A Pakistani newspaper that says it interviewed Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites ) reported Sunday that the Saudi-born militant said he knew nothing about anthrax-tainted letters sent to U.S. media and government offices.
Hamid Mir, editor of the Urdu-language Ausaf newspaper, says he held a two-hour interview with bin Laden in the early hours of Thursday morning at a secret location in Afghanistan ( news - web sites ) after a bone-jarring five-hour jeep ride from Kabul.
In a second account of the interview published Sunday, the newspaper said that when bin Laden was asked whether his al Qaeda network was behind the anthrax attacks, "he laughed and said we don't know anything about it."
In the first accounts of Mir's interview, the respected Dawn newspaper said Saturday that bin Laden, prime suspect for the deadly September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon ( news - web sites ), said he had nuclear and chemical weapons and might use them in response to U.S. attacks on Afghanistan.
"I wish to declare that if America used chemical or nuclear weapons against us, then we may retort with chemical and nuclear weapons. We have the weapons as deterrent," bin Laden was quoted as saying.
An account of the same interview published in Ausaf on Saturday contained no mention of bin Laden's claim to have nuclear weapons. But Sunday Ausaf said the Saudi-born militant had indeed made the claim.
The paper said bin Laden had declined to say where he got the weapons, but had told Mir he suspected the U.S. was using chemical weapons in Afghanistan because "bodies of mujahideen found from a site in Kabul had all turned black."

U.S. President George Bush Saturday told the U.N. General Assembly global terrorism could soon involve nuclear attacks.
He said those responsible for the September 11 attacks were seeking nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
"These same terrorists are searching for weapons of mass destruction, the tools to turn their hatred into holocausts," he said, speaking just a few miles from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. "This threat cannot be ignored, this threat cannot be appeased... Civilization itself is threatened."
Bush told a news conference Saturday he did not know whether bin Laden already had such weapons.
British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon told the BBC Sunday that bin Laden did have some nuclear material.
"We are certainly aware that he has some material that could contribute to a nuclear weapon. We are not convinced at this stage that he is capable of producing a nuclear bomb," he said.
Mir told Reuters he was picked up in Kabul Wednesday night, blindfolded, wrapped in a blanket and bundled into the back of a jeep for a five-hour journey to meet bin Laden.
Mir said that when his blindfold was taken off, he found himself in a room, where bin Laden arrived with about a dozen bodyguards and Ayman Zawahri, a top lieutenant in al Qaeda.
"The floor of the room showed that this was a mud house arranged temporarily for the interview. On regular intervals one could hear anti-aircraft guns, so it was not difficult to guess that it was close to the front line," Mir wrote in Sunday's edition of Ausaf.
"Osama bin Laden looked confident, healthy and fresh."
Independent experts say it is unlikely bin Laden has developed a nuclear capability. The Pakistani government last month dismissed as absurd international media reports that bin Laden had obtained nuclear material from Pakistan.
The New York Times reported in Sunday editions that two Afghan sites suspected of involvement in efforts by bin Laden and his al Qaeda followers to produce deadly chemicals had been identified by the United States.
"American officials say the intelligence reports showing the possible production of small quantities of cyanide gas provide the strongest indication they have received of al Qaeda's success in its efforts to develop chemical weapons," the paper said.