ISLAMABAD (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Pakistan's Dawn newspaper said on Saturday that in an interview from inside Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden said he had nuclear and chemical weapons and might use them to respond to U.S. attacks.``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,'' the newspaper quoted bin Laden as telling a well-known Pakistani journalist in Afghanistan on Wednesday night.
The paper said that when asked where he got the weapons from, bin Laden replied: ``Go to the next question.''
Dawn said Hamid Mir, editor of Pakistan's Ausaf newspaper, had interviewed bin Laden, prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, after being taken blindfolded by jeep from Kabul on November 7.
The paper, which printed a photograph showing Mir with bin Laden, said it was the first interview the Saudi-born militant had granted to any journalist since the deadly September 11 attacks.