Bin Ladin's interview with ABC's John Miller year 1998

Q:            Mr. Bin Ladin, to Americans you are an
interesting figure: A man who comes from a background
of wealth and comforts who ended up fighting
on the front lines. Many Americans would think that's
unusual.

Reply from Osama Bin Ladin:
The exact location of Bin Ladin's Afghan hideaway is
a closely guarded
secret.
(Magellan Geographix/ABCNEWS.com)

Thanks be to Allah. It is hard for one to understand
if the person does not understand Islam. In our
religion we believe that Allah created us to
worship him. Allah is the one who created us and
blessed us with this religion, and orders us to carry
out the holy struggle "jihad" to raise the word of
Allah above the words of the unbelievers.
      We believe this is a form of worship we must
follow despite our financial ability. This is a
response to Westerners and secularists in
the Arab world who claim the reason for the awakening
and the return to  Islam is financial difficulties.
This is untrue. In fact, the return of the
people to Islam is a blessing from Allah, and their
return is a need for Allah.
     This is not a strange issue. During the days of
jihad, thousands of young men who were well off
financially left the Arabian Peninsula and
other areas and joined the fighting-hundreds of them
were killed in Afghanistan, Bosnia and  Chechnya.
We pray Allah grants them martyr status.

John Miller: You have been described as the "World's
Most Wanted Man."
There is word that the American government intends to
put a price on your head in the millions for your
capture. Do you think about that? Does it worry you?

Osama Bin Ladin: Praise be to Allah. It does not
worry us what the Americans think. What worries us is
pleasing Allah. The Americans impose themselves on
everyone who believes in his religion and his rights.
They accuse our children in Palestine of being
terrorists. Those children that have no weapons and
have not even reached maturity. At the same time
they defend a country with its airplanes and tanks,
and the state of the Jews, that has a policy to
destroy the future of these children.

Clinton stands after Qana and defends the horrible
massacre that severed the heads of children and killed
about 100 persons. Clinton stands and claims Israel
has the right to defend itself. We do not worry about
American opinion, or the fact the place prices on our
heads.
We as Muslims believe that our fate is set. If the
whole world decides to get together and kill us before
our time has come, we will not die, our livelihood is
set. No matter how much pressure America places on the
regime in Riyadh to freeze our assets and to prevent
people from contributing to this great cause, we rely
on Allah.


John Miller: You have said, "If the Americans are so
brave they will come and arrest me." Do you think that
is something my country will try?

Osama Bin Ladin:  We have seen in the last decade the
decline of the American government and the
weakness of the American soldier who is ready to wage
Cold Wars and unprepared to fight long wars.
This was proven in Beirut when the Marines fled after
two explosions. It also proves they can run in less
than 24 hours, and this was also repeated in Somalia.
We are ready for all occasions. We rely on Allah.

RE:  Fatwa Against American

John Miller: Mr. Bin Ladin, you have issued a fatwa
calling on all Muslims to kill Americans where they
can, when they can. Is that directed at
all Americans, just American military, just Americans
in Saudi Arabia?


Osama Bin Ladin: As we mentioned before, Allah
ordered us in this religion to purify Muslim land of
all non-believers, and especially the Arabian
Peninsula where the Ke'ba is. After WWII, the
Americans became more aggressive and oppressive,
especially in the Muslim world.
      We are surprised this question is coming from
Americans. Each action will solicit a similar
reaction. We must use such punishment to keep
your evil away from Muslims, Muslim children and
women. American history does not
distinguish between civilians and military, and not
even women and children. They are the ones who used
the bombs against Nagasaki.

