Bin Laden tape seen as damning by those convinced of his guilt

Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush called the Osama bin Laden videotape a declaration of guilt by a terrorist and said anyone questioning the tape's authenticity is reaching for a feeble excuse to support him.

"I mean, this is bin Laden unedited," Bush said Friday. "It's preposterous for anybody to think that this tape is doctored.

"That's just a feeble excuse to provide weak support for an incredibly evil man."

Among Americans and their allies, bin Laden's satisfied and knowing musings about the Sept. 11 attacks, in the apparently candid video broadcast Thursday, hardened attitudes already set in stone.

In the tape, bin Laden betrayed -- indeed, boasted about -- his advance knowledge of the suicide hijackings and spoke about how the destruction had exceeded even his "optimistic" calculations.

U.S. legal experts called the tape devastating, a "virtual confession," in the words of one.

Even so, some skeptics abroad remained unconvinced that bin Laden did anything more than express pleasure at the success of attacks that killed more than 3,000 people. There was even a suggestion America cooked up the video using a stand-in.

Bush snickered when asked about the doubters, while posing for Oval Office photos Friday morning with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand.

"Those who contend it's a farce or a fake are hoping for the best about an evil man," he said.

Bush said he hesitated to release the tape, found in an Afghan home as U.S.-backed Afghan forces overwhelmed bin Laden's Taliban allies, because he knew it would be hard for families of the Sept. 11 victims to watch.

"On the other hand, I knew the tape would be a devastating declaration of guilt for this evil person," he said.

In an even, low voice, with the occasional chuckle, bin Laden recounted at length his reaction to the attacks on New York City and Washington in the disjointed, homemade tape.

"We calculated in advance the number of casualties who would be killed," bin Laden said, according to the U.S. translation.

But he said he had not figured that the World Trade Center twin towers would come down entirely, instead believing only floors at and above the planes' impact sites would be destroyed.

On the operation's planning, he said "we did not reveal" to the hijack crews the details of what they were expected to do until just before they boarded the planes.

They knew only that they were preparing for a martyrdom operation, he said.

For all his familiarity with the Sept. 11 events, bin Laden did not explicitly take responsibility for directing the operation. He said he received notification of the Tuesday attacks the previous Thursday, indicating that the timing, at least, might have been left to others.

The Pakistani government said the tape vindicated its decision to back the U.S. war in Afghanistan despite the heated opposition from many of its citizens.

And in Washington, a Muslim group that has been critical of aspects of U.S. policy in the anti-terror campaign found the tape convincing.

"Bin Laden clearly spoke as someone who had foreknowledge of the attacks," the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement. The group found particularly "sickening" bin Laden's claim that the attacks advanced the cause of Islam.

Imad Hamad, director of the Dearborn, Mich., regional office of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the translation provided by the government with the help of outside experts seemed accurate.

"It's clear in the tape that he had the prior knowledge," Hamad said. "And he was happy about it. This is insane."

Mark Finelli, an investment banker from Tucson, Ariz., who was on the 61st floor of one of the twin towers on Sept. 11, said the tape made him feel "very violent and enraged. ... I just wanted to punch the screen."

"Whenever I saw it on television I changed the channel," said Anthony Gambale, whose daughter, Giovanna, was killed at the World Trade Center.

U.S. officials could hardly claim that the tape convinced them of bin Laden's guilt, because they had asserted his guilt was beyond question already. But they hoped influential doubters in the Middle East would be swayed.

"That clinches it for the world," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

Yet some Arabs held out the possibility that bin Laden was making a colossal, empty boast before a gathering of supporters who shared his delight in the results.

In Jordan, political analyst Labib Kamhawi said: "This does not prove that bin Laden was responsible for the Sept. 11 attack; maybe it reflects wishful thinking for what had happened or praising the attacks."

In Milan, Italy, the leader of one mosque voiced doubts likely to be echoed among others immune to persuasion. "I had the sensation that it wasn't bin Laden," said Ali Abu Shawa. "Maybe it was a stand-in, or an actor."

The impact may have been diluted to some extent by the poor quality of the video, and language difficulties. Many Arabs either had to accept the English translation on TV or strain to hear the words themselves.

Still, Samir Rantisi, a senior adviser of the Palestinian Ministry of Information, said the tape proved that bin Laden and his al-Qaida network were solely responsible and should end any speculation that Palestinians had been involved.

In the tape, bin Laden recalled tuning in to the radio Sept. 11 to hear American news broadcasts of the attacks.

"They were overjoyed when the first plane hit the building," he said of others listening with him that day. "So I said to them: Be patient."

Gesturing, he said he had figured that the burning jet fuel "would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit" and take down only the floors above it.

"This is all that we had hoped for," he said, sitting on the floor in a plain room and holding his audience of aides and other supporters, including an unidentified Saudi cleric, rapt.

"It is the most powerful kind of evidence," said Donald B. Ayer, former deputy attorney general. "It is a virtual confession."