Let's look at the words of Bin Laden and the attacks against the US that have ensued, then tell me he is not the enemy in "The First War of the 21st Century."
1989 * In approximately 1989, bin Laden and co-defendant Muhammad Atef founded "al Qaeda," " an international terrorist group ... which was dedicated to opposing non-Islamic governments with force and violence."
* "One of the principal goals of al Qaeda was to drive the United States armed forces out of Saudi Arabia (and elsewhere on the Saudi Arabian peninsula) and Somalia by violence."
* "Al Qaeda had a command and control structure which included a majlis al shura (or consultation council) which discussed and approved major undertakings, including terrorist operations." Both Atef and bin Laden sat on this council.
* Al Qaeda had ties to other "terrorist organizations that operated under its umbrella," including: the al Jihad group based in Egypt, the Islamic Group, formerly led by Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, and other jihad groups in other countries. "Al Qaeda also forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in Sudan and with representatives of the government of Iran, and its associated terrorist group Hezballah, for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States."
PBS.org
1991: US troops fight Persian Gulf War. After victory, the US establishes a large permanent military presence in the region, including Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the land of "the two most holy places" in Islam--Mecca and Medina.
December 29, 1992 A bomb explodes in a hotel in Aden, Yemen, where US troops had been staying while en route to a humanitarian mission in Somalia. The bomb killed two Austrian tourists; the U.S. soldiers had already left. Two Yemeni Muslim militants, trained in Afghanistan and injured in the blast, are later arrested. US intelligence agencies allege that this was the first terrorist attack involving bin Laden and his associates (Source: New York Times 8/21/98).
February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
October 3 & 4th, 1993 Eighteen US troops are killed in an urban attack in Mogadishu, Somalia. American law enforcement, intelligence and national security officials are divided as to whether, as a federal indictment charges, bin Laden and his adherents helped train and arm the men who killed the US troops (Source: New York Times 2/8/99).
April 1995 In a never-published interview with a French journalist, Osama bin Laden says that his decision to fight alongside Afghan mujahedeen dated from "the time when the Americans decided to help the Afghans fight the Russians."
"To counter these atheist Russians, the Saudis chose me as their representative in Afghanistan... I did not fight against the communist threat while forgetting the peril from the West."
"For us, the idea was not to get involved more than necessary in the fight against the Russians, which was the business of the Americans, but rather to show our solidarity with our Islamist brothers. I discovered that it was not enough to fight in Afghanistan, but that we had to fight on all fronts against communist or Western oppression. The urgent thing was communism, but the next target was America... This is an open war up to the end, until victory."
August 3, 1995 Bin Laden issues a communiqué called "an Open Letter to King Fahd." He outlines major grievances against the Saudi regime: lack of commitment to Sunni Islam, inability to conduct viable defense policy, the squandering of public funds and oil money, and the dependence on non-Muslims for protection. He calls for a campaign of guerilla attacks to drive U.S. forces out of the Saudi Kingdom.
November 13, 1995 Five Americans and two Indians are killed in the truck bombing of a US-operated Saudi National Guard training center in Riyadh. Bin Laden denies involvement but praises the attack (Source: Washington Post 8/23/98).
May 31, 1996 The four Saudi men accused of bombing the Saudi National Guard training center in Riyadh are beheaded in Riyadh's main square. Before their execution, they are coerced by the Saudi's into a public confession. In the confession, they claim to have read bin Laden communiqués.
June 25, 1996 A large truck bomb devastates the US military residence in Dhahran called Khobar Towers, killing 19 servicemen. The US military initially linked bin Laden to the attack but now believe a Saudi Shiite group was responsible (Source: Washington Post 8/23/98). U.S. investigators still believe bin Laden was somehow involved.