Can these bombs distinguish between infants and
military? America does not have a religion that will
prevent it from destroying all people.
      Your situation with Muslims in Palestine is
shameful, if there is any shame left in America. In
the Sabra and Shatilla massacre, a  cooperation
between Zionist and Christian forces, houses
were demolished over the heads of children. Also, by
testimony of relief workers in Iraq, the American led
sanctions resulted in the death of over 1million Iraqi
children.
      All of this was done in the name of American
interests. We believe that the biggest thieves in the
world and the terrorists are the Americans.
The only way for us to fend off these assaults
is to use similar means.
We do not differentiate between those dressed in
military uniforms and civilians; they are all targets
in this fatwa. Especially since American
officials were released after the Khobar
bombing, asking all American civilians to contact the
security department in the embassy with information on
Muslims and activists. The fatwa includes all that
share or take part in killing of Muslims, assaulting
holy places, or those who help the Jews occupy Muslim
land.

RE:  World Trade Center Bombing

John Miller: Ramzi Yousef was a follower. Do you
remember him? Did you know him?

Osama Bin Ladin:  Ramzi Yousef, after the World Trade
Center bombing became a well known Muslim personality,
and all Muslims know him. Unfortunately, I
did not know him before the incident.
    I remember him as a Muslim who defended Islam from
American aggression. He took this effort to let the
Americans know that their government
assaults Muslims to insure  Israeli interest, to
insure Jews.
     American will see many youths who will follow
Ramzi Yousef.

John Miller:  Is it true that when Ramzi Yousef was
captured, he was in a guest house that you were paying
for?

Osama Bin Ladin: What was broadcast in the news and
what we learned is that he was captured in Pakistan in
a hotel.

RE:  Plot to Kill the President

John Miller: Wali Khan Amin Shah was captured in
Manila. American
authorities believed he was working for you, funded by
you, setting up training camps there and that part of
his plan was to plan the assassination of President
Clinton during his trip to Manila.

Osama Bin Ladin:  Wali Khan is a Muslim youth. In
Afghanistan, he is nicknamed "The Lion." He is
one of the best youths. We were good friends. We
fought together in  the same trench against the
Russians until Allah sent them away in
humiliating defeat. You mentioned that he works for
me-we do not have anyone who works for someone else.
We all work for Allah and await his reward. And
regarding your mention of his attempt to assassinate
President Clinton, it is not surprising. I did not
know about it, but it is not surprising.
     As I said, every action solicits a similar
reaction. What does Clinton expect from those whom he
killed and assaulted their children
and mothers? This is not a surprising matter.


John Miller: Federal Authorities in The United States
are still investigating their suspicion that you
ordered and funded the attacks  on the United States
military in El Khohar and Riyadh.

Osama Bin Ladin: We roused the people, the Muslims,
and carried fat was from our Ulima after the Saudi
government imprisoned them to placate the
American government. The most prominent are Dhekh
Salman ben Fahd al-Odeh, Safad ben Abdel
Rahman el Awli.
     So we carried these fatwas and roused the people
to eject this enemy from the holy land, some of the
people listened, from among them, Khaled el-Sa'eed,
Abdel Azziz el Me'them, Hamood al Hajery and Misleh el
Samray. We pray Allah grants them martyr status.They
have raised the head of the Muslim nation high, and
washed away  some of the dishonor we had to bear by
the Saudi government's collaboration with the American
government in the land of Allah.
     We look at these young men as great heroes and
martyrs who followed the steps of the prophet peace
upon him. We called and they answered. We ray to Allah
to accept them and bless their parents with patience.

John Miller: You have been painted in America as a
terrorist leader. To your followers you are a hero.
How do you see yourself?

Osama Bin Ladin:  As I said before, we do not worry
about what America says. We look at ourselves and our
brethren as worshipers of Allah who created us to
worship him and follow his books and prophets. I am
one of Allah's worshipers. I worship Allah, which
includes carrying out the jihad to raise Allah's word
and evict the Americans from all Muslim land.

RE:  Desire to Destroy the U.S.

John Miller: No one expected the mujahideen to defeat
the Russians in Afghanistan that caused a surprise to
everyone. What do you see as the future for the
American involvement in the Middle East and taking on
groups like yours?


