A boastful bin Laden.

Byline: The Register-Guard

A grainy videotape released this week by the Bush administration confirms what most people already know: Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network are responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But the tape adds to public knowledge, in the United States and around the world, in a useful way. Bin Laden isn't just guilty of mass murder. He's guilty of an inhuman response to a great tragedy.

The tape, retrieved from a house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, is not the sort of propaganda production that has put bin Laden on the world's television screens before. It's a home movie, taped at an undisclosed location, showing bin Laden in relaxed conversation with friends and admirers.

Bin Laden's words are as good as a signed confession. He speaks of having had advance notice that "the event" - using hijacked planes to attack buildings - would take place. He tells of having attempted to calculate in advance the number of casualties, indicating close familiarity with the targets. He says that "his experience in this field" had led him to believe that the hijacked airplanes would destroy three or four floors and the parts of the buildings above them, proving that he was aware of the details of the operation.

The actual result - destruction of both World Trade Center towers and a direct hit on the Pentagon - was more than bin Laden, who describes himself as the most optimistic of the plotters, had hoped for. Throughout, he is plainly delighted with the attacks and claims they brought flocks of converts to Islam.

Bin Laden became suspect No. 1 within hours after the attacks on Sept. 11. The United States and its allies have never entertained serous doubts about his culpability. Yet in Pakistan, Indonesia and other countries, substantial minorities have expressed some degree of support for bin Laden. Some even believe he's being framed by the United States.

The video should dampen those sympathies. Not only does the tape make bin Laden's role in the attacks clear, it also reveals a chilling callousness - toward his thousands of victims, and also toward the operatives who carried out the suicide mission. The hijackers were moved into position like chessmen on a board, bin Laden says, with many of them not knowing each other or the nature of the act they were about to commit. Bin Laden calls them martyrs, but some were also pawns.

The Bush administration has been wary of putting bin Laden's face on television, and delayed the release of the videotape for nearly a week after its existence became public knowledge. The administration says it is concerned that broadcast recordings might contain coded messages. Bin Laden undoubtedly has other ways to communicate - or did until a few weeks ago, in the days when the Taliban controlled most of Afghanistan. A more realistic concern is that broadcasting bin Laden's speeches or interviews would add to his status as a cult figure in some parts of the world.

But the Bush administration was right to release this tape. It shows bin Laden in a way that makes him worth pursuing in the name of justice: not just guilty of a great crime, but willing to make boasts about it. Even those in the Islamic world who harbor ill-will toward the United States should be repelled by bin Laden's pious pride and cruelty.