September 11 attacks Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==== Osama bin Laden ==== {{Main|Osama bin Laden}} {{further|Militant career of Osama bin Laden}} [[File:Osama bin Laden, portrΓ¦t.jpg|thumb|[[Osama bin Laden]] in 1997β1998]] Bin Laden orchestrated the September 11 attacks. He initially denied involvement, but later recanted his denial.<ref name="CBC 2004-10-29">{{cite news |date=October 29, 2004 |title=Bin Laden claims responsibility for 9/11 |publisher=CBC News |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bin-laden-claims-responsibility-for-9-11-1.513654 |access-date=September 1, 2011 |quote=Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden appeared in a new message aired on an Arabic TV station Friday night, for the first time claiming direct responsibility for the 2001 attacks against the United States. |archive-date=February 18, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100218142044/http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2004/10/29/binladen_message041029.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="BBC6Jul2011">{{cite news |title=Pakistan inquiry orders Bin Laden family to remain |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14041604 |publisher=BBC News |date=July 6, 2011 |access-date=September 3, 2011 |archive-date=November 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191130003148/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14041604 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="ajNov2004">{{cite news|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613014620/http://english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=7403 |archive-date=June 13, 2007 |url=http://english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=7403 |title=Full transcript of bin Laden's speech |publisher=Al Jazeera |date=November 2, 2004 |access-date=September 3, 2011}}</ref> [[Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]] broadcast a statement by him on September 16, 2001: "I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation".<ref>{{cite news |title=Pakistan to Demand Taliban Give Up Bin Laden as Iran Seals Afghan Border |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34440,00.html |publisher=Fox News |date=September 16, 2001 |access-date=September 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100523082548/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34440,00.html |archive-date=May 23, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In November 2001, U.S. forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in [[Jalalabad, Afghanistan]]. In the video, bin Laden, talking to [[Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harbi|Khaled al-Harbi]], [[Videos and audio recordings of Osama bin Laden#December 13, 2001|admitted foreknowledge]] of the attacks.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bin Laden on tape: Attacks 'benefited Islam greatly' |publisher=[[CNN]] |date=December 14, 2001 |url=http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/12/13/ret.bin.laden.videotape/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071227125232/http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/12/13/ret.bin.laden.videotape/ |archive-date=December 27, 2007 |url-status=dead |access-date=November 24, 2013 |quote=Reveling in the details of the fatal attacks, bin Laden brags in Arabic that he knew about them beforehand and said the destruction went beyond his hopes. He says the attacks "benefited Islam greatly".}}</ref> On December 27, 2001, a second video of bin Laden was released in which he, stopping short of admitting responsibility for the attacks, said:<ref>{{cite news |date=December 27, 2001 |title=Transcript: Bin Laden video excerpts |publisher=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1729882.stm |access-date=September 3, 2011 |archive-date=July 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727043659/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1729882.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>{{blockquote|It has become clear that the West in general and America in particular have an unspeakable hatred for Islam.{{spaces}}... It is the hatred of [[crusaders]]. Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, which kills our people.{{spaces}}... We say that the end of the United States is imminent, whether Bin Laden or his followers are alive or dead, for the awakening of the Muslim [[ummah]] [nation] has occurred.{{spaces}}... It is important to hit the economy (of the United States), which is the base of its military power...If the economy is hit they will become reoccupied.|author=Osama bin Laden}} Shortly before the [[2004 United States presidential election|2004 U.S. presidential election]], bin Laden used a [[2004 Osama bin Laden video|taped statement]] to publicly acknowledge Al-Qaeda's involvement in the attacks.<ref name="CBC 2004-10-29" /> He admitted his direct link to the attacks and said they were carried out because: {{blockquote| The events that affected my soul in a direct way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American Sixth Fleet helped them in that. This bombardment began and many were killed and injured and others were terrorised and displaced. I couldn't forget those moving scenes, blood and severed limbs, women and children sprawled everywhere. Houses were destroyed along with their occupants high rises demolished over their residents, rockets raining down on our home without mercy...As I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America so that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children. And that day, it was confirmed to me that oppression and the intentional killing of innocent women and children is a deliberate American policy. Destruction is freedom and democracy, while resistance is terrorism and intolerance.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bin Ladin |first=Osama |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2004/11/1/full-transcript-of-bin-ladins-speech |title=Full transcript of bin Ladin's speech |agency=Al Jazeera |date=November 1, 2004 |access-date=June 3, 2023 |archive-date=November 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101175357/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2004/11/1/full-transcript-of-bin-ladins-speech |url-status=live }}</ref>}} Bin Laden personally directed his followers to attack the [[World Trade Center (1973β2001)|World Trade Center]] and the Pentagon.<ref>{{cite news|access-date=February 2, 2019|title=Bin Laden Dead β Where Are Other 9/11 Planners?|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/osama-bin-laden-dead-911-perpetrators-now/story?id=13511484|date=May 2, 2011|publisher=[[ABC News]]|quote=While initially denying responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, Bin Laden took responsibility for them in a 2004 taped statement, saying that he had personally directed the hijackers.|archive-date=May 4, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110504215745/https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/osama-bin-laden-dead-911-perpetrators-now/story?id=13511484|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|access-date=February 2, 2019|date=October 29, 2004|title=Bin Laden claims responsibility for 9/11|publisher=[[CBC News]]|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bin-laden-claims-responsibility-for-9-11-1.513654|archive-date=February 18, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100218142044/http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2004/10/29/binladen_message041029.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Another video obtained by Al Jazeera in September 2006 showed bin Laden with one of the attacks' chief planners, [[Ramzi bin al-Shibh]], as well as hijackers, [[Hamza al-Ghamdi]] and [[Wail al-Shehri]], amidst making preparations for the attacks.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bin-laden-9-11-planning-video-aired-1.618703 |title=Bin Laden 9/11 planning video aired |publisher=[[CBC News]] |date=September 7, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013183902/https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bin-laden-9-11-planning-video-aired-1.618703 |archive-date=October 13, 2007 |access-date=September 3, 2011}}</ref> Bin Laden had been on the FBI's Most Wanted List since 1998 for the [[1998 United States embassy bombings|1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies]] in [[Tanzania]] and [[Kenya]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Clewley |first=Robin |date=September 27, 2001 |title=How Osama Cracked FBI's Top 10 |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |url=https://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2001/09/47109 |url-status=dead |access-date=May 29, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080526032503/http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2001/09/47109 |archive-date=May 26, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Usama Bin Laden |url=https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/usama-bin-laden |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101011161759/https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/usama-bin-laden |archive-date=October 11, 2010 |access-date=September 10, 2011 |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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