Bin Laden Has "Religious Approval" To Use Nuke

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://www.drudgereport.com/flash2.htm>

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 FORMER HEAD OF CIA'S OSAMA BIN LADEN UNIT SAYS THE QAEDA LEADER HAS
SECURED RELIGIOUS APPROVAL TO USE A NUCLEAR BOMB AGAINST AMERICANS
 Fri Nov 12 2004 12:02:34 ET

 Osama bin Laden now has religious approval to use a nuclear device against
Americans, says the former head of the CIA unit charged with tracking down
the Saudi terrorist. The former agent, Michael Scheuer, speaks to Steve
Kroft in his first television interview without disguise to be broadcast on
60 MINUTES Sunday, Nov. 14 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television
Network.

 Scheuer was until recently known as the "anonymous" author of two books
critical of the West's response to bin Laden and al Qaeda, the most recent
of which is titled Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on
Terror. No one in the West knows more about the Qaeda leader than Scheuer,
who has tracked him since the mid-1980s. The CIA allowed him to write the
books provided he remain anonymous, but now is allowing him to reveal
himself for the first time on Sunday's broadcast; he formally leaves the
Agency today (12).

 Even if bin Laden had a nuclear weapon, he probably wouldn't have used it
for a lack of proper religious authority - authority he has now. "[Bin
Laden] secured from a Saudi sheik...a rather long treatise on the
possibility of using nuclear weapons against the Americans," says Scheuer.
"[The treatise] found that he was perfectly within his rights to use them.
Muslims argue that the United States is responsible for millions of dead
Muslims around the world, so reciprocity would mean you could kill millions
of Americans," Scheuer tells Kroft.

 Scheuer says bin Laden was criticized by some Muslims for the 9/11 attack
because he killed so many people without enough warning and before offering
to help convert them to Islam. But now bin Laden has addressed the American
people and given fair warning. "They're intention is to end the war as soon
as they can and to ratchet up the pain for the Americans until we get out
of their region....If they acquire the weapon, they will use it, whether
it's chemical, biological or some sort of nuclear weapon," says Scheuer.

 As the head of the CIA unit charged with tracking bin Laden from 1996 to
1999, Scheuer says he never had enough people to do the job right. He
blames former CIA Director George Tenet. "One of the questions that should
have been asked of Mr. Tenet was why were there always enough people for
the public relations office, for the academic outreach office, for the
diversity and multi-cultural office? All those things are admirable and
necessary but none of them are protecting the American people from a
foreign threat," says Scheuer.

 And the threat posed by bin Laden is also underestimated, says Scheuer. "I
think our leaders over the last decade have done the American people a
disservice...continuing to characterize Osama bin Laden as a thug, as a
gangster," he says. "Until we respect him, sir, we are going to die in
numbers that are probably unnecessary, yes. He's a very, very talented man
and a very worthy opponent," he tells Kroft.

 Until today (12), Scheuer was a senior official in the CIA's counter
terrorism unit and a special advisor to the head of the agency's bin Laden
unit.

 Developing...


-- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'