taleban regime that al-Qaeda had murdered
US citizens, and planned to murder more.
The US offered to work with the Taleban
to expel the terrorists from Afghanistan.
These talks, which have been continuing
since 1996, have failed to produce any results.
16. In June 2001, in the face of mounting
evidence of the al-Qaeda threat, the United States warned the
Taleban that it had the right to defend itself and that it would
hold the regime responsible for attacks against US citizens
by terrorists sheltered in Afghanistan.
17. In this, the United States had the
support of the United Nations.
The Security Council, in Resolution 1267,
condemned Osama Bin Laden for sponsoring international terrorism
and operating a network of terrorist camps, and demanded that
the Taleban surrender Osama Bin Laden without further delay
so that he could be brought to justice.
18. Despite the evidence provided by
the US of the responsibility of Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda
for the 1998 East Africa bombings, despite the accurately perceived
threats of further atrocities, and despite the demands of the
United Nations, the Taleban regime responded by saying no evidence
existed against Osama Bin Laden, and that neither he nor his
network would be expelled.
19. A former Government official in Afghanistan
has described the Taleban and Osama Bin Laden as "two sides
of the same coin: Osama cannot exist in Afghanistan without
the Taleban and the Taleban cannot exist without Osama".
Al-Qaeda
20. Al-Qaeda is dedicated to opposing
'UN-Islamic' governments in Muslim countries with force and
violence.
21. Al-Qaeda virulently opposes the United
States. Osama Bin Laden has urged and incited his followers
to kill American citizens, in the most unequivocal terms.
22. On 12 October 1996 he issued a declaration
of jihad as follows: "The people of Islam have suffered
from aggression, iniquity and injustice imposed by the Zionist-Crusader
alliance and their collaborators...
"It is the duty now on every tribe
in the Arabian peninsula to fight jihad and cleanse the land
from these Crusader occupiers. Their wealth is booty to those
who kill them.
"My Muslim brothers: your brothers
in Palestine and in the land of the two Holy Places [i.e. Saudi
Arabia] are calling upon your help and asking you to take part
in fighting against the enemy - the Americans and the Israelis.
"They are asking you to do whatever
you can to expel the enemies out of the sanctities of Islam."
Later in the same year he said that "terrorising
the American occupiers [of Islamic Holy Places] is a religious
and logical obligation".
In February 1998 he issued and signed
a 'fatwa' which included a decree to all Muslims: "...the
killing of Americans and their civilian and military allies
is a religious duty for each and every Muslim to be carried
out in whichever country they are until Al Aqsa mosque has been
liberated from their grasp and until their armies have left
Muslim lands".
In the same 'fatwa' he called on Muslim
scholars and their leaders and their youths to "launch
an attack on the American soldiers of Satan".
And he concluded: "We - with God's
help - call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to
be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill Americans and
plunder their money whenever and wherever they find it.
"We also call on Muslim...to launch
the raid on Satan's US troops and the devil's supporters allying
with them, and to displace those who are behind them."
When asked, in 1998, about obtaining
chemical or nuclear weapons he said "acquiring such weapons
for the defence of Muslims [was] a religious duty".
In an interview aired on Al Jazira (Doha,
Qatar) television he stated: "Our enemy is every American
male, whether he is directly fighting us or paying taxes."
In two interviews broadcast on US television
in 1997 and 1998 he referred to the terrorists who carried out
the earlier attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 as "role
models".
He went on to exhort his followers "to
take the fighting to America."
23. From the early 1990s Osama Bin Laden
has sought to obtain nuclear and chemical materials for use
as weapons of terror.
24. Although US targets are al-Qaeda's
priority, it also explicitly threatens the United States' allies.
References to "Zionist-Crusader
alliance and their collaborators," and to "Satan's
US troops and the devil's supporters allying with them"
are references which unquestionably include the United Kingdom.
25. There is a continuing threat. Based
on our experience of the way the network has operated in the
past, other cells, like those that carried out the terrorist
attacks on 11 September, must be assumed to exist.
26. Al-Qaeda functions both on its own
and through a network of other terrorist organisations.
These include Egyptian Islamic Jihad
and other north African Islamic extremist terrorist groups,
and a number of other jihadi groups in other countries including
the Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and India.
Al-Qaeda also maintains cells and personnel
in a number of other countries to facilitate its activities.
27. Osama Bin Laden heads the al-Qaeda
network.
Below him is a body known as the Shura,
which includes representatives of other terrorist groups, such
as Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader Ayman Zawahiri and prominent
lieutenants of Bin Laden such as Abu Hafs Al-Masri. Egyptian
Islamic Jihad has, in effect, merged with al-Qaeda.
28. In addition to the Shura, al-Qaeda
has several groups dealing with military, media, financial and
Islamic issues.
29. Mohamed Atef is a member of the group
that deals with military and terrorist operations.
His duties include principal responsibility
for training al-Qaeda members.
30. Members of al-Qaeda must make a pledge
of allegiance to follow the orders of Osama Bin Laden.
31. A great deal of evidence about Osama
Bin Laden and al-Qaeda has been made available in the US indictment
for earlier crimes.
32. Since 1989, Osama Bin Laden has conducted
substantial financial and business transactions on behalf of
al-Qaeda and in pursuit of its goals.
These include purchasing land for training
camps, purchasing warehouses for the storage of items, including
explosives, purchasing communications and electronics equipment,
and transporting currency and weapons to members of al-Qaeda
and associated terrorist groups in countries throughout the
world.
33. Since 1989 Osama Bin Laden has provided
training camps and guest houses in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the
Sudan, Somalia and Kenya for the use of al-Qaeda and associated
terrorist groups.
We know from intelligence that there
are currently at least a dozen camps across Afghanistan, of
which at least four are used for training terrorists.
34. Since 1989, Osama Bin Laden has established
a series of businesses to provide income for al-Qaeda, and to
provide cover for the procurement of explosives, weapons and
chemicals, and for the travel of al-Qaeda operatives.
The businesses have included a holding
company known as 'Wadi Al Aqiq', a construction business known
as 'Al Hijra', an agricultural business known as 'Al Themar
Al Mubaraka', and investment companies known as 'Ladin International'
and 'Taba Investments'.
Osama Bin Laden and previous attacks
35. In 1992 and 1993 Mohamed Atef travelled
to Somalia on several occasions for the purpose of organising
violence against United States and United Nations troops then
stationed in Somalia.
On each occasion he reported back to
Osama Bin Laden, at his base in the Riyadh district of Khartoum.
36. In the spring of 1993 Atef, Saif
al Adel, another senior member of al-Qaeda, and other members
began to provide military training to Somali tribes for the
purpose of fighting the United Nations forces.
37. On 3 and 4 October 1993 operatives
of al-Qaeda participated in the attack on US military personnel
serving in Somalia as part of the operation 'Restore Hope'.
Eighteen US military personnel were killed
in the attack.
38. From 1993 members of al-Qaeda began
to live in Nairobi and set up businesses there, including Asma
Ltd, and Tanzanite King.
They were regularly visited there by
senior members of al-Qaeda, in particular by Atef and Abu Ubadiah
al Banshiri.
39. Beginning in the latter part of 1993,
members of al-Qaeda in Kenya began to discuss the possibility
of attacking the US Embassy in Nairobi in retaliation for US
participation in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia.
Ali Mohamed, a US citizen and admitted
member of al-Qaeda, surveyed the US Embassy as a possible target
for a terrorist attack.
He took photographs and made sketches,
which he presented to Osama Bin Laden while Bin Laden was in
Sudan.
He also admitted that he had trained
terrorists for al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in the early 1990s, and
that those whom he trained included many involved in the East
African bombings in August 1998.
40. In June or July 1998, two al-Qaeda
operatives, Fahid Mohammed Ali Msalam and Sheik Ahmed Salim
Swedan, purchased a Toyota truck and made various alterations
to the back of the truck.
41. In early August 1998, operatives
of al-Qaeda gathered in 43, New Runda Estates, Nairobi to execute
the bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi.
42. On 7 August 1998, Assam, a Saudi
national and al-Qaeda operative, drove the Toyota truck to the
US embassy. There was a large bomb in the back of the truck.
43. Also in the truck was Mohamed Rashed
Daoud Al 'Owali, another Saudi.
He, by his own confession, was an al-Qaeda
operative, who from about 1996 had been trained in al-Qaeda
camps in Afghanistan in explosives, hijacking, kidnapping,
assassination and intelligence techniques.
With Osama Bin Laden's express permission,
he fought alongside the Taleban in Afghanistan.
He had met Osama Bin Laden personally
in 1996 and asked for another 'mission'.
Osama Bin Laden sent him to East Africa
after extensive specialised training at camps in Afghanistan.
44. As the truck approached the Embassy,
Al 'Owali got out and threw a stun grenade at a security guard.
Assam drove the truck up to the rear
of the embassy. He got out and then detonated the bomb, which
demolished a multi-storey secretarial college and severely damaged
the US embassy, and the Co-operative bank building.
The bomb killed 213 people and injured
4500. Assam was killed in the explosion.
45. Al 'Owali expected the mission to
end in his death. He had been willing to die for al-Qaeda.
But at the last minute he ran away from
the bomb truck and survived. He had no money, passport or plan
to escape after the mission, because he had expected to die.
46. After a few days, he called a telephone
number in Yemen to have money transferred to him in Kenya.
The number he rang in Yemen was contacted
by Osama Bin Laden's phone on the same day as Al 'Owali was
arranging to get the money.
47. Another person arrested in connection
with the Nairobi bombing was Mohamed Sadeek Odeh. He admitted
to his involvement.
He identified the principal participants
in the bombing. He named three other persons, all of whom were
al-Qaeda or Egyptian Islamic Jihad members.
48. In Dar es Salaam the same day, at
about the same time, operatives of al-Qaeda detonated a bomb
at the US embassy, killing 11 people.
The al-Qaeda operatives involved included
Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil and Khaflan Khamis Mohamed.
The bomb was carried in a Nissan Atlas
truck, which Ahmed Khfaklan Ghailani and Sheikh Ahmed Salim
Swedan, two al-Qaeda operatives, had purchased in July 1998,
in Dar es Salaam.
49. Khaflan Khamis Mohamed was arrested
for the bombing. He admitted membership of al-Qaeda, and implicated
other members of al-Qaeda in the bombing.
50. On 7 and 8 August 1998, two other
members of al-Qaeda disseminated claims of responsibility for
the two bombings by sending faxes to media organisations in
Paris, Doha in Qatar, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
51. Additional evidence of the involvement
of al-Qaeda in the East African bombings came from a search
conducted in London of several residences and businesses belonging
to al-Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad members.
In those searches a number of documents
were found including claims of responsibility for the East African
bombings in the name of a fictitious group, 'the Islamic Army
for the liberation of the Holy Places.'
52. Al 'Owali, the would-be suicide bomber,
admitted he was told to make a videotape of himself using the
name of the same fictitious group.
53. The faxed claims of responsibility
were traced to a telephone number, which had been in contact
with Osama Bin Laden's cell phone.
The claims disseminated to the press
were clearly written by someone familiar with the conspiracy.
They stated that the bombings had been
carried out by two Saudis in Kenya, and one Egyptian in Dar
es Salaam.
They were probably sent before the bombings
had even taken place.
They referred to two Saudis dying in
the Nairobi attack. In fact, because Al 'Owali fled at the last
minute, only one Saudi died.
54. On 22 December 1998 Osama Bin Laden
was asked by Time magazine whether he was responsible for the
August 1998 attacks.
He replied: "The International Islamic
Jihad Front for the jihad against the US and Israel has, by
the grace of God, issued a crystal clear fatwa calling on the
Islamic nation to carry on Jihad aimed at liberating the holy
sites.
"The nation of Mohammed has responded
to this appeal. If instigation for jihad against the Jews and
the Americans... is considered to be a crime, then let history
be a witness that I am a criminal.
"Our job is to instigate and, by
the grace of God, we did that, and certain people responded
to this instigation."
He was asked if he knew the attackers:
"...those who risked their lives to earn the pleasure of
God are real men. They managed to rid the Islamic nation of
disgrace. We hold them in the highest esteem."
And what the US could expect of him:
"...any thief or criminal who enters another country to
steal should expect to be exposed to murder at any time...
"The US knows that I have attacked
it, by the grace of God, for more than ten years now...
"God knows that we have been pleased
by the killing of American soldiers [in Somalia in 1993].
"This was achieved by the grace
of God and the efforts of the mujahideen... Hostility towards
America is a religious duty and we hope to be rewarded for it
by God.
"I am confident that Muslims will
be able to end the legend of the so-called superpower that is
America."
55. In December 1999 a terrorist cell
linked to al- Qaeda was discovered trying to carry out attacks
inside the United States.
An Algerian, Ahmed Ressam, was stopped
at the US-Canadian border and over 100 lbs of bomb making material
was found in his car.
Ressam admitted he was planning to set
off a large bomb at Los Angeles International airport on New
Year's Day.
