CNN Sends Bin Laden Questions on Attacks

CNN said Tuesday it has submitted six questions to an intermediary claiming to represent Osama bin Laden, after being approached late last week with the idea through Al Jazeera. The Qatar-based pan-Arab television network has been used in the past as a conduit for Bin Laden’s statements.

The cable news network added, however, that it did not plan to air the videotaped answers from the suspected terrorist mastermind in their entirety, if indeed a tape is returned.

The network took pains to say that it had agreed to no conditions from anyone, including whether it would even use the answers in any form at all. And CNN said it had no idea where Bin Laden is or how the questions and tape will be exchanged.

A CNN spokeswoman declined to comment on whether it had alerted the White House to the negotiations or the possible interview.

Last week, the White House asked all the TV networks to consider not airing messages from Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda organization in full because they were propaganda and might carry embedded messages to Bin Laden followers. The networks agreed to screen all such videos before deciding what and how much to air.

Anchor Wolf Blitzer said on CNN: “By submitting our questions, we are making no commitment to air Bin Laden’s response. We will look at the tape, if there is a tape, and decide how much or how little to run.”

The network also promised to immediately share any video answers with its competitors. That is a policy reversal from last week when U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan started and CNN attempted to maintain a six-hour exclusive on pictures coming out of Kabul from Al Jazeera, with which CNN has a video-sharing arrangement. Other TV news organizations disregarded CNN’s embargo, citing the pictures’ newsworthiness.

On the possibility of a Bin Laden interview, CNN’s competitors took a wait-and-see attitude.

“We welcome the fact that they would share it and we’ll look at it and make an evaluation,” said a CBS News spokeswoman.

NBC and ABC said they would discuss airing it. Fox News Channel said it doesn’t know enough about the situation to comment.

Representatives for the other TV news organizations said they did not believe their reporters had received similar approaches from Al Qaeda.

Among the questions submitted to Bin Laden, CNN said, is a request for details on his role in the Sept. 11 attacks and subsequent “anthrax attacks” in the U.S. In addition, CNN asked Bin Laden to explain how he and his followers can advocate killing innocent people and how they respond to criticism from other Muslim and Arab leaders.

It also asked whether any of the Sept. 11 hijackers or accomplices receive Al Qaeda financial support or training, whether any other government or organization was involved, whether Bin Laden and his followers have weapons of mass destruction and if so, whether they plan to use them.

The network said it has no idea when it might hear back.