WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- President George Bush on Friday dismissed allegations that the videotape showing suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden reveling in the destruction of the Sept. 11 terror attacks was a fake.
"Those who want to think they were false or a fake want to think the best about an evil man," said Bush, speaking from the Oval Office. "This is bin Laden unedited. This is bin Laden, who is a murderer of the people. This is a man who sent innocent people to their deaths.
"This is a man who is so devious and so cold-hearted that he laughs about the suicides of suicide bombers who lost their lives. It's preposterous for anybody to think that this tape was doctored," he added.
Bush made his remarks while seated next to Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was visiting Washington. Bush said he had reservations about releasing the tape out of concern for the families who lost loved ones in the attacks.
"I had mixed emotions about this tape because there's a lot of people who suffered as a result of this evil, and I was hesitant to allow a vivid reminder of their loss and tragedy displaced on our TVs. On the other hand I knew it would be a devastating declaration of guilt," Bush said.
The president went on to say he did not care whether bin Laden was brought in "dead or live."
"I don't care. Dead or alive. Either way," Bush said. "It doesn't matter to me."
Bin Laden and his al Qaida terrorist network have been identified by Washington as the force behind the attacks on Washington and New York City that left some 3,000 people dead.
The videotape, released Thursday by the Department of Defense, shows bin Laden and his associates talking jovially about the destruction the 19 suicide hijackers caused as they steered three passenger jets into the World Trade Center twin towers and the Pentagon (a fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania). Bin Laden says in the tape that the hijackers were unaware of what their mission was until after they boarded the planes.
U.S. military forces retrieved the tape during their sweep through the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad in early November. U.S. officials have called it the "smoking gun" that proves bin Laden's involvement in the attacks.
