G-Lers,

Here is a very thought provoking email I was sent. I find it very
interesting.

Have a good day, Gassa.

ZAMBIA ONLINE's VIRTUAL INTERVIEW WITH OSAMA BIN LADEN.

Disclaimer: Zambia Online does not necessarily hold the views of the Virtual
bin Laden in this interview. We only bring out the other side of the picture
for the purpose of public debate.

ZZ: Mr Bin Laden, welcome to Zambia Online virtual interview.

OBL: Thank you.

ZZ: So, you’ve denied being responsible for the US terrorist attacks. Why do
you think you’re their primary suspect?

OBL: I was not responsible for those attacks. If it was me, I would have
been proud to say it was me, but I would not take credit for something
planned and executed by someone else.

ZZ: Why do you think you’re the primary suspect of the US government?

OBL: I do not think they even believe I am a suspect. They have just picked
on me because they want someone to kill so that their people can feel like
they’ve done something about it. You must understand that this is a very bad
situation for this new government and if they fail to do anything about it,
people will start blaming them for the attacks themselves. Bush will look
like a liar and a coward, and that is bad for a republican president.

ZZ:So you think this is just politics? They just want to satisfy their
people?

OBL: Absolutely. They do not have a clue who hit them, but they can’t
confess that to the public. They have always presented the US Government and
US intelligence as the great, omnipotent and omniscient force, so they can’t
tell the people the truth about this case: that they don’t know what the
hell is going on or who hit them. This is why they keep publishing reports
like “FBI have 1000 leads”. I mean, 1000 leads? What’s that? When you have
1000 leads, then you know you’re confused!

ZZ: Who do you think hit them, then?

OBL: I really don’t know, but it could be anyone. You see, America has been
making enemies without even realizing it. They have become so proud and
pompous that they are a big liability in the new, global world.

ZZ: What do you mean by that?

OBL: Just look at what has been happening recently, especially with their
new president. The whole world decides that toxic emissions have to be
controlled for the good of the whole planet [the Kyoto Treaty] and they just
ignore everyone and decide not to abide by that. Had it been your country,
Zambia, which did that, Americans would have immediately cut aid to you and
the IMF would follow suit until you bulk. But they are too strong and
whatever they decide is right. That’s a bad attitude and it creates enemies.

And then of course there was the Durban Conference on Racism in South
Africa. They just decided to walk out of that. What was that for? You see
how proud and arrogant they are? They don’t care what the rest of the world
is saying or doing because they believe they are the only superpower and
they have everything they need. This is what creates enemies for them.

ZZ: But every country has a right to pursue its own policies as a sovereign
state, including the USA.

OBL: Yes, every country has that right but it has to remember that it is not
alone in this world. When it pursues any policy, it should think about the
impact of that policy on other people. The people at the Durban conference
were concerned that America backs Israel’s violent policy towards
Palestinians and Arabs. It’s a race thing. They believe, according to their
religion that other people are their enemies and they are inferior to them,
and so on, and they express this attitude to them. Their religion tells them
that certain areas belong to them and they try to steal those areas from
other people who believe otherwise. The Durban Conference was trying to
address those issues that stem from religious, racial prejudices and
Americans decided to walk out with their little mistress, Israel, before we
even had a chance to express our point.

ZZ: So, are you happy with what happened to Americans?

OBL: The terrorist action?

ZZ: Yes.

OBL: No, of course not. How can anyone be happy with innocent people dying.
I m just trying to put the blame where it is supposed to be. These people
have a foreign policy which does not think about every side of the fence.
They give Israel 5 billion dollars every year and Israel buys arms, and
Palestinians lose lives for that. Palestinians do not have as much money so
they resort to the only weapon they have: their lives. And it goes on and
on.

ZZ: So, you say you feel bad that civilians had to die in New York. Would
you also go as far as describing the terrorists as barbaric?

OBL: No. They are heroes. A man does not give his life for nothing. And if
they were just insane, as Americans are saying, they would have just flown
those planes to any place, including Disneyland or something. These are
intelligent people and they had specific targets because they wanted
Americans to get the right message.

ZZ: Do you think they have got the right message?

OBL: Unfortunately, no. They keep saying thing like “we’ve been attacked
because we are a democratic country and a free society.” Who can ever attack
another country for that? We don’t mind how they govern themselves and how
they live. What we mind is the fact that they are a nuisance to us. They
believe they are so wealthy and so powerful that they can support oppression
of other people with no consideration for their lives. This was a message to
them that they are not as powerful as they think and that they should be
considerate for other people.

ZZ: I see a little contradiction here. You’re saying you support the
terrorists and you’re calling them heroes, but you also said you feel bad
that innocent citizens died.

OBL: When there is war, you feel bad when innocent civilians die, but that
doesn’t mean you regret attacking that country. Sometimes civilians suffer
for the mistakes of their governments. Americans know this very well. When
they call sanctions against another country in Africa, like Zimbabwe, they
are doing so because they are against the policies of the Zimbabwean
government, but how many innocent civilians die as a result? Countless. And
yet you won’t hear about that on CNN. The only important civilians are the
civilians of America!

ZZ: Yes, but that’s different.

OBL: How’s that different? Whether a person dies of hunger or from a bomb
does not make any difference, if both are caused by an external force.

ZZ: It’s different because in that case the American government is not
really oblidged to trade with Zimbabwe or any country so when they withdraw
from trading with that country, they are simply exercising their right to
choose who to trade with. And in fact, when you continue trading with such
governments, they simply use your resources to finance whatever activities
they are doing that you are against.