July 10, 1996 The British newspaper The Independent quotes bin Laden as saying:
"The ordinary man knows that [Saudi Arabia] is the largest oil producer in the world, yet at the same time he is suffering from taxes and bad services. Now the people understand the speeches of the ulemas in the mosques--that our country has become an American colony. They act decisively with every action to kick the Americans out of Saudi Arabia. What happened in Riyadh and [Dhahran] when 24 Americans were killed in two bombings is clear evidence of the huge anger of Saudi people against America. The Saudis now know their real enemy is America." [From The Washington Post 8/23/98]
August 23, 1996 Several months after being expelled from the Sudan, bin Laden issues his "Declaration of War Against the Americans Who Occupy the Land of the Two Holy Mosques." It reads, in part:
"Muslims burn with anger at America. For its own good, America should leave [Saudi Arabia.] ... There is no more important duty than pushing the American enemy out of the holy land. ... The presence of the USA Crusader military forces on land, sea and air of the states of the Islamic Gulf is the greatest danger threatening the largest oil reserve in the world. The existence of these forces in the area will provoke the people of the country and induces aggression on their religion, feelings and prides and pushes them to take up armed struggle against the invaders occupying the land. ... Due to the imbalance of power between our armed forces and the enemy forces, a suitable means of fighting must be adopted, i.e. using fast-moving, light forces that work under complete secrecy. In other words, to initiate a guerrilla war, where the sons of the nation, and not the military forces, take part in it."
The full text of this "Ladenese Epistle" can be found at the Muslim Student Association News website.
October - November 1996 Bin Laden is quoted in October/November issue of Nida'ul Islam magazine as saying:
"As for their accusations of terrorizing the innocent, the children, and the women, these are in the category of 'accusing others with their own affliction in order to fool the masses.' The evidence overwhelmingly shows America and Israel killing the weaker men, women and children in the Muslim world and elsewhere. A few examples of this are seen in the recent Qana massacre in Lebanon, and the death of more than 600,000 Iraqi children because of the shortage of food and medicine which resulted from the boycotts and sanctions against the Muslim Iraqi people, also their withholding of arms from the Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina leaving them prey to the Christian Serbians who massacred and raped in a manner not seen in contemporary history. Not to forget the dropping of the H-bombs on cities with their entire populations of children, elderly, and women, on purpose, and in a premeditated manner as was the case with Hiroshima and Nagasaki."[From The Washington Post 8/23/98]
March 1997 In a CNN interview with Osama bin Laden, he says:
"We declared jihad against the US government, because the US government is unjust, criminal and tyrannical. It has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous and criminal whether directly or through its support of the Israeli occupation."
"For this and other acts of aggression and injustice, we have declared jihad against the US, because in our religion it is our duty to make jihad so that God's word is the one exalted to the heights and so that we drive the Americans away from all Muslim countrie.As for what you asked whether jihad is directed against US soldiers, the civilians in the land of the Two Holy Places (Saudi Arabia, Mecca and Medina) or against the civilians in America, we have focused our declaration on striking at the soldiers in the country of The Two Holy Places."
"The country of the Two Holy Places has in our religion a peculiarity of its own over the other Muslim countries. In our religion, it is not permissible for any non-Muslim to stay in our country. Therefore, even though American civilians are not targeted in our plan, they must leave. We do not guarantee their safety, because we are in a society of more than a billion Muslims."
"I have benefited so greatly from the jihad in Afghanistan that it would have been impossible for me to gain such a benefit from any other chance and this cannot be measured by tens of years but rather more than that. ... Our experience in this jihad was great, by the grace of God, praise and glory be to Him, and the most of what we benefited from was that the myth of the superpower was destroyed not only in my mind but also in the minds of all Muslims. Slumber and fatigue vanished and so was the terror which the U.S. would use in its media by attributing itself superpower status or which the Soviet Union used by attributing itself as a superpower."
[As quoted in The Washington Post 8/23/98]
February 22, 1998 Bin Laden issues an edict calling for attacks on all Americans, including civilians, and announces the creation of the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders, in association with extremist groups from Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The following quotations are taken from the edict, as translated by the Federation of American Scientists. (FAS). The edict's full text is available on their web site.
"For over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples."
"Despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once again trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation."
"We--with God's help--call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson."
"The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim."
August 6, 1998 The Egyptian Jihad group sent the United States a warning: they would soon deliver a message to Americans "which we hope they read with care, because we will write it, with God's help, in a language they will understand." (Source: New York Times 8/21/98)
August 7, 1998 This is the eighth year anniversary of United Nations sanctions against Iraq and the ordering of U.S. troops into the Gulf region. Iraq informed the US Security Council that it was not going to tolerate the continuation of the sanctions beyond the eighth year anniversary. (Source: Daily Telegraph 8/12/98)
Two simultaneous explosions at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The bomb is Nairobi, Kenya kills 213 people, including 12 US nationals, and injure more than 4,500 . The bomb in Dar es Salaam kills 11 and injures 85. No Americans died in the Tanzania bombing.
August 20, 1998 Clinton the coward strikes back: US retaliation against bin Laden--cruise missiles attack a suspected terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Al Shifa, a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum. US intelligence claims that Al Shifa is tied to the production of chemical weapons for bin Laden. The Sudanese government vehemently denied these claims.
September 23, 1998 US senior administrative officials admit that they had no evidence that directly linked bin Laden to the Al Shifa factory at the time of retaliatory strikes on Aug 20. Intelligence officials found financial transactions between bin Laden and the Military Industrial Corporation--a company run by the Sudan's government. (Source: New York Times 9/23/98) as a result of Clinton's blunder, hatred for america grows and fear of the world's most powerful military (which strikes in the dead of night with no warning) decreases
December 23, 1998 This interview with Time Magazine includes the following question-answer excerpts:
TIME: Are you responsible for the bomb attacks on the two American embassies in Africa?
Osama bin Laden: The International Islamic Front for Jihad against the U.S. and Israel has, by the grace of God, issued a crystal-clear fatwah calling on the Islamic nation to carry on jihad [holy war] aimed at liberating holy sites. The nation of Muhammad has responded to this appeal. If the instigation for jihad against the Jews and the Americans in order to liberate al-Aksa Mosque and the Holy Ka'aba [Islamic shrines in Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia] is considered a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a criminal. Our job is to instigate and, by the grace of God, we did that, and certain people responded to this instigation.
What can the U.S. expect from you now?
Any thief or criminal or robber who enters another country in order to steal should expect to be exposed to murder at any time. For the American forces to expect anything from me personally reflects a very narrow perception. Thousands of millions of Muslims are angry. The Americans should expect reactions from the Muslim world that are proportionate to the injustice they inflict.
The U.S. says you are trying to acquire chemical and nuclear weapons.
Acquiring weapons for the defense of Muslims is a religious duty. If I have indeed acquired these weapons, then I thank God for enabling me to do so. And if I seek to acquire these weapons, I am carrying out a duty. It would be a sin for Muslims not to try to possess the weapons that would prevent the infidels from inflicting harm on Muslims.
America, the world's only superpower, has called you Public Enemy Number One. Are you worried?
Hostility toward America is a religious duty, and we hope to be rewarded for it by God. To call us Enemy No. 1 or 2 does not hurt us. Osama bin Laden is confident that the Islamic nation will carry out its duty. I am confident that Muslims will be able to end the legend of the so-called superpower that is America.
December 24, 1998 In a second interview with reporter John Miller, which is televised on ABC News, bin Laden says he wants to "put to rest" speculation that he was hurt or killed in the U.S. retaliatory missile strikes in Afghanistan and the Sudan.
He denies that he was behind the bombings of the U.S. embassies in East Africa but describes two of the suspects, whom he said he knew, as "two men whom we respect and hold in the highest esteem."
Renewing his fatwah, bin Laden states, "We are confident that the Muslim nation would rid Islamic countries of the Americans and the Jews." He also does not deny charges that he tried to develop chemical and nuclear weapons, "If I seek to acquire such weapons, this is a religious duty. How we use them is up to us."
2000 The man who pleaded guilty to a failed plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium celebrations leading up to New Years Day 2000 claimed he was trained at a camp in Afghanistan run by bin Laden. CNN
May 29, 2001 Four followers of Osama bin Laden are found guilty of charges stemming from the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-Owhali, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, and Wadih El Hage are convicted of charges including murder, conspiracy and perjury after a nine-week federal trial during which prosecutors called over 90 witnesses, including al Qaeda informants and survivors of the bombings. Owhali and Mohamed face the death penalty at their sentencing, while Odeh and El Hage face life in prison.
