From: "Macdonald Stainsby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [R-G] Many in Mideast Doubt bin Laden Tape AP. 14 December 2001. Many in Mideast Doubt bin Laden Tape. CAIRO -- Osama Bin Laden's latest tape left some viewers in the Mideast unconvinced of his involvement in the Sept. 11 terror attacks and suspicious of U.S. motives in publicizing the tape. "Of course it is fabricated," said Dia'a Rashwan, a Cairo-based expert on Islamic movements, as he watched the tape Thursday on the Qatari satellite channel Al-Jazeera. "If this is the kind of evidence that America has, then the blood of thousands who died and were injured in Afghanistan is on (President) Bush's head." In much of the Mideast, public opinion has been solidly against the United States, accused of hurting innocent fellow Muslims with its war on terrorism. Before the Bush administration released the tape Thursday, several U.S. officials had said they hoped it could help convince the world of bin Laden's guilt. Moderate Arab governments back the U.S. war on terrorism and accept that bin Laden masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks. But anti-U.S. sentiment on the streets has led those governments to keep quiet about support that ranges from providing staging grounds for U.S. warplanes to passing on intelligence about militants to U.S. investigators. Because the quality of the audio was so poor, most Arabs listening to the tape could not follow what bin Laden was saying, lessening its potential impact in the Arab world. Several Arab satellite channels, including the influential Al-Jazeera station, showed the tape with English subtitles. "Is that possible! I can't believe bin Laden did it. The translation is wrong and we hardly heard his voice. America just wants to implicate Muslims," said Nadia Saqr, an Egyptian mother of two. In Kuwait, Ahmed Bishara, who heads the National Democratic Movement, said the tape "is not going to make a big switch in opinion. ... It will put the icing on the cake." Jordanian political analyst Labib Kamhawi said Thursday's video at the most showed bin Laden praising the attacks, but "does not prove that bin Laden was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks." Mohamed al-Amir al-Sayed Awad Atta, a 65-year-old retired Cairo lawyer, didn't watch the tape. Told of bin Laden's comment by The Associated Press, Atta was angry and skeptical. In a telephone interview, he declared the tape a "farce." "America is the land of aberration and forgery," Atta said, shouting "damn America!" before abruptly hanging up. ------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby Rad-Green List: Radical anti-capitalist environmental discussion. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green ---- Leninist-International: Building bridges in the tradition of V.I. Lenin. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international ---- In the contradiction lies the hope. --Bertholt Brecht _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