OBL: Alright, that’s a fair point, but I’ll give you a more direct example.
When America dropped atomic bombs in Japan, did they care about the
civilians who would die from that attack? And what about in Kosovo, Iraq,
Vietnam? Didn’t many more civilians die there that than the ones who died in
New York?

ZZ: True, but that was war.

OBL: This IS war. George Bush himself has said it is war, and he’s right.
So, if he believes it’s war, why is he still complaining about civilian
deaths. War is war, and sometimes innocent people die.

ZZ: But they were attacked when they did not even know there is war. That’s
unfair. Both parties of a war should know so that they are prepared.

OBL: Americans killed innocent civilians in Kosovor just to stop Milosevic’s
actions. Sometimes innocent civilians die because you want a leader to
listen to you and he is not listening because he is stubborn or because of
his dangerous racial or religious beliefs.

ZZ: So, you’re saying America was not listening to you and that’s why you
attacked them?

OBL: You’re trying to catch me there. I said I was not the one who attacked
them. But I understand why they were attacked by whoever attacked them. Just
like Milosevic would not listen to the rest of the world when he was
committing those atrocities, even Bush does not listen to the rest of the
world when he commits his atrocities against Palestinians, and against other
innocent peoples of the world. We want them to be able to listen when other
people speak, and sometimes the only way of catching their attention is by
showing them that they have no reason to be so pompous.

ZZ: And so you take innocent people in a commercial plane and slam them into
a building full of innocent, unsuspecting civilians …

OBL: That’s war. Ask Americans about Hiroshima … and Kosovo.

ZZ: There’s something else I want to ask you …

OBL: Wait, before you ask me. I just want to point out something else. I
heard that your country conducted Prayers for the 5000 people or so who’ve
died in America?

ZZ: Yes, we did.

OBL: Did you conduct prayers when 1 million people died in Rwanda?

ZZ: Um … well, no. I don’t think so.

OBL: I see.

ZZ: I suppose the American incident was a little more shocking.

OBL: 5 000 deaths was more shocking than 1 million deaths! Do you know why?
It’s because Americans control the media. They have the money and they
control the world through the media. Their opinions spread faster than
anyone else’s opinions. And they decide for you what should shock you, even
when it doesn’t make sense. Princess Diana and Mother Theresa died on the
same day but Americans and their allies decided it was more important to
mourn Princess Diana and all of you started crying for her, no one said a
word about Mother Theresa until much later. You cried more for Diana than
for the people of Rwanda and the flood victims of Mozambique.

ZZ: Well, that’s something to think about, but you can’t blame Americans for
it. They own the media, they can decide what to focus on. If we want to
focus on something, we should just work hard and own our own media
companies.

OBL: [Laughs]. But don’t you realize that you can never become that wealthy?
This is the whole point of some of our so-called terrorist attacks. We want
to change the world so that even you people in Africa can become rich and
own your own media companies as you say.

ZZ: We can never become that wealthy?

OBL: No, you can’t! You do not have the capital to resuscitate your
economies to such levels. Your economies were completely destroyed by your
colonialists and to restart, you need a lot of money, not the little peanuts
they throw at you. They throw peanuts at you because they think you’re
monkeys!

ZZ: How much money do we need to restore our economies.

OBL: I can’t give you the figures, but I know it is many billions of
dollars.

ZZ: How do you know that?

OBL: Look, let me give you an example. Two buildings were attacked in New
York last week and the president decided that they need to restore the
economy of New York affected by the demolition of those two buildings. How
much money did he ask for?

ZZ: 20 billion dollars.

OBL: That’s right. And Congress gave him 40 billion dollars. It took him
only 1 day to estimate that they needed that much money to restore the
economy of just one city. They know it’s billions of dollars. And yet they
will give you a few million dollars today and a few the other year and they
expect you to rebuild your economies! They are liars. They know that money
can’t help, but they give it to you as aid just to keep you deceived that
you are making progress. And by the way, the 20 or 40 billion dollars is
just for the infrastructure. The US government has released about 90 billion
dollars to the banks to help the companies that were affected in this thing.
So, they are pumping in more than 100 billion dollars for destruction that
happened in a day, but they give you 1 or 2 million dollars every year to
give to your businesses so that you can restore something that they have
been destroying for years and years and years. THAT, my brother, is the real
act of terror!

ZZ: Well, but they don’t really owe us any money, so we can’t make any
demands. New York is part of their country so they can decide to give them
the right amount of money.

OBL: They don’t owe you any money, but they want the world to believe that
they are helping you to restore your economies, except “all the money is
going into the pockets of African dictators”. You see, these Western
governments are very much afraid of their own people because of their
democratic system. They are removed from power if their people think they
are bad. And their people want them to take responsibility for some of the
harm they have caused in other countries, especially Africa. So they claim
that they are helping you, but they have to explain why it’s not working. So
they say your leaders are stealing all the money that would have restored
your economies. But is that the right amount of money for the damage they
have caused through their capitalistic terrorist acts? It’s peanuts, my
friend. And what do you do when someone gives you peanuts? You eat them!
That’s why your leaders ‘eat’ that money. It’s too little to be used for
anything else!

ZZ: Do you believe the terrorist attacks in New York have changed the world
for the better?

OBL: I hope so. Americans are looking a little less self confident, though
they want to get me as a way of restoring that confidence artificially. They
have realized they are vulnerable. I hope they will become a little more
humble. They should realize that they are not the super power of the world.
A human being who is tired of suffering, and tired of being oppressed by
draconian policies; a human being who has got to the point where he is
willing to die to correct injustices and to bring freedom to the rest of his
or her people --- that kind of a human being is the only superpower in the
world.

End of Part 1 of the interview.Watch this space for part 2.

copyright zambiaonline and zamzine, 2001.



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