Osama bin Laden had no idea the U.S. would hit al-Qaida as hard as it has since the Sept. 11, 2001 --- hogwash
they knew what to expect let the killing continue On Apr 27, 1:53 pm, Philobealo <[email protected]> wrote: > bet if he had done it while the Dems were in power, all he would have > had to worry about was a few cruise missiles. > > WASHINGTON - Osama bin Laden had no idea the U.S. would hit al-Qaida > as hard as it has since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, a former bin Laden > associate tells WTOP in an exclusive interview. > > "I'm 100 percent sure they had no clue about what was going to > happen," says Noman Benotman, who was head of the Libyan Islamic > Fighting Group in the summer of 2000. > > "What happened after the 11th of September was beyond their > imagination, " says Benotman, who adds that al-Qaida thought the U.S. > was a "paper tiger." > > Zawahiri laughed when he warned those at the 2000 meeting that the > U.S. response would be swift, hard and long, Benotman says. > > Benotman attributes al-Qaida's overconfident attitude to the United > States' response to al-Qaida attacks on its in embassies in Nairobi, > Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1998. > > Zawahiri, according to Benotman, expected only a missile attack. > > "When they attacked the embassies in East Africa, they estimated the > U.S. launched 75 cruise missiles and eight people got killed. So they > said this time, maybe they will launch 200 and they laughed about > this." > > Benotman's assessment is backed up by a former Central Intelligence > Agency officer, who was active in the fight against al-Qaida. > > The officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says "several > captured terrorists have said publicly that al-Qaida never expected > the towers to fall. Their goal was to frighten people and impact the > U.S. economy, so they really didn't plan for the massive response the > U.S. launched." > > http://www.wtop.com/?sid=1943289&nid=778 > > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help seehttp://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community athttp://www.PoliticalForum.com/ > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
