Bin Laden Video May Show Guilt

Relaxed and apparently enjoying himself, Osama bin Laden recounts--in a conversation caught on videotape--his satisfaction with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, pronouncing them a far greater success than he had dared to hope, Bush administration officials said Sunday.

The tape also suggests that some of the hijackers were unaware that their mission would end in death, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Bin Laden, the official said, “is amused by the fact that some of these people who were martyred thought they were just taking part in a hijacking.”

Vice President Dick Cheney, who has viewed parts of the tape, said Bin Laden displays intimate knowledge of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, leaving “no doubt about his responsibility” for the murderous events.

“We’ve known that all along,” Cheney said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “But this is one more piece of evidence confirming his responsibility for what happened.”

Cheney, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz and Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all confirmed the existence of the tape, which was first reported Sunday by the Washington Post.

All three said the tape seems to prove Washington’s case against Bin Laden beyond any doubt. But they said the administration has not yet decided whether it will be made public to overcome questions that have been raised in parts of the Arab world about whether Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terror network were guilty of planning the attacks.

Asked whether it would be a smart move to release the tape, especially to the increasingly aggressive Arab media, as proof of Bin Laden’s responsibility, Cheney said, “I don’t know whether it would or not.”

Pentagon Weighing Intelligence Value

“Somebody who’s more knowledgeable than I am would have to figure that out,” Cheney said. “We’ve not been eager to give the guy any extra television time . . . but I think we’d probably rely on the experts as to whether or not it’d be a good idea for us to release [it].”

Myers, interviewed on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” said the Pentagon was examining the tape to determine its value as intelligence. After that, he said, a decision will be made about whether the public should be allowed to see it.

Two members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, appearing Sunday on CNN’s “Late Edition,” urged that the tape be released. “I think it should be made public,” said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), the committee chairman. Sen. Charles Hagel (R-Neb.) noted, “It allows the world to see exactly what we are dealing with.”

The tape was found in a house in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan after the hasty retreat of the Taliban or Al Qaeda fighters who had been living there. Officials said it showed Bin Laden in an apparently private conversation with a man who appeared to be a Muslim cleric.

The tape is the latest trophy in a bizarre sideshow of the unconventional war. Videotapes, apparently made by amateur cameramen using off-the-shelf camcorders, have turned up repeatedly.

Shortly after the start of the U.S. bombing campaign in October, the Arab television network Al Jazeera broadcast a tape of Bin Laden vowing vengeance against the West. Later, a similar tape featuring a Bin Laden aide was distributed, producing so much anxiety in the administration that National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice urged U.S. broadcast outlets to refuse to transmit the tapes unedited. Officials said Bin Laden might be trying to pass messages to his followers through coded references on the tapes.

Just last week, Newsweek magazine obtained a tape, broadcast Friday by ABC and CBS, showing the interrogation of John Walker Lindh. The 20-year-old California man was captured while fighting for the Taliban and is seen being questioned by CIA operative Johnny “Mike” Spann, who only hours later became the first U.S. combat fatality of the war.

Bin Laden Reportedly Brags About Sept. 11

Although Cheney, Myers and Wolfowitz all noted that the latest tape was in Arabic and had not been fully translated, officials said it showed Bin Laden bragging about the damage caused by the two hijacked jetliners flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Bin Laden tells his listener that he had hoped to topple the floors above the impact of the aircraft but that the complete collapse of the buildings was a pleasant surprise.

“It is disgusting,” Wolfowitz said on ABC’s “This Week.” “This is a man who takes pride and pleasure at killing thousands of innocent human beings.”

Asked to describe Bin Laden’s demeanor, Myers said, “He was relaxed. . . . He was conducting it like it was a private conversation.”

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Times staff writer Bob Drogin contributed to this report.