“Our brothers in Guantanamo … have no connection whatsoever to the events of Sept. 11,” he said, claiming they were jailed to justify the cost of the war on terror.
But he did say two of the detainees were linked to the Sept. 11 attacks. “All the prisoners to date have no connection to the Sept. 11 events or knew anything about them, except for two of the brothers,” bin Laden said. But he did not provide names or elaborate further.
The audio message, which is less than five minutes long, was transmitted with a still photo of bin Laden.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An audio recording in which al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden says convicted September 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui played no role in the attacks is authentic, a U.S. intelligence official said on Wednesday.
“Following a technical analysis it has been revealed that the voice is indeed Osama bin Laden,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In the audiotape, posted on a Web site often used by al Qaeda, bin Laden also said he had personally assigned tasks to the 19 hijackers who staged the attacks on U.S. cities that killed about 3,000 people.