Osama bin Laden says the US war on terror is leading the American people "into an unbearable hell and a choking life".
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He has made the comments in a previously unaired interview conducted by the Al-Jazeera television network. CNN has edited portions of the taped exchange and says it obtained the interview "from a non-governmental source".
The interview is believed to have occurred in late October, about two weeks before Kabul fell to US-backed Afghan alliance fighters and more than a month before the Taliban abandoned their southern headquarters in Kandahar.
Bin Laden wore camouflage fatigues and spoke without emotion as he told his Al-Jazeera interviewer that killing innocent civilians "is permissible in Islamic law".
"I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed," he said. "The US government will lead the American people in and the West in general into an unbearable hell and a choking life".
The Al-Jazeera interviewer pressed bin Laden on his responsibility for the September 11th terror attacks on New York and the Pentagon but got ambiguous answers.
"America has made many accusations against us and many other Muslims around the world," he answered. "Its charge that we are carrying out acts of terrorism is unwarranted".
But moments later, he said: "If inciting people to do that is terrorism, and if killing those who kill our sons is terrorism, then let history be witness that we are terrorists".
AP