It is easy to link al Qaeda to Iraq, since almost everytime bin Laden was interviewed or when bin Laden declared war on the United States: he complained specifically about the United State's policy on Iraq. In fact, if not for the U.S. policy on Iraq (both Bush and Clinton Administrations), 9.11 would never have happened.
bin Laden: "America and its allies are massacring us in Palestine, Chechenya, Kashmir and Iraq. The Muslims have the right to attack America in reprisal. The Islamic Shariat says Muslims should not live in the land of the infidel for long. The Sept 11 attacks were not targeted at women and children. The real targets were America's icons of military and economic power." - Interview of Usama bin Laden, November 2001.
bin Laden: "...The countries which do not agree to become the U.S. slaves are China, Iran, Libya, Cuba, Syria [Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Sudan, Indonesia, Malaysia] and Russia. Whoever committed the act of 11 September are not the friends of the American people. I have already said that we are against the American system..." - Interview, Usama bin Laden, October 2001
"Question: Since the bombings (U.S. Embassies in Africa), the U.S. has maintained U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia and recently used them to help in the renewed air strikes in Iraq. What can the U.S. expect from you now?
BIN LADEN: The American forces should expect reactions to their actions, from the Muslim world. Any thief or criminal or robber who enters the countries of others in order to steal should expect to be exposed to murder at any time." - ABC Interview of Usama bin Laden, December 22, 1998
Bin Laden: "First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula...If some people have in the past argued about the fact of the occupation (of Saudi Arabia), all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it. The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula (Saudi Arabia) as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, but they are helpless.
Second, 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 against trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade (U.S. enforcement of UN Sanctions) imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation...
All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on Allah, his messenger, and Muslims." - Declaration of War against the United States by Usama bin Laden and al Qaeda. Feb 1998
Bin Laden: "Mentioning the name of Clinton or that of the American government provokes disgust and revulsion. This is because the name of the American government and the name of Clinton and Bush (41) directly reflect in our minds the picture of children with their heads cut off before even reaching one year of age. It reflects the picture of children with their hands cut off, the picture of the children who died in Iraq, the picture of the hands of the Isrealis with weapons destroying our children. The hearts of Muslims are filled with hatred towards the United States of America and the American president" - Peter Arnett interview of Usama bin Laden - March 1997 |