Summer, 2001 A videotape has been circulating in the Middle East for several months in which bin Laden recites a victory poem about the Cole bombing, then issues a call to arms: "To all the Mujah: Your brothers in Palestine are waiting for you; it's time to penetrate America and Israel and hit them where it hurts the most." Washington Post
September 11, 2001 5:30pm EDT
WORLD TRADE CENTER DESTROYED IN APPARENT TERRORIST ATTACK
September 11, 2001 5:15pm EDT
PENTAGON STRUCK, WHITE HOUSE, CAPITOL EVACUATED
Most of official Washington has been evacuated this morning after a series of what are being called terrorist attacks leveled the World Trade Center in New York and imploded part of the Pentagon.
September 13, 2001 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan ?? Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden congratulated the people who carried out the deadly terrorist strikes in the United States, but denied Wednesday that he was involved, a Palestinian journalist said. Washington Post
Taliban appeals to U.S. not to attack Afghanistan
September 13, 2001 Posted: 6:42 AM EDT (1042 GMT)
Intelligence officials and other sources have told CNN that bin Laden -- living in sanctuary in Afghanistan -- or the Al Qaeda group he heads are considered suspects in the attacks.
"There are good indications that persons linked to Osama bin Laden may be responsible for these attacks," an intelligence official told CNN, echoing the sentiments of some U.S. politicians. The United Nations have already began evacuating staff from Afghanistan. Earler, Robertson said that there was a sense of apprehension among senior Taliban officials concerned that possibly Afghanistan may be a place were retribution might be sought. Speaking soon after the attacks, the Taliban's Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel criticized all forms of terrorism. He told reporters that Afghanistan nor bin Laden had been directly accused and it was not necessary for his country to take security precautions. Also, Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, said in a statement that bin Laden was not behind the attacks. "Osama bin Laden could not be responsible," he said. "This type of terrorism is too great for one man."
CNN
September 13, 2001The FBI said yesterday it had identified at least 18 hijackers who had conducted Tuesday's suicidal assaults. Sixteen of the men have been directly or indirectly linked to the terrorist network run by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden, according to a government source.Washington Post
This man did not fly the plane, but he has American blood all over his hands. He and his allies must pay for the evil they have created. All countries in the Arab world should hand over any known associates of "al Qaeda" or consider themselves enemies of the United States as we prepare for war.
1989 * In approximately 1989, bin Laden and co-defendant Muhammad Atef founded "al Qaeda," " an international terrorist group ... which was dedicated to opposing non-Islamic governments with force and violence."
* "One of the principal goals of al Qaeda was to drive the United States armed forces out of Saudi Arabia (and elsewhere on the Saudi Arabian peninsula) and Somalia by violence."
* "Al Qaeda had a command and control structure which included a majlis al shura (or consultation council) which discussed and approved major undertakings, including terrorist operations." Both Atef and bin Laden sat on this council.
* Al Qaeda had ties to other "terrorist organizations that operated under its umbrella," including: the al Jihad group based in Egypt, the Islamic Group, formerly led by Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, and other jihad groups in other countries. "Al Qaeda also forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in Sudan and with representatives of the government of Iran, and its associated terrorist group Hezballah, for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States."
PBS.org
1991: US troops fight Persian Gulf War. After victory, the US establishes a large permanent military presence in the region, including Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the land of "the two most holy places" in Islam--Mecca and Medina.
December 29, 1992 A bomb explodes in a hotel in Aden, Yemen, where US troops had been staying while en route to a humanitarian mission in Somalia. The bomb killed two Austrian tourists; the U.S. soldiers had already left. Two Yemeni Muslim militants, trained in Afghanistan and injured in the blast, are later arrested. US intelligence agencies allege that this was the first terrorist attack involving bin Laden and his associates (Source: New York Times 8/21/98).
February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
October 3 & 4th, 1993 Eighteen US troops are killed in an urban attack in Mogadishu, Somalia. American law enforcement, intelligence and national security officials are divided as to whether, as a federal indictment charges, bin Laden and his adherents helped train and arm the men who killed the US troops (Source: New York Times 2/8/99).
April 1995 In a never-published interview with a French journalist, Osama bin Laden says that his decision to fight alongside Afghan mujahedeen dated from "the time when the Americans decided to help the Afghans fight the Russians."
"To counter these atheist Russians, the Saudis chose me as their representative in Afghanistan... I did not fight against the communist threat while forgetting the peril from the West."
