RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz said Wednesday the tape released by the Pentagon last week implicating Osama bin Laden in the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington was "true" and dismissed any doubt about its authenticity.
Prince Sultan said some people believed the tape was "fabricated" in the United States but added, "This is not true."
Prince Sultan, in remarks published by Saudi newspapers, said bin Laden, who even before the tape was alleged by U.S. officials to be the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist plot, has been given "a bigger place and reputation" and has "harmed himself and all others."
"He is a man who has no brain and it's enough what we all heard," he said, adding Saudi authorities tried in the past to convince him to resort to reason.
Bin Laden is a dissident Saudi national and many members of his family still live in the country.
Prince Sultan said during the war against communism in Afghanistan, "many Saudis and non-Saudis traveled to support their Afghan brothers but he (bin Laden) turned against himself and made of himself a ruler and commander of the Afghans."
Commenting on the anti-Saudi campaigns in the western and U.S. media following the Sept. 11 attacks, Prince Sultan praised "such ordeals for they let me distinguish between my enemy and my friend."
"Some people doubted that Saudi Arabia would cooperate militarily or financially with the U.S. in this big offensive (against Afghanistan) but I made clear that Saudi Arabia has an independent command," he said. "We are not against the Americans or western states and we don't support terrorism in any form but we have our own Arab and Islamic policies which we will not change in any case."
