Since the early 1990s, several interviews of Osama bin Laden have appeared in the global media. Most prominent among these, according to the theorist Noam Chomsky, was an interview by Middle East specialist Robert Fisk. In the interviews, Bin Laden acknowledges having instigated bombings in Khobar and Riyadh, but denies involvement with both the 1993 and 2001 attacks on the WTC towers in New York.
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Like the videos of Osama bin Laden, the interviews' authenticity is sometimes regarded as suspect.
Bin Laden himself mentioned some of the interviews directly in the 2004 Osama bin Laden video, saying "you can read this, if you wish, in my interview with Scott in Time Magazine in 1996, or with Peter Arnett on CNN in 1997, or my meeting with John Weiner in 1998."
The Independent, 1993 and 1997
Bin Laden gave an interview to the Independent newspaper's Robert Fisk in 1993. This was the first he had ever given to a Western journalist. It was titled "Anti-Soviet warrior puts his army on the road to peace," and related to bin Laden and his recruited mujahideen's road building in Sudan.
Fisk again interviewed Bin Laden on March 20, 1997; Bin Laden said of his operations at the time "We are still at the beginning of our military action against the American forces."
CNN: 1997
Peter Arnett of CNN interviewed bin Laden in March 1997 after Bin Laden declared jihad on the United States. Asked by Arnett, "What are your future plans?", Bin Laden said, "You'll see them and hear about them in the media, God willing".
ABC: 1998
A recorded interview in May 1998, a little over two months before the U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, shows bin Laden answering questions posed by some of his followers at a mountaintop camp in southern Afghanistan. In the latter part of the interview, ABC reporter John Miller asks further questions.
Time: 1999
Rahimullah Yusufzai, a journalist for Pakistan's The News, TIME, and ABC News, in 1999 secured a four-hour interview with bin Laden in Afghanistan's Helmand province. During Yusufzai's late-night conversation, bin Laden appeared to be in good health, though he admitted to a sore throat and a bad back. He continually sipped water from a cup, and Yusufzai caught him on videotape walking with the aid of a stick. This latter footage was erased by bin Laden's bodyguards. The interview appeared in the January 11, 1999 issue of Time Asia.
2001: Ummat
The Daily Ummat is said to have interviewed Osama bin Laden weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. In the interview bin Laden denies his involvement in the attacks; the interview was relayed in English by the BBC monitoring service.