"For us, the idea was not to get involved more than necessary in the fight against the Russians, which was the business of the Americans, but rather to show our solidarity with our Islamist brothers. I discovered that it was not enough to fight in Afghanistan, but that we had to fight on all fronts against communist or Western oppression. The urgent thing was communism, but the next target was America... This is an open war up to the end, until victory."
August 3, 1995 Bin Laden issues a communiqué called "an Open Letter to King Fahd." He outlines major grievances against the Saudi regime: lack of commitment to Sunni Islam, inability to conduct viable defense policy, the squandering of public funds and oil money, and the dependence on non-Muslims for protection. He calls for a campaign of guerilla attacks to drive U.S. forces out of the Saudi Kingdom.
November 13, 1995 Five Americans and two Indians are killed in the truck bombing of a US-operated Saudi National Guard training center in Riyadh. Bin Laden denies involvement but praises the attack (Source: Washington Post 8/23/98).
May 31, 1996 The four Saudi men accused of bombing the Saudi National Guard training center in Riyadh are beheaded in Riyadh's main square. Before their execution, they are coerced by the Saudi's into a public confession. In the confession, they claim to have read bin Laden communiqués.
June 25, 1996 A large truck bomb devastates the US military residence in Dhahran called Khobar Towers, killing 19 servicemen. The US military initially linked bin Laden to the attack but now believe a Saudi Shiite group was responsible (Source: Washington Post 8/23/98). U.S. investigators still believe bin Laden was somehow involved.
July 10, 1996 The British newspaper The Independent quotes bin Laden as saying:
"The ordinary man knows that [Saudi Arabia] is the largest oil producer in the world, yet at the same time he is suffering from taxes and bad services. Now the people understand the speeches of the ulemas in the mosques--that our country has become an American colony. They act decisively with every action to kick the Americans out of Saudi Arabia. What happened in Riyadh and [Dhahran] when 24 Americans were killed in two bombings is clear evidence of the huge anger of Saudi people against America. The Saudis now know their real enemy is America." [From The Washington Post 8/23/98]
August 23, 1996 Several months after being expelled from the Sudan, bin Laden issues his "Declaration of War Against the Americans Who Occupy the Land of the Two Holy Mosques." It reads, in part:
"Muslims burn with anger at America. For its own good, America should leave [Saudi Arabia.] ... There is no more important duty than pushing the American enemy out of the holy land. ... The presence of the USA Crusader military forces on land, sea and air of the states of the Islamic Gulf is the greatest danger threatening the largest oil reserve in the world. The existence of these forces in the area will provoke the people of the country and induces aggression on their religion, feelings and prides and pushes them to take up armed struggle against the invaders occupying the land. ... Due to the imbalance of power between our armed forces and the enemy forces, a suitable means of fighting must be adopted, i.e. using fast-moving, light forces that work under complete secrecy. In other words, to initiate a guerrilla war, where the sons of the nation, and not the military forces, take part in it."
The full text of this "Ladenese Epistle" can be found at the Muslim Student Association News website.
October - November 1996 Bin Laden is quoted in October/November issue of Nida'ul Islam magazine as saying:
"As for their accusations of terrorizing the innocent, the children, and the women, these are in the category of 'accusing others with their own affliction in order to fool the masses.' The evidence overwhelmingly shows America and Israel killing the weaker men, women and children in the Muslim world and elsewhere. A few examples of this are seen in the recent Qana massacre in Lebanon, and the death of more than 600,000 Iraqi children because of the shortage of food and medicine which resulted from the boycotts and sanctions against the Muslim Iraqi people, also their withholding of arms from the Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina leaving them prey to the Christian Serbians who massacred and raped in a manner not seen in contemporary history. Not to forget the dropping of the H-bombs on cities with their entire populations of children, elderly, and women, on purpose, and in a premeditated manner as was the case with Hiroshima and Nagasaki."[From The Washington Post 8/23/98]
March 1997 In a CNN interview with Osama bin Laden, he says:
"We declared jihad against the US government, because the US government is unjust, criminal and tyrannical. It has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous and criminal whether directly or through its support of the Israeli occupation."
