One of Osama bin Laden's sons denied Wednesday having given an interview to a British tabloid which quoted him as saying his father, the world's most wanted man, would never be captured by the West.
The Saudi daily Al-Madina quoted Abdullah bin Laden as saying the purported interview published by London's Sunday Mirror October 14 was totally made up and raised a question mark about the credibility of Western media.
Abdullah, speaking in Jeddah, told Al-Madina the Sunday Mirror's story was so full of "lies" that it was easy to detect them.
Pointing out that his age was 24 and not 18 as claimed by the British paper, Abdullah said he had not left Jeddah "for a long time" and had been to Pakistan as a child 12 years ago. This meant he could not have been interviewed in Islamabad, as the Sunday Mirror alleged.
According to the daily, Abdullah also said "the last time he met or spoke with his father by telephone was six years ago," and not just before the US-led bombing blitz of Afghanistan began on October 7, as the British tabloid suggested.
The Sunday Mirror quoted Abdullah as saying his father, Washington's chief suspect in the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, was still in Afghanistan, hiding in the mountains with 300 commandos.
"America and Britain will never track down my father," Abdullah was quoted as saying. "He has vanished into the landscape -- he is invisible."
Abdullah allegedly said bin Laden disappeared into the hills with 60 trucks filled with satellite equipment on September 11 but that his father insisted he was not involved in that day's attacks in New York and Washington.
The Sunday Mirror said the interview was arranged by an agent of Afghanistan's Taliban ruling militia and took place in a guarded compound in a diplomatic quarter of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
Abdullah was alleged to have told the tabloid his father was now hiding in a cave, planning victory against the Northern Alliance, the opposition grouping in Afghanistan, and against special forces sent to capture or kill him.
"He has outsmarted the Americans for many years. He's now in the safest place in the world. No matter how many planes bomb our homeland, Afghan earth will never give up my father," Abdullah allegedly said.
According to the Sunday Mirror, Abdullah also said that his younger brother and sister and their mother, bin Laden's fifth wife, were given safe passage to Islamabad after the coalition started bombing Afghanistan a week ago.
The family's house in the Afghan capital Kabul, home to three of his wives and 29 of his children, was designed by bin Laden and is so secure it can only be penetrated by nuclear or chemical weapons, Abdullah was quoted as saying.
He allegedly added that his father ordered him to be with the family after he requested permission to stay and fight.
Al-Madina said Abdullah bin Laden, a businessman and father, complained about the "doubts" being cast on him and his family and the "fantastic stories concocted by Western journalists about him and his brothers," such as the Sunday Mirror piece -- Riyadh, (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
