CNN show Bin Laden declaring war on the west

Just weeks before terrorists bombed the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Osama bin Laden declared war on the West.

In US TV news network CNN’s second report on video-tapes obtained in Afghanistan, bin Laden is quoted as saying that various Islamic groups were uniting to launch a “jihad against the crusaders and Jews”.

The network’s first report on the tapes, screened yesterday, showed disturbing images of dogs being killed with poisonous gas and al-Qaida operatives conducting mock ambushes and kidnappings.

But US officials said the footage did not reveal any unexpected capabilities by the group accused of carrying out the September 11 attacks.

Today, CNN showed a portion of a tape of a news conference held by bin Laden on May 26, 1998, which was restricted to select Pakistani journalists and one Chinese writer, during which bin Laden declared war on the West and Israel.

“By God’s grace, we have formed with many other Islamic groups and organisations in the Islamic world a front called the International Islamic Front to do jihad against the crusaders and Jews,” bin Laden was heard saying through an interpreter.

At another point in the broadcast, monitored in Hong Kong, bin Laden hinted at targeting Americans, just weeks before the nearly simultaneous embassy attacks on August 7, 1998, in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, which killed 231 people, including 12 Americans, and wounded 5,000.

“And by God’s grace, the men reacted to this call and they are going on this path, and they are doing a good job,” bin Laden said. “By God’s will, their actions are going to have a successful result in killing Americans and getting rid of them.”

Washington blames al-Qaida for the embassy bombings.

Bin Laden, surrounded by armed men, appeared relaxed in the video, but in later shots filmed outside, he was seen flinching as he heard what CNN described as a rocket-propelled grenade go off nearby.

US President George Bush, on holiday at his Texas ranch, has been fully briefed on the tapes, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

“This is a serious reminder of the type of enemy we are up against and the risks the world faces from people who would use weapons to bring harm to innocents,” Fleischer said.

CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson said the network had shared the videos “with the appropriate authorities, because of our concern for the safety of people around the world.”

Fleischer said US government officials will be reviewing CNN’s tapes for any useful intelligence information.

The video airing today showed bin Laden appearing with two sons of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, now serving a life sentence for trying to blow up targets in New York; bin Laden’s chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, whose whereabouts are unknown; and Mohammed Atef, an al-Qaida military chief killed in a US air strike in November near Kabul.

At one point al-Zawahiri describes the US embassy in Cairo as a major CIA base, which CNN calls an apparent justification for an attack there, although one never happened.