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Reactions to bin Laden videotape

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Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-California

"I think it reinforces America's resolve. Bin Laden very clearly implicates himself in this, and he does so in a number of different ways if you listen carefully to the tape. Even more so, he does it with a sort of cursory body language and with almost a kind of smirk that indicates that this is everyday stuff."




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Ari Fleischer
White House spokesman

"The President has known all along that Osama bin Laden did this. That's been clear really from the very first days after the attacks took place. So, it came as no surprise to the president that Osama bin Laden was taking responsibility and having advanced knowledge of the attacks."




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Mayor Rudi Giuliani
New York City

We're all very much affected by this, so we really do have the right to make our own judgments about it. I think it serves the purpose of the United States, in a legitimate way, in demonstrating to any of those doubters that we were quite correct in the military action that we have taken.




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Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina

"Here's what struck me the most: the smugness, the belief that he was projecting on the tape that this war that he started was basically sanctioned by God. The constant reference to Allah by both the speakers, knowing that they were on tape, was to me selling to whomever might listen that this cause is sanctioned by God, and that all worked so well because God's blessing was on this endeavor. I hope that people in the Muslim world will understand that their religion is being hijacked by this guy."




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Sen. Chuck Hegel, R-Nebraska

"The world needs to see this tape. The world needs to see it to see what kind of evil bin Laden and his people represent. Only then can the enormity and the dimension of this evilness play out where people actually see it."




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Steven Push
Wife Lisa died in the attack on the Pentagon

"None of this surprises me. The only thing that surprises me, and actually I find in a way encouraging, is how conceited and undisciplined Osama bin Laden is. To make a full confession on videotape was not the smartest thing do. It makes him seem like a less formidable enemy, and it gives me encouragement to continue in my work with the families of September 11th, to do everything I can to encourage public policies to defeat terrorism. He seems like a defeatable enemy."




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Donald Rumsfeld
U.S. Secretary of Defense

"It should be clear from the very matter-of-fact way that he refers to the attacks that killed thousands of innocent people, from several dozen different countries, why terrorists and terrorism must be defeated before they get their hands on weapons of mass destruction."




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Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama
Senate Intelligence Committee

"I believe this tape shows bin Laden's real culpability, his real guilt, beyond any reasonable doubt. And it also shows the cold cynicism of the character of Osama bin Laden, even in dealing with his own people. I believe if you look at the tape and watch the gestures, you're going to see damnable evidence against Osama bin Laden beyond any reasonable doubt."






 
 
 
 



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