Osama bin Laden has spoken numerous times before and since September 11, on video, in interviews, and in audio messages. Other members of Al Qaeda, including some of the 9/11 hijackers, have also appeared in videos.
Before the 1998 African embassy bombings, Bin Laden appeared at a press conference where he talked about "good news in the coming weeks."[1]
In June 2001, Bin Laden appeared in a videotape which circulated in the Middle East, but largely not reported about in the western media. In that video, he admitted involvement in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, and hinted at future attacks against America, saying "The victory of Yemen will continue."[1]
A video was released on October 7, with Bin Laden speaking. In the video, he suggested his motives for the 9/11 attacks, in an implied way using symbolism, "Hypocrisy stood behind the leader of global idolatry, behind the Hubal of the age -- namely, America and its supporters." The meaning of this is not necessarily obvious to the western audience, but is obvious to Muslims.
Michael Scott Doran explained the meaning of Bin Laden's statement, in a January 2002 article, "Somebody Else's Civil War", published in Foreign Affairs:
| “ | In the early seventh century, when the Prophet Muhammad began to preach Islam to the pagan Arab tribes in Mecca, Hubal was a stone idol that stood in the Kaaba -- a structure that Abraham, according to Islamic tradition, originally built on orders from God as a sanctuary of Islam. In the years between Abraham and Muhammad, the tradition runs, the Arabs fell away from true belief and began to worship idols, with Hubal the most powerful of many. When bin Laden calls America "the Hubal of the age," he suggests that it is the primary focus of idol worship and that it is polluting the Kaaba, a symbol of Islamic purity. His imagery has a double resonance: it portrays American culture as a font of idolatry while rejecting the American military presence on the Arabian peninsula (which is, by his definition, the holy land of Islam, a place barred to infidels).
Muhammad's prophecy called the Arabs of Mecca back to their monotheistic birthright. The return to true belief, however, was not an easy one, because the reigning Meccan oligarchy persecuted the early Muslims. By calling for the destruction of Hubal, the Prophet's message threatened to undermine the special position that Mecca enjoyed in Arabia as a pagan shrine city. With much of their livelihood at stake, the oligarchs punished Muhammad's followers and conspired to kill him. The Muslims therefore fled from Mecca to Medina, where they established the umma as a political and religious community. They went on to fight and win a war against Mecca that ended with the destruction of Hubal and the spread of true Islam around the world. Before the Prophet could achieve this success, however, he encountered the Munafiqun, the Hypocrites of Medina. Muhammad's acceptance of leadership over the Medinese reduced the power of a number of local tribal leaders. These men outwardly accepted Islam in order to protect their worldly status, but in their hearts they bore malice toward both the Prophet and his message. Among other misdeeds, the treacherous Munafiqun abandoned Muhammad on the battlefield at a moment when he was already woefully outnumbered. The Hypocrites were apostates who accepted true belief but then rejected it, and as such they were regarded as worse than the infidels who had never embraced Islam to begin with. Islam can understand just how difficult it is for a pagan to leave behind all the beliefs and personal connections that he or she once held dear; it is less forgiving of those who accept the truth and then subvert it. In bin Laden's imagery, the leaders of the Arab and Islamic worlds today are Hypocrites, idol worshippers cowering behind America, the Hubal of the age. His sword jabs simultaneously at the United States and the governments allied with it. His attack was designed to force those governments to choose: You are either with the idol-worshiping enemies of God or you are with the true believers.[2] | ” |
Osama also granted an interview with Al Jazeera correspondant Tayseer Alouni in October 2001.
A video recovered from a home in Jalalabad, in November, and made public on December 13, 2001, shows Bin Laden talking to a group of supporters. Al Qaeda likely did not intend for this tape to be disseminated.[3]
In the tape, he explains:
| “ | "We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all. (...Inaudible...) Due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for." | ” |
The videotape indicates that five days before the attacks, which occurred on a Tuesday, bin Laden knew the date and time they would occur:
| “ | "We had notification since the previous Thursday that the event would take place that day. We had finished our work that day and had the radio on. It was 5:30 p.m. our time [8:00 am in New York and Washington]. ... Immediately, we heard the news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We turned the radio station to the news from Washington. The news continued and no mention of the attack until the end. At the end of the newscast, they reported that a plane just hit the World Trade Center. ... After a little while, they announced that another plane had hit the World Trade Center. The brothers who heard the news were overjoyed by it. ..." | ” |
Bin Laden knew there would be multiple attacks:
| “ | "They were overjoyed when the first plane hit the building, so I said to them: be patient. The difference between the first and the second plane hitting the towers was twenty minutes. And the difference between the first plane and the plane that hit the Pentagon was one hour." | ” |
The video indicates that bin Laden was very familiar with the operational planning for the attacks:
| “ | "Mohammad Atta from the Egyptian family (meaning the Al Qaeda Egyptian group), was in charge of the group. ... The brothers, who conducted the operation, all they knew was that they have a martyrdom operation and we asked each of them to go to America but they didn't know anything about the operation, not even one letter. But they were trained and we did not reveal the operation to them until they are there and just before they boarded the planes. ... Those who were trained to fly didn't know the others. One group of people did not know the other group." | ” |
Peter Bergen, who has interviewed Bin Laden and authored several books about him, commented about the video:
| “ | You know, and simple explanations are the best ones. There will always be conspiracy theories about these kinds of things. But they're just conspiracy theories. This was obviously a kind of casual moment. I have seen tapes similar to this during the Afghan war against the Soviet Union, Bin Laden sort of sitting around kibbitzing with his friends. It has all of the hallmarks of authenticity to me.[4] | ” |
April 16, 2002 - A video surfaced in April 2002 that showed Ahmed al-Haznawi giving his last will and testament. The video, entitled "The Wills of the New York and Washington Battle Martyrs," was delivered to Al Jazeera's main office in Qatar. The video footage of Haznawi was filmed in Kandahar in March 2001, which is evident from a date and place name written on the will that he was reading.[5] In the video, Haznawi is seen reciting a prepared statement, which al-Jazeera described as a last will and testament.[6]
The video also includes footage Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, sitting together. Zawahari speaks with praise about the 19 hijackers, in a way that admits responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, through use of the words "we" and "our".[7]
April 24, 2002 - Al Qaeda made a statement regarding the the legality of the operations and about the hijackers.[8]
| “ | The first charge of the heroes of the New York and Washington attacks was obedience to all of their orders, an obedience that was established before their departure to the enemy's land, beginning with the hero Ahmad al-Ghamdi, may Allah almighty have mercy on him. | ” |
In June 2002, Bin Laden appeared in a two-hour video delivered to a Kuwaiti newspaper. In the video, Bin Laden alluded to America's vulnerability to terrorism.
