Bin Laden denies terror attacks and points finger at Jews - report

Osama bin Laden today allegedly denied any involvement in the US terror attacks and pointed the finger at Jews.

His reasoning was that Florida’s Jewish community has not forgiven President Bush for his controversial and vital state victory in last November’s drawn out US election, a Urdu language Pakistan newspaper reported.

The interview with the accused terror mastermind appeared in the Karachi daily Ummat, believed to have close connections to Islamic groups in Afghanistan.

The newspaper said it submitted questions for bin Laden to Taliban officials and received written replies.

The paper quoted bin Laden as saying: ‘‘Neither I nor my organisation Al-Qaida is involved in the attacks and the US has traced the attackers within America.

‘‘The attackers could be anybody, people who are part of the American system yet rebel against it, or some group that wants to make this century a century of confrontation between Islam and Christianity,’’ he said.

Referring to evidence obtained by American intelligence, bin Laden said: ‘‘Ask this question to these intelligence agencies that get billions of dollars every year.’’

Ummat quoted bin Laden as saying: ‘‘We are against the American system but not the American people. Islam does not allow killing of innocent people, men, women and children even in the event of war.’’

He said international freezing of assets and accounts would not affect the working of Al-Qaida ‘‘as we have alternate arrangements’’.

According to the newspaper, bin Laden said Al-Qaida has three alternate financial systems, which are being run separately and independently by those ‘‘who love jihad,’’ he said.

No power in the world, including the United States, could force them from this path, he added.

He claimed the Western media were spreading propaganda against him: ‘‘They are saying such absurd things about us that we wonder (whether) they have become the victim of their own propaganda and began to fear it,’’ he said.