Osama Bin Ladin:  NATO, that America created, we know
it spent $455 billion American dollars in improving
weaponry to protect Europe and America from Russia,
and they did not fire a single shot. Allah stood with
the  Muslims, the Afghani mujahideen, and those who
fought with them from other Muslim countries. We
fought against the Russians and the Soviet Union
until, not to say we defeated them, but Allah defeated
them, they became non-existent. There is a lesson to
learn from
this for he who wishes to learn.
      The Soviet Union entered in the last week of
1979, in December, and with Allah's help their flag
was folded December 25 a few years later  and thrown
in the trash, and there was nothing left to call
Soviet Union. We are sure of Allah's victory and our
victory against the Americans and the Jews as promised
by the prophet peace be up on him: "Judgment day shall
not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, whereas the
Jews will hide behind trees and  stones, and the tree
and the stone will speak and say
'Muslim, behind me a Jew come and kill him', except
for the al-Ghargad tree, which is a Jewish plant."

We are sure of our victory. Our battle with the
Americans is larger than our battle with the Russians.
The Americans made a very stupid mistake that no one
has made before. They attached the Muslim symbol, the
Kibla, of 200 million people. The reaction was very
encouraging by the Muslim  scholars and the youth.
      We predict a black day for America and the end
of the United  States as United States, and will be
separate states, and will retreat from our
land and collect the bodies of its sons back to
America. Allah willing.

RE:  The Saudi Royal Family

John Miller: What do you see as the future of the
Saudi Royal family and their involvement with America
and United States military?

Osama Bin Ladin: History has an answer to your
question. Any government that sells its peoples'
interests and betrays its people and takes actions
that removes it from the Muslim nation will not
succeed.
     We predict that the Riyadh leader and those with
him that stood with the Jews and Christians and
forfeited Al-Haramien, the holy shrines, to
Jews and Christians with American identities or other
will disintegrate. They have left the Muslim nation. 


We predict that like the Iran Royal
family, the Shah, they will disperse and disappear.
After Allah gave them property on the most
sacred land and gave them wealth that is unheard of
before from oil, still they sinned and did not value
Allah's gift. We predict destruction and dispersal
after they in a great devastation against the Muslim
nation, especially what happens to the Muslim people
of Iraq.
    The prophet said, "A woman entered hell because of
a cat. She did not feed it and blocked it from finding
food on its own." She is going to hell for blocking
cat to death, but what say to those who agreed and
gave reason for the hundreds of thousands of troops to
blockade millions of Muslims in Iraq?

John Miller: Do you think the Saudi government wants
the American military to stay?

Osama Bin Ladin:   This does not a make a difference,
since American opposition, aggression and greed still
exists. They came by word of government. It does not
make a difference if the government wants you
to stay or leave, you will leave when the youth send
you the wooden boxes and the coffins, and you will
carry in it the bodies of American troops and
civilians. This is when you will leave.

The Muslim masses are moving towards liberating the
Muslim worlds. Allah willing, we will win.

RE:  His Next Targets

John Miller: Describe the situation when your men
took on the Americans in Somalia? Where you there?

Osama Bin Ladin: After Allah honored us with victory
in Afghanistan, and justice prevailed and the killing
of those who slaughtered millions of Muslims in the
Muslim republics, it cleared from Muslim minds the
myth of superpowers. The youth ceased from seeing
America as a superpower. After leaving Afghanistan
they headed for Somalia and prepared for a long
battle, thinking that the Americans were like the
Russians, but they were surprised when the  Americans
entered with 300,000 troops, and collected more troops
from the world-5,000 from Pakistan,5,000 from India,
5,000 from Bangladesh, 5,000 from Egypt, Senegal and
others like Saudi Arabia.

The youth were surprised at the low morale of the
American soldiers and realized more than before that
the America soldiers are paper  tigers. After a few
blows, they ran in defeat and America forgot about all
the hoopla and media propaganda after leaving theGulf
War and destroying infrastructure-and destroying baby
formula factories, all civilian factories, bridges and
dams that help planting food-about being the
world leader, and the leader of the new world order.
After a few blows, they forgot about this title and
left, dragging their corpses and their shameful defeat
and stopped using such titles. And they learned in
America that this name is larger then them.  When this
took place, I was in Sudan, and this great defeat
pleased me very much, the  way it pleases all Muslims.
     Allah willing the next victory will be in Hejaz
and Najd, Saudi Arabia, and it will make the Americans
forget the horrors of Vietnam and Beirut.

