The September 11 attacks were carried out by 19 hijackers of the Islamist militant organization al-Qaeda. In the 1990s, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden declared a militant jihad against the United States, and issued two fatwas in 1996 and 1998 criticizing various aspects of US foreign policy in the Middle East.Gunarathna, pp. 61–62. In both of these , Bin Laden sharply criticized the financial contributions of the American government to the Saudi royal family as well as American military intervention in the Arab world and support for Israel.
In the 2004 Osama bin Laden video, he vividly and explicitly describes where he got his primary motivation for the attack. This was his vengeance for the carnage he saw in the media coverage of the Israeli siege of Beirut during the 1982 Lebanon War, where Israel was helped by the United States. Other motivations were published in the 2002 Letter to the American People,*
in which he said that al-Qaeda's motives for the attacks included American support for attacking Muslims in Somalia, supporting Russian atrocities against Muslims in Chechnya, supporting the Indian oppression against Muslims in Kashmir, condoning the 1982 massacres in Lebanon, the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia,Plotz, David (2001) What Does Osama Bin Laden Want? , Slate* Plotz, David (2001) What Does Osama Bin Laden Want? , Slate Bergen (2001), p. 3.
US support of Israel,* Mearsheimer (2007), p. 67. Kushner (2003), p. 389. Murdico (2003), p. 64. Kelley (2006), p. 207. Ibrahim (2007), p. 276. Berner (2007), p. 80. and sanctions against Iraq.* Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri said that Israeli repression of Palestinians during the Second Intifada was the immediate cause that forced Al-Qaeda to launch the September 11 attacks.
Following the attacks, the Bush administration stated that al-Qaeda attacked the United States because "they hate us for our freedoms". George W. Bush said in a speech to Congress nine days after the attacks that "They hate what we see right here in this chamber — a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms — our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other." Al-Qaeda leadership maintained that United States was targeted in retaliation for its imperialist aggression against the Muslim world. In a speech released in 2004, Bin Laden stated that "free men do not forfeit their security, contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom. If so, then let him explain to us why we don't strike for example – Sweden?"
Sources
Before the attacks, Al-Qaeda issued proclamations that provide insight into the motivations for the attacks: one was the fatwā of August 1996,Text of the 1996 fatwa, translation by PBS and a second was a shorter fatwā in February 1998.Text of the 1998 fatwa translation by PBS Both documents appeared initially in the Arabic-language London newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi. Bin Laden's 1998 fatwā stated: "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. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty God, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in God."" The fatwā also denounced the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia and asserted that Americans were attempting to balkanize and destabilize the Arab world with the intent of guaranteeing "Israel's survival":"..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."
After the attacks, bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri published dozens of video tapes and audio tapes, many describing the motivations for the attacks. Two particularly important publications were bin Laden's 2002 Letter to the American people, and a 2004 video tape by bin Laden."So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken, for you to consider." – 2004 Osama bin Laden video In addition to direct pronouncements by bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, numerous political analysts have postulated motivations for the attacks.
Stated motives Support of Israel by United States
In the 2004 Osama bin Laden video, he vividly and explicitly describes where he got his primary motivation for the attack. This was his vengeance for the carnage he saw in the media coverage of the Israeli siege of Beirut, in the 1982 Lebanon War, where Israel was helped by the United States: "I say to you, Allah knows that it had never occurred to us to strike the towers. But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the American/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind.
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 destroyed along with their occupants and high rises demolished over their residents, rockets raining down on our home without mercy.
The situation was like a crocodile meeting a helpless child, powerless except for his screams. Does the crocodile understand a conversation that doesn’t include a weapon? And the whole world saw and heard but it didn’t respond.
In those difficult moments many hard-to-describe ideas bubbled in my soul, but in the end they produced an intense feeling of rejection of tyranny, and gave birth to a strong resolve to punish the oppressors.
And 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 in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children."He tells Americans that "the best way to avoid another" attack like 9/11 is to not threaten the security of Muslim nations.
Also, in his 2002 Letter to the American People, bin Laden described the United States' support of Israel as a motivation:
The expansion of Israel is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals. And of course there is no need to explain and prove the degree of American support for Israel. The creation of Israel is a crime which must be erased. Each and every person whose hands have become polluted in the contribution towards this crime must pay its price, and pay for it heavily.
In 2004 and 2010, bin Laden again repeated the connection between the September 11 attacks and the support of Israel by the United States.bin Laden's 2004 taped broadcast on the attacks, in which he explains the motives for the attacks and says "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." (Quoted from Al Jazeera online here )bin Laden's taped broadcast from January 2010, where he said "Our attacks against you [the United States] will continue as long as U.S. support for Israel continues. ... The message sent to you with the attempt by the hero Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is a confirmation of our previous message conveyed by the heroes of Sept. 11". (Quoted from "bin Laden: Attacks on U.S. to go on as long as it supports Israel", Haaretz, online here ). Support of Israel was also mentioned before the attack in the 1998 Al-Qaeda fatwā:
[T]he aim [of the United States] is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there. The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula.
Bin Laden's strategy to expand Al-Aqsa Intifada
The eruption of Al-Aqsa intifada in Israel in 2000 became a powerful inspiration for bin Laden to launch the raids of September 11. As the intifada escalated, bin Laden issued directives to Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and Mohamed Atta to launch the execution of the attacks at an earlier date, on at least two occasions. First occasion was during Ariel Sharon's controversial visit to Al-Haram al-Sharif; which was condemned across the Muslim world and led to the eruption of Al-Aqsa Intifada. Second occasion was when Ariel Sharon visited the White House in March 2001. Throughout this period, Al-Qaeda vehemently denounced Zionist atrocities against Palestinians and denounced the US as being directly complicit in Israeli repression of Palestinians.
Arab media coverage of the Second Intifada, which broadcast Israeli atrocities across the world, became a major element of Al-Qaeda's success. Al-Qaeda leaders regularly issued numerous statements declaring the obligation of all Muslims to wage Jihad to liberate Palestine. Bin Laden constantly asserted that America's security will be jeopardized because of its role in undermining the safety of Palestinians.
In an interview given to Tayseer Allouni in 21 October 2001, bin Laden stated: "Jihad is a duty to liberate Al-Aqsa, and to help the powerless in Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon and in every Muslim country. There is no doubt that the liberation of the Arabian Peninsula from infidels is a duty as well. ...Last year’s blessed intifada helped us to push more for the Palestinian issue. This push helps the other cause. Attacking America helps the cause of Palestine and vice versa... All of a sudden, Bush and Blair declared, “The time has come to establish an independent state for Palestine.” Throughout the past years the time hasn’t come, until after these attacks, for the establishment of the Palestinian state. They only understand the language of attacks and killings."
Sanctions against Iraq
On 6 August 1990, four days after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution 661, which imposed economic sanctions on Iraq, providing for a trade embargo, excluding medical supplies and "in humanitarian circumstances" foodstuffs, the import of which was tightly regulated. After the end of the Gulf War and after the Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, the sanctions were linked to removal of weapons of mass destruction by Resolution 687.
In the 1998 fatwa, al-Qaeda identified the Iraq sanctions as a reason to kill Americans: