I assigned 19 men for 9/11: Osama

Dissociating Moussaoui from 9/11, the Al-Qaeda chief said that he himself was responsible for the attacks in the US.

Al-Qaeda terrorist network leader Osama bin Laden said in an audiotape broadcast by the Al Jazeera satellite channel that he himself had assigned 19 people for the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US.

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"In fact, brother Zacarias Moussaoui has no connection whatever with the Sep 11 operation," Osama bin Laden said in the audiotape that Al Jazeera Tuesday reported was posted on a website.

"I am the man responsible for the recruitment of the 19 people who carried out the attacks, and I did not assign any task to Moussaoui," he added.

Moussaoui was recently sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, sparing him the death penalty by a US jury.

Osama bin Laden contended that Moussaoui's confession to having a role in the Sep 11 attacks was "null and void, because it was extracted under pressure".

"Moussaoui was arrested two weeks before the September events, and if he knew anything about (the operation), we should have told (9/11 ringleader) Mohammed Atta and his brothers to leave the US at once," the Al-Qaeda chief said.