An audio message purportedly by al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has been released on an Islamist website. The message, entitled "a statement to the American people", was about 10 minutes long and was accompanied by a still image of Bin Laden but no video. In the message, a voice tells the US president that he is "powerless" to stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The message comes just two days after the US marked the eighth anniversary of the 11 September attacks on America. According to a monitoring firm that translated the address, Site Intelligence Group, the voice believed to be Bin Laden speaks of how the conflict between al-Qaeda and the US may end. He also discusses what motivated his network to launch the 11 September attacks, explaining they were, in part, fuelled by US support for Israel. Bin Laden is thought to be hiding in mountainous terrain on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. In his last known message, in June, Bin Laden had said that US President Barack Obama had planted the seeds of "revenge and hatred" towards the US in the Muslim world.

"I have held talks with His Eminence Amir ol-Momenin [Taleban leader Mola Mohammad Omar Mojahed], who does not allow such acts to be carried out from Afghanistan's territory." Again on September 28, 2001 in an interview with Karachi Ummat, bin Laden denies any involvement with the attacks and further denied that al-Qaeda had anything to do with plotting and carrying out the attacks.