Excerpts from videotaped remarks of Osama bin Laden speaking with aides and a Saudi sheik. The translation from Arabic was provided by the Bush administration Thursday.

Osama bin Laden: (inaudible) ... We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all. ... (inaudible) Due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for.

Sheik: Allah be praised.

Bin Laden: We were at ... (inaudible) when the event took place. We had notification since the previous Thursday that the event would take place that day. We had finished our work that day and had the radio on. It was 5:30 p.m. our time. I was sitting with Dr. Ahmad Abu-al-(Khair). Immediately, we heard the news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We turned the radio station to the news from Washington. The news continued and (there was) no mention of the attack until the end. At the end of the newscast, they reported that a plane just hit the World Trade Center.

Sheik: Allah be praised.

Bin Laden: After a little while, they announced that another plane had hit the World Trade Center. The brothers who heard the news were overjoyed by it.

Sheik: I listened to the news and I was sitting. We didn't ... we were not thinking about anything, and all of a sudden, Allah willing, we were talking about how come we didn't have anything, and all of a sudden the news came and everyone was overjoyed and everyone, until the next day, in the morning, was talking about what was happening and we stayed until 4 o'clock, listening to the news, every time a little bit different, everyone was very joyous and saying `Allah is great,' `Allah is great,' `We are thankful to Allah,' `Praise Allah.' And I was happy for the happiness of my brothers. That day the congratulations were coming on the phone nonstop. The mother was receiving phone calls continuously. Thank Allah. Allah is great, praise be to Allah.

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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