10079

08/20/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10079

OSAMA TAPES

Al-Qaida is a movement defined by hatred. The al-Qaida terrorists directed by Osama bin-Laden hate progress, freedom, Christians, Jews, and moderate Muslims who reject their extremist doctrines.

Today, al-Qaida operates in more than sixty countries, including the United States. These terrorists seek to destabilize not just nations but entire regions. They want chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.

Osama bin Laden has acknowledged responsibility for the September 11^th attacks on the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and the World Trade Center in New York City. Osama bin Laden is recorded on one of his own colleague’s videotapes as saying, "We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all," said bin Laden, "due to my experience in this field. I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only."

Osama bin Laden has now been deprived of his sanctuary in Afghanistan. He is either dead or on the run. But evidence of his terrorist activities continues to emerge. Recently, C-N-N broadcast videotapes discovered in Afghanistan. They show al-Qaida operatives testing what appear to be chemical weapons agents. One tape shows horrible scenes of dogs dying after being exposed to chemical agents. As C-N-N newsman Aaron Brown explained, "Some of it sickened us."

More than two-hundred-fifty al-Qaida videotapes have been found in Afghanistan. One explains how to fire surface-to-air missiles. Another shows potential terrorists how to stop cars and kidnap the vehicle’s occupants. Other videotapes show Osama bin Laden meeting with journalists.

As President George W. Bush said, "We’re determined to fight this evil, and fight until we’re rid of it. We will not wait for the authors of mass murder to gain the weapons of mass destruction. We act now, because we must lift this dark threat from our age and save generations to come."