The Pentagon released a translated videotape of Osama bin Laden yesterday. US intelligence officers claim they found the tape in a residence in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.

The Bush administration says the videotape shows bin Laden betraying his advance knowledge of the suicide hijackingsand spoke about how the destruction had exceeded even his “optimistic” calculations.

But skeptics abroad remained unconvinced that bin Laden did anything more than express pleasure at the success ofattacks.

The Bush administration had argued for days over whether to release the tape. One faction said the tape would proveonce and for all that bin Laden was responsible for the attacks; another said that the poor, dark, grainy quality ofthe tape would leave the administration vulnerable to charges that the tape was doctored or even created by the CIA.

Tape:

• Osama Bin Laden

Guest:

• Ali Abunimah, media analyst and vice president of the Arab-American Action Coalition.
• Jane Franklin, historian and author of ??Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History

Related link:

• ali abunimah’s bitter pill