John Miller:  Many Americans believe that fighting
army to army like what happened in Afghanistan is
heroic for either army, but setting off bombs killing
civilians and innocents like the World Trade Center is
terrorism.

Osama Bin Ladin: He is using talk that they are not
following. After our victory in Afghanistan and
defeating the Russians, the world media, lead by the
American media,started a campaign against us that is
still going on today despite the fact that the
Russians left in l989, almost 10 years ago. They have
carried out this campaign accusing us of being
terrorists without any action being taken by the
mujahideen against the real terrorists, the Americans.
That is one side.

On the other side, American policy does not admit to
differentiating between civilians, military, and
child, human or animal. Examples I mentioned before
are Nagasaki and Hiroshima where they tried to
eliminate a whole people.
      When it comes to Muslims, there is testimony
from Westerners and Christians who testified to the
death of hundreds of thousands of our children in
Iraq. And there is Qana, Sabra and Shattila, Dir Yasin
and Bosnia.
     The crusaders continued their slaughter of our
mothers, sisters and children. America every time
makes a decision to support them and prevent weapons
from reaching the Muslims, and allow Serbian butchers
to slaughter Muslims.
      You do not have a religion that prevents you
from carrying out these actions and therefore you do
not have the right to object to like treatment.
Every action solicits a reaction. It is a punishment
that fits the crime. At the same time, our primary
target are military and those in its employment.
      Our religion forbids us to kill
innocents-children, women who are not combatants.
Women soldiers who place themselves in the battle
trenches receive the same treatment as fighting men.

Coordination of Global Terror

John Miller: Is there a high council of the leaders
of different groups like yours that decides on ways
and means to attack Americans?

Osama Bin Ladin: After the Americans entered the Holy
Land, many emotions were roused in the Muslim world,
more than we have seen before. A great meeting took a
place a few days ago in Pakistan, and it was attended
by 150 scholars in Pakistan. The goal of the meeting
was to work toward  liberating the Holy Land and
coordinate efforts between Muslim masses in the area.
Also, with Allah's blessings, scholars from
Afghanistan, India and other Muslim nations'
individual fatwas were passed, but here great joint
fatwas were passed. The cooperation is expanding
between general supporters of this religion. From this
effort, the International Islamic Front for the Jihad
Against Jews and Crusaders was formed, which we are a
member of with other groups. It has a higher council
to coordinate rousing the Muslim nation to carry out
jihad against the Jews and the crusaders.

John Miller: The American People by the large do not
know the name Osama Bin Ladin, but they soon will. Do
you have a message to the American people?

Osama Bin Ladin: I say that the American people gave
leadership to a traitorous leadership. This became
very clear and especially in  Clinton's government.
The American government, we think, is an agent that
represents the Israel inside America. If we look at
sensitive departments in the present government like
the Defense Department or the State Department, or
sensitive security departments like the CIA and
others, we find that Jews have the first word in the
American government, which is how they use America to
carry out their plans in the world and especially the
Muslim world   The presence of Americans in the Holy
Land supports the Jews and gives them a safe back. The
American government, in a time where there are
millions of Americans living on the street and those
living below the standard of living and below the
poverty line,we find the American government turning
toward helping Israel in occupying our land and
building settlements in the Holy Land.