"For this and other acts of aggression and injustice, we have declared jihad against the US, because in our religion it is our duty to make jihad so that God's word is the one exalted to the heights and so that we drive the Americans away from all Muslim countrie.As for what you asked whether jihad is directed against US soldiers, the civilians in the land of the Two Holy Places (Saudi Arabia, Mecca and Medina) or against the civilians in America, we have focused our declaration on striking at the soldiers in the country of The Two Holy Places."
"The country of the Two Holy Places has in our religion a peculiarity of its own over the other Muslim countries. In our religion, it is not permissible for any non-Muslim to stay in our country. Therefore, even though American civilians are not targeted in our plan, they must leave. We do not guarantee their safety, because we are in a society of more than a billion Muslims."
"I have benefited so greatly from the jihad in Afghanistan that it would have been impossible for me to gain such a benefit from any other chance and this cannot be measured by tens of years but rather more than that. ... Our experience in this jihad was great, by the grace of God, praise and glory be to Him, and the most of what we benefited from was that the myth of the superpower was destroyed not only in my mind but also in the minds of all Muslims. Slumber and fatigue vanished and so was the terror which the U.S. would use in its media by attributing itself superpower status or which the Soviet Union used by attributing itself as a superpower."
[As quoted in The Washington Post 8/23/98]
February 22, 1998 Bin Laden issues an edict calling for attacks on all Americans, including civilians, and announces the creation of the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders, in association with extremist groups from Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The following quotations are taken from the edict, as translated by the Federation of American Scientists. (FAS). The edict's full text is available on their web site.
"For over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples."
"Despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once again trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation."
"We--with God's help--call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson."
"The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim."
August 6, 1998 The Egyptian Jihad group sent the United States a warning: they would soon deliver a message to Americans "which we hope they read with care, because we will write it, with God's help, in a language they will understand." (Source: New York Times 8/21/98)
August 7, 1998 This is the eighth year anniversary of United Nations sanctions against Iraq and the ordering of U.S. troops into the Gulf region. Iraq informed the US Security Council that it was not going to tolerate the continuation of the sanctions beyond the eighth year anniversary. (Source: Daily Telegraph 8/12/98)
Two simultaneous explosions at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The bomb is Nairobi, Kenya kills 213 people, including 12 US nationals, and injure more than 4,500 . The bomb in Dar es Salaam kills 11 and injures 85. No Americans died in the Tanzania bombing.
August 20, 1998 Clinton the coward strikes back: US retaliation against bin Laden--cruise missiles attack a suspected terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Al Shifa, a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum. US intelligence claims that Al Shifa is tied to the production of chemical weapons for bin Laden. The Sudanese government vehemently denied these claims.
September 23, 1998 US senior administrative officials admit that they had no evidence that directly linked bin Laden to the Al Shifa factory at the time of retaliatory strikes on Aug 20. Intelligence officials found financial transactions between bin Laden and the Military Industrial Corporation--a company run by the Sudan's government. (Source: New York Times 9/23/98) as a result of Clinton's blunder, hatred for america grows and fear of the world's most powerful military (which strikes in the dead of night with no warning) decreases
December 23, 1998 This interview with Time Magazine includes the following question-answer excerpts:
TIME: Are you responsible for the bomb attacks on the two American embassies in Africa?
Osama bin Laden: The International Islamic Front for Jihad against the U.S. and Israel has, by the grace of God, issued a crystal-clear fatwah calling on the Islamic nation to carry on jihad [holy war] aimed at liberating holy sites. The nation of Muhammad has responded to this appeal. If the instigation for jihad against the Jews and the Americans in order to liberate al-Aksa Mosque and the Holy Ka'aba [Islamic shrines in Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia] is considered a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a criminal. Our job is to instigate and, by the grace of God, we did that, and certain people responded to this instigation.
What can the U.S. expect from you now?
Any thief or criminal or robber who enters another country in order to steal should expect to be exposed to murder at any time. For the American forces to expect anything from me personally reflects a very narrow perception. Thousands of millions of Muslims are angry. The Americans should expect reactions from the Muslim world that are proportionate to the injustice they inflict.
The U.S. says you are trying to acquire chemical and nuclear weapons.
