Americans react with anger, disgust to bin Laden tape

Watching a smiling Osama bin Laden assess the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a man who was in the World Trade Center that day said he wanted to smash his TV screen. Said a Marine who also watched bin Laden, “He needs to be taken out.”

Anger and disgust were common reactions Thursday as Americans saw bin Laden and his top aides cheerfully discuss the outcome of the attacks on Washington and New York. Even though most already believed bin Laden was guilty, the images were grating.

“It makes me so mad. He sat there, feeding his fat self and laughing,” said Trish Bergamo, a bartender in Boston.

Some Muslim Americans worried that release of the videotape would provoke a new wave of harassment and vandalism against them. The father of a Sept. 11 victim said he wished the tape had not been made public.

“Whenever I saw it on television I changed the channel,” said Anthony Gambale, whose daughter, Giovanna, was killed at the World Trade Center.

“It should be filed away and let the government and the CIA take care of it,” Gambale said from his home in Brooklyn. “Let everybody rest in peace. Let us get on with our lives.”

Mark Finelli, an investment banker from Tucson, Ariz., was on the 61st floor of one of the trade center towers on Sept. 11. Though unsurprised by the tape, Finelli, 25, said it made him feel “very violent and enraged. ... I just wanted to punch the screen.”

“I’m a very strong supporter of capital punishment, but in this case, with someone who wants to die, I’m very much in favor of letting him rot.”

In San Diego, Marine Lance Cpl. Tate Parmer said he and his colleagues never doubted bin Laden was responsible for the attacks.

“I figured it was him all along,” said Parmer, 30, of Salt Lake City, a military policeman at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. “He’s an evil man. He definitely needs to be taken out.”

In New York City, scores of people gathered on the sidewalk in Times Square to watch the tape.

“I can’t believe they’re actually praising their god for this,” said David Castellano, 27, a computer technician from Brooklyn. “They seem overjoyed by the fact that it was a worse tragedy than they anticipated.”

Near the World Trade Center ruins, a volunteer providing water for cleanup crews said the tape would strengthen Americans’ resolve.

“It’s almost like a pep talk to renew the spirit of the American people,” said Robert Stanziale.

Lisa Angelastro, another volunteer, said the tape proved what Americans had been hearing second hand.

“To hear with your own ears and see with your own eyes makes a difference,” she said. “It makes us trust more in what our government is doing.”

Sarah Eltantawi, communications director for the Washington-based Muslim Public Affairs Council, said the council shared the view that bin Laden masterminded the attacks. But she worried that release of the tape would stir up anti-Muslim sentiment among some Americans.

“The harassment has calmed down since the immediate aftermath of the attacks,” she said. “But whenever there is a new alert, we see a jump in hate crimes. We worry about the releases of tapes like this.”

In Dearborn, Mich., home to an estimated 20,000 Arab-Americans, Lebanese-born Lamia Hazimy, 32, struggled to understand the conversation on the tape, but said it proved bin Laden’s guilt.

“I don’t know much about bin Laden, but I know I do not like him,” she said.

Imad Hamad, director of the Dearborn regional office of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the U.S. government translation on the tape seemed accurate.

“It’s clear in the tape that he had the prior knowledge,” Hamad said of Bin Laden. “And he was happy about it. This is insane.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Islamic advocacy group, said several aspects of the tape were “particularly disturbing.”

“Bin Laden seemed to revel in the death and destruction,” a council statement said. “He made the sickening statement that the attacks ‘benefited Islam greatly.”’

In Indianapolis, firefighters at Station No. 13 said the tape reinforced their feelings on to deal with bin Laden.

“He’s just admitting to it and boasting,” said Matt Hahn, 30. “What we’re all looking for now is a swift, stern, exact punishment.”

Lt. Scott McCarty was a member of an Indiana task force that helped in the recovery effort at the World Trade Center.

“We had a lot of good friends that we lost in New York,” said McCarty. “It doesn’t matter what he said. It doesn’t bring those people back.”

Stuart Fischoff, professor of media psychology at the Los Angeles campus of California State University, said he was particularly struck by bin Laden’s demeanor.

“He’s a new type of demon, a villain who is so quiet,” Fischoff said. “The power of his threat is not in his expansive emotionalism but in the quiet way he hisses his words.”