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‘Osama’ Statement on Web Site
Tuesday, October 15, 2002
(18:00 ET)
The Associated Press

Monday’s statement was read on the pan-Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera which has aired al-Qaida videos and interviews over the last year. A recording of bin Laden’s voice aired last month on Al-Jazeera was authenticated by the CIA, but U.S. officials said the recordings probably weren’t made recently.

CAIRO, Egypt -- AP
A statement attributed to Osama bin Laden appeared on an Islamic Web site Monday, praising an attack on U.S. marines in Kuwait and what appears to have been a terrorist attack on a French tanker off Yemen earlier this month.

There was no way to verify the authenticity of the statement on the Web site, which has carried articles in the past signed by senior al-Qaida operatives.

U.S. officials have not verified bin Laden’s whereabouts this year and say a previously aired videotape of him having dinner with his associates in early November in Afghanistan was the last definitive sign he was alive.

‘‘We congratulate our Islamic community on the bold, heroic holy war that was executed by its sons of the faithful holy warriors in Yemen against a crusader oil tanker and in Kuwait against the invading and occupying American troops,’’ read the Arabic statement.
(More: The Manhattan Mercury News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan