• Following the September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the U.S. Pentagon, President George W. Bush addressed the U.S. Congress, telling the senators and representatives that America would respond to the attacks with a war on terror. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden initially denied any knowledge of or involvement with the attacks. Finally, in a taped statement on October 29, 2004, he accepted responsibility and described why he decided to attack the towers.

George W. Bush, Address Before a Joint Session of Congress, September 20, 2001

“Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done. . . .

And on behalf of the American people, I thank the world for its outpouring of support. America will never . . . forget the citizens of 80 other nations who died with our own: dozens of Pakistanis; more than 130 Israelis; more than 250 citizens of India; men and women from El Salvador, Iran, Mexico, and Japan; and hundreds of British citizens. . . .

On September 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. Americans have known wars, . . . Americans have known the casualties of war, but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning. Americans have known surprise attacks, but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in a single day, and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack. . . .

Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger, we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom, the great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time, now depends on us. Our Nation — this generation — will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire; we will not falter; and we will not fail.”

Osama bin Laden, Statement Accepting Responsibility for the 9/11 Attacks, October 29, 2004

“People of America this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent another Manhattan, and deals with the war and its causes and results. Before I begin, I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar of human life and that free men do not forfeit their security, contrary to Bush’s claim that we hate freedom. . . .

I say to you Allah knows that it had never occurred to us to strike the towers, but after . . . 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. The bombardment began and many were killed and injured and others were terrorized 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 homes without mercy. . . . 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. 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. . . . So with these images . . . as their background, the events of September 11th came as a reply to those great wrongs.

Should a man be blamed for defending his sanctuary? Is defending oneself and punishing the aggressor in kind objectionable terrorism? If it is such, then it is unavoidable for us.”

Sources: George W. Bush, “Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the United States Response to the Terrorist Attacks of September 11,” in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush, book 2, July 1 to December 31, 2001 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2003), pp. 1140–1144; uncredited government translation of the Osama bin Laden videotape, released October 24, 2004.

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