An internet audio tape attributed to Osama bin Laden said on Tuesday that Zacarias Moussaoui — the only person convicted in the United States for the September 11 attacks — had nothing to do with the operation.
”He had no connection at all with September 11,” Bin Laden said.
”I am the one in charge of the 19 brothers and I never assigned brother Zacarias to be with them in that mission,” he said, referring to the 19 hijackers on September 11 2001.
The al-Qaeda chief said the September 11 hijackers were divided into two groups, ”pilots and assistants”.
”Since Zacarias Moussaoui was still learning how to fly, he wasn’t number 20 in the group, as your government has claimed,” Bin Laden said. ”It knows this very well.”
Bin Laden said Moussaoui’s confession that he helped plan the attacks was ”void”, calling it the result of ”pressures exercised against him during four-and-a-half years” in a US prison.
Moussaoui, a 37-year-old Frenchman and admitted al-Qaeda member, was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month after a jury ruled that he was responsible for at least one death on September 11.
Two US counterterrorism officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said US intelligence was aware of the Bin Laden message. One of the officials said there was no reason to doubt its authenticity.
That official said the message is part of Bin Laden’s continuing effort to demonstrate he is a relevant extremist leader, who is knowledgeable of current events. The official said the message was made for propaganda purposes, and it does not contain any threats.
The audio message, which is less than five minutes long, was transmitted with a still photo of Bin Laden.
The tape is the third by Bin Laden this year. In a tape aired on Arab television in March, he denounced the US and Europe for cutting off funds to the Hamas-led Palestinian government, accusing them of leading a ”Zionist” war on Islam, and urged followers to fight any United Nations peacekeeping force in Sudan.
In January, Bin Laden said in an audiotape that al-Qaeda was preparing new attacks in the US but offered a truce — though his lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri later issued a video saying Washington had refused to take the offer.
The January message was Bin Laden’s first in more than a year, his longest period of silence since the September 11 2001 attacks in the US.
His deputy al-Zawahri releases messages more frequently, appearing in videotapes, while Bin Laden has not appeared in a video since October 2004. — Sapa-AP