Bush Bristles at Suggestion Video Was Tampered With

President Bush called it “preposterous” Friday to suggest that the tape of Osama bin Laden had been doctored and said it didn’t matter whether the terrorist leader was dead or alive when found.

“I don’t care,” the president said, as the military operation in Afghanistan focused increasingly on capturing Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders. “Dead or alive, either way. It . . . doesn’t matter to me.”

In his first public comments about the Bin Laden videotape since it was televised around the world Thursday, Bush brushed aside any notion that it was less than authentic.

“That’s just a feeble excuse to provide weak support for an incredibly evil man,” he said.

Bush read the transcript of the tape two weeks ago. He said he wanted the video made public as soon as possible and called it “a devastating declaration of guilt” by the man he contends is the mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

But, Bush said Friday, he also was reluctant to let the tape be shown, out of concern for the feelings of the victims’ families.

Administration officials have said that the video has a date stamp of Nov. 9 and was found in the ruins of a building in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, that appeared to have been hastily vacated.

Among those already convinced of Bin Laden’s complicity in the attacks, the video immediately was portrayed as “smoking gun” proof. But people in parts of the Arab world were skeptical, questioning whether the tape had been fabricated.

“Some people think we didn’t walk on the moon, and others think Elvis is among us,” scoffed Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage on NBC’s “Today” show. “Those voices will be drowned out by the voices of reason in the region.”

Bush even worked the war on terrorism into a speech he delivered at a Washington hotel, where he signed legislation extending a federal anti-drug program in public schools.

“It’s so important for Americans to know that the traffic in drugs finances the work of terror, sustaining terrorists,” he said. “Terrorists use drug profits to fund their cells to commit acts of murder.”

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was ready with endorsements of the videotape from Middle Eastern governments, reading for reporters statements by Prince Bandar ibn Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, and the information minister of the United Arab Emirates.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Bin Laden was behind these operations. The tape confirms that in a way that leaves no room for doubt,” said Sheik Abdullah bin Zaid al Nahayan, the Emirates official, Fleischer reported.

From the start of the campaign to track down Bin Laden, Bush has made it clear that he wanted the Saudi exile “dead or alive.”

But his comments Friday took on new timeliness as the Afghan militias allied with the United States gained greater control across the country, particularly in Tora Bora, the mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan where Bin Laden may be in hiding.

Fleischer said U.S. officials “very strongly believe” that Bin Laden still is in Afghanistan.

But Bush, speaking to reporters during a photo session after meeting with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand, renewed his words of caution that tracking down the Al Qaeda leader could take time.

“I don’t know whether we’re going to get him tomorrow or a month from now or a year from now,” Bush said. “But we’re going to get him.

“The American people must understand that I have no timetable in mind. I don’t have a calendar that I say, ‘Well, gosh, if he’s not gotten by this certain moment, then I’ll be disappointed,’ because I am pleased with the progress that we’re making in Afghanistan.”

With that progress, he said, “there is no such thing as a Taliban.”

As for the tape, which shows the man at the focus of the U.S. war effort serene and often smiling as he recounts the attacks: “This is Bin Laden unedited,” Bush said.

“This is Bin Laden, the Bin Laden who has murdered people. This is the man, Bush said, “who sent innocent people to their deaths. This is a man who’s so devious and coldhearted that he laughs about the . . . so-called suicide bombers that lost their lives.”