On the tape, which proliferated rapidly on Islamic Web sites and in mosques and bazaars across the Muslim world, Mr. bin Laden seemed to gloat as he spoke in Arabic of future attacks on American targets that he said would dwarf those he has directed in the past. "With small capabilities, and with our faith, we can defeat the greatest military power of modern times," he said at one point. "America is much weaker than it appears." At one point, the Saudi Arabian-born Mr. bin Laden seemed to hint at a suicide attack in the United States. Over pictures of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian-born Muslim cleric who is serving a life sentence in the United States for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Mr. bin Laden described the cleric as "a hostage in an American jail." He added, "We hear he is sick, and that the Americans are treating him badly." Then, addressing his followers, he shifted straight into an exhortation to martyrdom. "You will not die needlessly," he said. "Your lives are in the hands of God." Since the tape surfaced in June, there have been other hints that a new bin Laden attack might be imminent. Abdel Bari Atwan, editor in chief of Al Quds al Arabi, an Arabic-language newspaper published in London that has kept a close watch on Mr. bin Laden and his pronouncements, said today in an interview with the BBC that Islamic militants in touch with the newspaper had hinted that a major attack was under preparation, without giving any hint of when or where.[9]
September 2002 - Al Jazeera aired excerpts from a videotape in which a voice said to be bin Laden's is heard naming the leaders of the 19 9/11 hijackers. Al Jazeera also showed footage of hijacker Abdul Aziz al-Omari.[10]
Sometime in the spring or summer of 2002, Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed granted an interview with Al Jazeera journalist Yosri Fouda. Some portions of the interview were broadcast in September 2002 by Al Jazeera.
October 6, 2002 - Al Jazeera broadcasts audiotape message from Osama bin Laden.
October 8, 2002 - Al Jazeera broadcasts audiotape message from Ayman al-Zawahiri.
October 30, 2004 - Bin Laden unequivocally admitted that he and al Qaeda had planned and directed the September 11 attacks. He stated, "I shall talk to you about the story behind those events (the September 11 attacks) and shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken ...." He confirmed his direction of the details of operational planning, stating, "for the record, we had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Atta ... that all operations should be carried out within twenty minutes, before Bush and his administration notice."[12]
Al Qaeda operative Adam Gadahn (also known as Azam al-Amriki, or Azam the American) appeared in a video statement in September 2005.
January 19, 2006 - An audiotape was released with warnings that Al Qaeda is preparing future attacks. Bin Laden also purportedly offers a "truce" to President Bush.[13]
April 23, 2006 - Bin Laden makes comments regarding the situation in the Sudan and Darfur, as well as comments on the hijab issue in France, declared the United Nations as infidels, and various other comments.
May 23, 2006 - Osama bin Laden said "I was responsible for entrusting the 19 brothers - Allah have mercy upon them - with those raids, and I did not assign brother Zacarias to be with them on that mission..." Bin Laden added, "the participants in September 11th were two groups: pilots and support teams for each pilot in order to control the aircraft."[14]
On June 30, an audiotape was released with Bin Laden praising al-Zarqawi in Iraq.
Marking the anniversary of the London bombings, a video was released on July 6, with Bin Laden also making comments about Zarqawi.
September 2006 - A video was released showing the last will and testament of hijackers Hamza al-Ghamdi and Wail al-Shehri. Bin Laden is also seen in the video, at a camp, alongside Mohammed Atef and Ramzi Binalshibh.[15]
September 7, 2007 - Bin Laden appeared in a videotape marking the 9/11 anniversary, speaking for approximately 15 minutes. The video also included the last will and testament of hijacker Waleed al-Shehri. (see Hijacker videos)
Here is a news clip about the video from Al Jazeera (in Arabic), with footage of Bin Laden speaking:
November 29, 2007 - Bin Laden appeared in an audiotape, urging European countries to end involvement in Afghanistan.
March 19, 2008 - In an audiotape, Bin Laden remarked on Mohammad cartoons.