He said that he had received terrorist
training at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and then been instructed
to go abroad and kill US civilians and military personnel.
56. On 3 January 2000, a group of al-Qaeda
members, and other terrorists who had trained in al-Qaeda camps
in Afghanistan, attempted to attack a US destroyer with a small
boat loaded with explosives. Their boat sank, aborting the
attack.
57. On 12 October 2000, however, the
USS Cole was struck by an explosive-laden boat while refuelling
in Aden harbour. Seventeen crew were killed, and 40 injured.
58. Several of the perpetrators of the
Cole attack (mostly Yemenis and Saudis) were trained at Osama
Bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan.
Al 'Owali has identified the two commanders
of the attack on the USS Cole as having participated in the
planning and preparation for the East African embassy bombings.
59. In the months before the September
11 attacks, propaganda videos were distributed throughout the
Middle East and Muslim world by al-Qaeda, in which Osama Bin
Laden and others were shown encouraging Muslims to attack American
and Jewish targets.
60. Similar videos, extolling violence
against the United States and other targets, were distributed
before the East African embassy attacks in August 1998.
Osama Bin Laden and the 11 September
attacks
61. Nineteen men have been identified
as the hijackers from the passenger lists of the four planes
hijacked on 11 September 2001.
At least three of them have already been
positively identified as associates of al-Qaeda.
One has been identified as playing key
roles in both the East African embassy attacks and the USS Cole
attack.
Investigations continue into the backgrounds
of all the hijackers.
62. From intelligence sources, the following
facts have been established subsequent to 11 September; for
intelligence reasons, the names of associates, though known,
are not given.
In the run-up to 11 September, bin Laden
was mounting a concerted propaganda campaign amongst like-minded
groups of people - including videos and documentation - justifying
attacks on Jewish and American targets; and claiming that those
who died in the course of them were carrying out God's work.
We have learned, subsequent to 11 September,
that Bin Laden himself asserted shortly before 11 September
that he was preparing a major attack on America.
In August and early September close associates
of Bin Laden were warned to return to Afghanistan from other
parts of the world by 10 September.
Immediately prior to 11 September some
known associates of Bin Laden were naming the date for action
as on or around 11 September.
Since 11 September we have learned that
one of Bin Laden's closest and most senior associates was responsible
for the detailed planning of the attacks.
There is evidence of a very specific
nature relating to the guilt of Bin Laden and his associates
that is too sensitive to release.
63. Osama Bin Laden remains in charge,
and the mastermind, of al-Qaeda. In al-Qaeda, an operation on
the scale of the 11 September attacks would have been approved
by Osama Bin Laden himself.
64. The modus operandi of 11 September
was entirely consistent with previous attacks.
Al Qaeda's record of atrocities is characterised
by meticulous long term planning, a desire to inflict mass
casualties, suicide bombers, and multiple simultaneous attacks.
65. The attacks of 11 September 2001
are entirely consistent with the scale and sophistication of
the planning which went into the attacks on the East African
Embassies and the USS Cole.
No warnings were given for these three
attacks, just as there was none on 11 September.
66. Al-Qaeda operatives, in evidence
given in the East African Embassy bomb trials, have described
how the group spends years preparing for an attack.
They conduct repeated surveillance, patiently
gather materials, and identify and vet operatives, who have
the skills to participate in the attack and the willingness
to die for their cause.
67. The operatives involved in the 11
September atrocities attended flight schools, used flight simulators
to study the controls of larger aircraft and placed potential
airports and routes under surveillance.
68. Al-Qaeda's attacks are characterised
by total disregard for innocent lives, including Muslims.
In an interview after the East African
bombings, Osama Bin Laden insisted that the need to attack the
United States excused the killing of other innocent civilians,
Muslim and non-Muslim alike.
69. No other organisation has both the
motivation and the capability to carry out attacks like those
of the 11 September - only the al-Qaeda network under Osama
Bin Laden.
Conclusion
70. The attacks of the 11 September 2001
were planned and carried out by al-Qaeda, an organisation whose
head is Osama Bin Laden.
That organisation has the will, and the
resources, to execute further attacks of similar scale.
Both the United States and its close
allies are targets for such attacks.
The attack could not have occurred without
the alliance between the Taleban and Osama Bin Laden, which
allowed Bin Laden to operate freely in Afghanistan, promoting,
planning and executing terrorist activity.
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