Acquiring weapons for the defense of Muslims is a religious duty. If I have indeed acquired these weapons, then I thank God for enabling me to do so. And if I seek to acquire these weapons, I am carrying out a duty. It would be a sin for Muslims not to try to possess the weapons that would prevent the infidels from inflicting harm on Muslims.
America, the world's only superpower, has called you Public Enemy Number One. Are you worried?
Hostility toward America is a religious duty, and we hope to be rewarded for it by God. To call us Enemy No. 1 or 2 does not hurt us. Osama bin Laden is confident that the Islamic nation will carry out its duty. I am confident that Muslims will be able to end the legend of the so-called superpower that is America.
December 24, 1998 In a second interview with reporter John Miller, which is televised on ABC News, bin Laden says he wants to "put to rest" speculation that he was hurt or killed in the U.S. retaliatory missile strikes in Afghanistan and the Sudan.
He denies that he was behind the bombings of the U.S. embassies in East Africa but describes two of the suspects, whom he said he knew, as "two men whom we respect and hold in the highest esteem."
Renewing his fatwah, bin Laden states, "We are confident that the Muslim nation would rid Islamic countries of the Americans and the Jews." He also does not deny charges that he tried to develop chemical and nuclear weapons, "If I seek to acquire such weapons, this is a religious duty. How we use them is up to us."
2000 The man who pleaded guilty to a failed plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium celebrations leading up to New Years Day 2000 claimed he was trained at a camp in Afghanistan run by bin Laden. CNN
May 29, 2001 Four followers of Osama bin Laden are found guilty of charges stemming from the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-Owhali, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, and Wadih El Hage are convicted of charges including murder, conspiracy and perjury after a nine-week federal trial during which prosecutors called over 90 witnesses, including al Qaeda informants and survivors of the bombings. Owhali and Mohamed face the death penalty at their sentencing, while Odeh and El Hage face life in prison.
Summer, 2001 A videotape has been circulating in the Middle East for several months in which bin Laden recites a victory poem about the Cole bombing, then issues a call to arms: "To all the Mujah: Your brothers in Palestine are waiting for you; it's time to penetrate America and Israel and hit them where it hurts the most." Washington Post
September 11, 2001 5:30pm EDT
WORLD TRADE CENTER DESTROYED IN APPARENT TERRORIST ATTACK
September 11, 2001 5:15pm EDT
PENTAGON STRUCK, WHITE HOUSE, CAPITOL EVACUATED
Most of official Washington has been evacuated this morning after a series of what are being called terrorist attacks leveled the World Trade Center in New York and imploded part of the Pentagon.
September 13, 2001 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan ?? Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden congratulated the people who carried out the deadly terrorist strikes in the United States, but denied Wednesday that he was involved, a Palestinian journalist said. Washington Post
Taliban appeals to U.S. not to attack Afghanistan
September 13, 2001 Posted: 6:42 AM EDT (1042 GMT)
Intelligence officials and other sources have told CNN that bin Laden -- living in sanctuary in Afghanistan -- or the Al Qaeda group he heads are considered suspects in the attacks.
"There are good indications that persons linked to Osama bin Laden may be responsible for these attacks," an intelligence official told CNN, echoing the sentiments of some U.S. politicians. The United Nations have already began evacuating staff from Afghanistan. Earler, Robertson said that there was a sense of apprehension among senior Taliban officials concerned that possibly Afghanistan may be a place were retribution might be sought. Speaking soon after the attacks, the Taliban's Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel criticized all forms of terrorism. He told reporters that Afghanistan nor bin Laden had been directly accused and it was not necessary for his country to take security precautions. Also, Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, said in a statement that bin Laden was not behind the attacks. "Osama bin Laden could not be responsible," he said. "This type of terrorism is too great for one man."
CNN
September 13, 2001The FBI said yesterday it had identified at least 18 hijackers who had conducted Tuesday's suicidal assaults. Sixteen of the men have been directly or indirectly linked to the terrorist network run by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden, according to a government source.Washington Post
This man did not fly the plane, but he has American blood all over his hands. He and his allies must pay for the evil they have created. All countries in the Arab world should hand over any known associates of "al Qaeda" or consider themselves enemies of the United States as we prepare for war.
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