AMMAN:
Al Qaeda terrorist network leader Osama bin Laden said in an audiotape broadcast
by the Al Jazeera satellite channel that he himself had assigned 19 people for
the Sep 11, 2001, attacks in the
US.
"In fact, brother Zacarias
Moussaoui has no connection whatever with the Sep 11 operation," Osama bin Laden
said in the audiotape that Al Jazeera on Tuesday reported was posted on a
website.
"I am the man
responsible for the recruitment of the 19 people who carried out the attacks,
and I did not assign any task to Moussaoui," he
added.
Moussaoui was recently
sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, sparing him the death
penalty by a US jury.
Osama
bin Laden contended that Moussaoui's confession to having a role in the Sep 11
attacks was "null and void, because it was extracted under
pressure".
"Moussaoui was
arrested two weeks before the September events, and if he knew anything about
(the operation), we should have told (9/11 ringleader) Mohammed Atta and his
brothers to leave the US at once," the Al Qaeda chief said.