http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/347/nation/Concerns_about_accurate_translation_said_to_delay_release%2b.shtml

THE BIN LADEN TAPE

Concerns about accurate translation said to delay release

By John J. Lumpkin, Associated Press, 12/13/2001

WASHINGTON - Translators are going over a videotape of Osama bin Laden talking about the Sept. 11 terror attacks to ensure accuracy ''before anything is released to the world,'' President Bush's spokesman said yesterday.

Numerous US officials have seen the tape and translations of the dialogue. They say it proves bin Laden is behind the attacks.

Four nongovernment translators, brought in by the Pentagon, are listening to the tape to interpret bin Laden's spoken Arabic and agree on a uniform version of his remarks, said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

He said that the quality of the video footage is not good, and the step was taken ''to be thorough, to be accurate, before anything is released to the world.''

''Clearly the president hopes that information can be shared with the public,'' Fleischer said. ''The only thing that would stand in the way is if there is anything from intelligence or security that can be compromised. That is not looking like it is likely.''

He said Bush has sought advice from top aides about releasing the hourlong tape, but has made no decision about it. If it is released, officials will provide versions in Arabic and in an English translation, Fleischer said.

US intelligence officers found the tape in a residence in Jalalabad. It bears a date stamp that says it was made Nov. 9.

In addition to the video discovered by the United States, bin Laden was interviewed somewhere in Afghanistan by the Al-Jazeera network around Oct. 20. The interview was never televised by Al-Jazeera, which broadcasts its Arab language program worldwide.

US and British officials believe the network sat on the video because its reporter appeared intimidated by bin Laden. But the video circulated among Middle Eastern government officials, and the United States and Great Britain eventually obtained copies. Last month, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain used that interview to suppport his case that bin Laden participated in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Blair quoted bin Laden saying ''the battle has been moved inside America, and we shall continue until we win this battle, or die in the cause and meet our maker.''

Al-Jazeera officials in Qatar would not confirm that such an interview had taken place.

Officials, including senators who viewed the tape found in Jalalabad, say it will convince the rest of the world that bin Laden is responsible for the terrorist attacks that killed thousands. Many have called for the Bush administration to release it.

Officials had hinted they might make the tape public yesterday, but the translation work apparently wasn't finished. Officials then said the Pentagon plans to release the tape today, barring an unforeseen hitch in the translation or objections from US intelligence officials.

The video records a meal and conversation between bin Laden and a Saudi Arabian sheik, a prominent cleric with a disability whom officials have declined to identify. At one point, the sheik kisses bin Laden on the forehead - a sign of great respect in the Muslim world.

Two bin Laden associates, spiritual adviser Ayman al-Zawahri and spokesman Abu Ghaith, also appear in the tape.

The tape is about an hour long, but it contains stretches of incongruous - and apparently unrelated - footage of children playing, said officials who had viewed it.

In it, bin Laden describes preparing for the news of the attacks, and demonstrates he had specific knowledge of the time, location, and method, officials have said.

Several members of the intelligence committees have called on the Bush administration to release the tape, but Representative Jane Harman, a California Democrat, told the House that she was ''concerned that the bin Laden tape is damaging to American security.''

Harman has said the tape may have been planted and could contain bin Laden sending covert messages to his followers, and broadcasting it may play into his hands.

''I would have preferred that its distribution be limited to those with a need to know,'' Harman said.

Officials had voiced similar concerns about other tapes bin Laden produced, but those were clearly meant for public release. Officials asked US broadcasters not to air those tapes in their entirety. But US officials don't think that's the case with this tape.

''There are fewer and fewer security concerns about it,'' Fleischer said.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001

Answers

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/346/world/Al_Jazeera_acknowledges_seve ra:.shtml

Al-Jazeera acknowledges several bin Laden tapes it decided not to broadcast

By Ward Pincus, Associated Press, 12/12/2001 16:48

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) The Arabic-language Al-Jazeera news station acknowledged Wednesday that it refrained from broadcasting several videos of Osama bin Laden, taken before and after Sept. 11, for editorial or technical reasons.

Ibrahim Helal, the station's editor-in-chief, said the collection may include a videotape that was referred to in a dossier released by the office of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

''We have many tapes we didn't run from Afghanistan. Some bin Laden tapes we didn't run even before this crisis, where he would read the Quran and preach religious things not important to run,'' Helal said.

Helal said the station has received four or five bin Laden tapes since Sept. 11, but declined to say whether they were interviews conducted by his reporters or videos given to the station by the Saudi exile.

''We decide not to run tapes if there is nothing newsy in them,'' he said, adding that the station has not been subject to any government pressure to pull the bin Laden tapes.

The station's reputation among viewers in the region as an independent voice could be tarnished by reports it had a newsworthy tape of bin Laden but decided against broadcasting it.

The tapes were received via satellite from the Al-Jazeera bureau in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and Helal suggested that regional intelligence services monitoring transmissions from Kabul could have intercepted the tapes.

''They use their technology to get the tapes and their influence in Washington to press us,'' Helal said. ''They want to destroy our image in order to close this free window in the region.''

Based in Qatar, Al-Jazeera was one of a handful of news organizations allowed to work in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan after U.S. airstrikes began on Oct. 7.

Al-Jazeera has broadcast five taped al-Qaida statements since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that bin Laden is thought to have masterminded. Al-Jazeera last broadcast a bin Laden tape on Nov. 3.

Critics of Al-Jazeera, including some in the Bush administration, have called the coverage propagandist and inflammatory. The White House asked U.S. networks to refrain from airing the videotapes in full, fearing they might contain coded messages, and also asked the Qatari government to get Al-Jazeera to do the same.

In Washington Wednesday, the White House prepared to release a videotape, apparently meant for internal al-Qaida use, which includes a conversation between bin Laden and a Saudi Arabian sheik, whom officials know little about and have declined to identify.

Numerous U.S. officials have already seen the tape and translations of what's on it. They say it proves bin Laden is behind the attacks.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001

Off the top of my head:

I've seen half a dozen politicians from all shades of the political spectrum talking about this tape after viewing it. They are unanimously disgusted and, I think, frightened to the core, although they don't show it. Mary Landrieu, a Dem from New Orleans, was particularly sober when she talked about it. (She's one to watch, by the way, her father, for whom I once worked, was a consummate politician when he was mayor--might be hte first female pres, certainly could beat Hillary.)

But back to the subject. I would guess that this tape will anger further and cement the resolve of the American people, that anti-war folks won't stand a chance at all, and that Muslims will say the tape is a fabrication, probably created by Jews.

I said at the beginning of this, probably on the day of the attacks, as did many others, that America has now lost its innocence. It sounds as if this tape will be the last chapter in that lost--stolen--innocence. Nothing that happens after this should really surprise anyone. Evil does exist and you cannot turn the other cheek or make people good by being good to them. I learned this very early on via a brutal husband and it was like finding out there is no Santa Claus. I hate for that innocence to go but there's no choice.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001

Whenever I see that, I think of Arnold saying it and I have to giggle.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001

Git giggling?

I thought she only snorted.

[giggle snort giggle]

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001

The radio is currently translating the tape experience. I hope I get to see it live.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001