The American government is throwing away the lives of
Americans in Saudi Arabia for the interests of the
Jews. The Jews are a people who Allah cited in his
holy book the Koran as those who attacked prophets
with lies and killings, and attacked Mary and accused
her of a great sin. They are a people who killed
Allah's prophets-would they not kill, rape and steal
from humans?
      They believe that all humans are created for
their use, and found that the Americans are the
best-created beings for that use. The American
Government is driving America to destruction and those
same ones have no doubts about America being a
superpower in the next decade.
     So, we tell the American as a people, and we tell
the mothers of soldiers, and American  mothers in
general, if they value their lives and those of their
children,find a nationalistic government that will
look after their interests and not the interest of the
Jews.
     The continuation of the tyranny will bring the
fighting to America, like Ramzi Yousef and others.
This is my message to the American people to look for
a serious government that looks out for their interest
and does not attack others, their lands or their
honor.

John Miller:   Mr. Bin Ladin, these are most of the
questions we came with. Is there anything else that I
did not ask that you would like to add?

Osama Bin Ladin: We would like to stress that we are
on close contact with Muslim masses, praise be to
Allah. The issue of liberating Holy Lands s not my
personal desire,but I am just a worshiper of Allah and
one of Allah's soldiers in the Muslim nation. The
movement is driving fast and light forward. And I am
sure of our victory with Allah's help against America
and the Jews. We see this then in the strength of the
reaction, that every day the Americans delay their
departure, for every day they delay, they will receive
a new corpse from Muslim countries.
      The Saudi Arabian government captured a few
months ago in Ramadan a number of missiles, anti
aircraft missiles, SAM and stringer missiles.
      Can the America government explain to its people
when a SAM missile is launched against a passenger
military airplane with 250 soldiers abroad? Can they
justify their deaths? What the Saudi Arabian
government captured is much less than what was not
captured. The American government, if it has anything
left to hang on to, has no choice but to pull its sons
from the Holy Land especially and the  Muslim land in
general. And to refrain from supporting in any way the
Israeli government and Jews who occupy our land.


Relationship with Sheik Abdel Rahman
     We place the complete responsibility on the
American government of any attacks against Muslims and
its support of regimes in our countries gainst the
best interest of the people. We also hold them
responsible for its attacks on Islamic symbols, Sheik
Abdel Rahman,who is considered one of most prominent
Islamic scholars who Allah gave the courage to speak
the truth. We hear that he is in a bad health
condition, and he is a man beyond 60 years of age and
is blind and America treats him badly. The
imprisonment of Sheik Omar is an attack on the Muslim
religion, and countries. We hold it completely
responsible for the imprisonment of Sheik Omar and the
imprisonment of other Muslims in America.
     My word to American journalists is not to ask why
we did that, but to ask what had their government done
that forced us to defend ourselves?
      This is all I have to say.

John Miller: What are you going to do,just picking a
word or two, did  he by any chance mention the new
fatwa issued by Abdel Rahman last week?

Osama Bin Ladin:   No.

John Miller: I was wondering if you could tell me the
story of the gun behind you and how you got it? It is
a kind of a legend in many ways, that during the
Afghan war you got it in hand-to-hand combat with
Russians who were on a three day assault on the camp.

Osama Bin Ladin: We went through vicious battles with
the Russians. It is enough to just say with Russians,
the are known in the West for their brutality and
viciousness. They used poisonous gas against us, and I
was subjected to this. They used airplanes against our
position, and we lost many fighters, but we were able
to deter many commando attacks, unlike anything
before.

John Miller: From history, in 1897, Teddy Roosevelt
was a wealthy man who grew up in a privileged
situation who fought on the frontline, put together
his own team not from the army, handpicked his own men
and went into battle. You are like the Middle East
version of Teddy Roosevelt.

Osama Bin Ladin: We are worshipers of Allah and we
carry out our duties. Our duty is to call on all
nations to join the light. Our first duty is being
people of this religion and to fight for this
religion.
    Since we grew up, American weapons were on our
heads and the heads of our children and mothers, like
in Qana and others.
     The Westerners have been under the impression
that we are butchers. They just only need to look at
their brother in Eastern  Europe, Turkey and Albania
to see those who embraced Islam and lived happily with
it for centuries. The Westem masses have fallen under
the effect of Jewish media who do not broadcast on
Muslims except that we butcher, and without showing
that of number of those us who were butchered is the
biggest
number.
It is our duty to lead people to light