Video 'proves bin Laden masterminded attacks'
American spies have obtained a tape of Osama bin Laden saying he had not expected the World Trade Centre to collapse.
Intelligence agents obtained the tape during a search of a private house in Jalalabad after it was abandoned by the Taliban.
Senior officials are now debating whether to release the tape.
It is the first direct evidence of bin Laden’s involvement in the September 11 attacks, as the terror chief has made sure not to speak on telephones or radios so American eavesdropping equipment cannot overhear him.
The 40-minute tape has been sent to outside experts to make sure it is not a fake, and has been declared ‘‘legitimate’’, a senior official said.
On the tape, which was apparently shot by an amateur, bin Laden praised God for a ‘‘success’’ he had not expected.
And he said he was having dinner when the first news broke that a plane had crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Centre.
He said he told others at the dinner of the news, prompting a cheer, and he then told them more attacks were coming.
Bin Laden then used his outstretched hands to explain that he expected the top of the towers to collapse, to the point where the hijacked planes struck.
The eventual total collapse of both towers, the al-Qaida leader said, was totally unexpected, officials said.
A senior official said: ‘‘It is very clear that bin Laden not only had advance knowledge, but the video is proof he was responsible for planning.’’
Intelligence officials are unsure why the tape was made, but al-Qaida has used videos featuring bin Laden for recruiting purposes in the past.
The video is a different one from the tape British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Commons about on October 20.
Mr Blair said the video he had seen a transcript of showed an interviewer asking bin Laden about the September 11 attacks.
The Prime Minister told MPs that the al-Qaida leader replied: ‘‘It is what we instigated, for a while, in self defence. And it was revenge for our people killed in Palestine and Iraq.’’
White House chiefs are now trying to find a way to release the tape to the Arab world to convince them that bin Laden was guilty of the September 11 attacks.
A group led by Karen Hughes, President George W Bush’s closest adviser, is concerned that if Washington is seen as the source of the tape, it will not have credibility among radical Muslims, who will believe it is faked.
Bin Laden has denied having any role in the attacks.
He told the Afghan Islamic Press: ‘‘I have taken an oath of allegiance to Mullah Omar which does not allow me to do such things from Afghanistan. We have been blamed in the past, but we were not involved.’’
