October 16, 2001	Tuesday	Rajab 28, 1422

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WASHINGTON, Oct 15: Osama bin Laden is well and is confident that he will win the current campaign.

This is what some representatives of Al Qaeda told CNN correspondent Nick Robertson who went to Jalababad at the weekend as the US-led war on Afghanistan entered its second week.

The representatives said they had seen Osama bin Laden in the last two days and he was well.

They also said that Osama believes he has successfully defined the terms of this conflict. According to CNN, they said that he believed he defined this as a battle for saving Islam, and that the allied forces were fighting against Islam. They also said that the US and United Kingdom, according to Osama, would now suffer huge economic and political downfall because of their involvement in this.

The CNN report adds: The Al Qaeda representatives said the only way that the conflict could go on, the only way it could end and the US could avoid having its economy or political situation ruined was if the US removed its troops from Saudi Arabia. This is what Al Qaeda movement and Osama bin Laden has been saying all along. They also said that it was necessary for the US to disengage in the situation in Israel.

However, Osama’s representatives did say that Osama had a special message at this time, and that message was that if the homes of Afghan people are destroyed then there would be consequences for that action. Now of course, the Taliban took us into Afghanistan in the last couple of days to show us just that. The Taliban wanted to show international reporters what they said were homes of civilians (that were bombed) as part of the allied bombing campaign, and to that end, they took us to a village in the mountains and we were able to see a village where a large number of the houses had been destroyed and a large number of people still there who told us that American bombers had bombed their village.

They said they were confident at this time because clearly they were already beginning to win because they said the economy of the US had been affected. In fact, they said the economy of the world would be affected at this time and also it would have a politically destabilizing effect not only on the US, but on Britain. They also singled out the British leader, Prime Minister Tony Blair, saying his involvement in this would mean problems for the UK.