September 11, 2020
The mastermind behind the terrible September 11 attack in the US, Osama bin Laden, once mentioned that Britain is “degenerate and immoral” after visiting the country. This is according to his secret diary released by the CIA.
Today symbolizes the 19th anniversary of the attack carried out by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda. A total of 3,000 people have lost their lives, and a thousand more were injured when two planes eventually collided into the World Trade Centre, and another crashed into Pentagon. The last went down into a field in Pennsylvania.
On an eventful day of May 3, 2011, bin Laden was shot and finally killed by US Navy SEALS while inside a private residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, pursuing an undercover CIA operation code-named Operation Neptune Spear, ordered directly by former US President Barack Obama.
During the operation, the CIA’s agents seized numerous documents; this includes bin Laden’s diary. It offers an insight into the mind of a man who tops the FBI’s Most Wanted list for nearly a decade. Six years later, the files have cast a new light about someone who was thought to be a calculated thinker, figuring and manipulating events from his hideout.
The series of documents are showing that bin Laden showed no global vision or strategy. The journal’s primary subject is the separation of the revolts of the entitled Arab Spring in 2011. Bin Laden offers little more than an explanation.
Written in Arabic, the diary also contained exchanges and questions between bin Laden and one of his sons, who asked him when he thought about becoming “jihad” for the first time.
He mentioned that it crossed his mind first when he was a student.
It was written:” I was influenced by the general environment [in the country] as any individual at home and at school and in the street. “
“I was religious by nature. I always prayed since I was young.”
The journal also described that his first encounter in the West was during his visit to Britain in 1969 when he was just 13 years old.
His impression of the West was one of a social life that was “degenerate and immoral.”
He furthered: “Because of that, I decided to never go back to the West, because no religiously committed person should go there.”
But that might not be true.
During his execution, just after 1:00 AM local time, he was sporting the local loose-fitting tunic and pants, also known as “kurta pyjamas,” and was unarmed.
The SEAL Team Six also discovered €500 (£430) cash and two telephone numbers sewn into his clothes.
CIA’s former director, Leon Panetta, claimed two days after the raid that bin Laden “believed his network was strong enough that he’d get a heads-up” before the US strike happens.
He further added that bin Laden’s confidence was so severe that it could also be why the compound was guarded lightly and explained his lack of weapons during the raid.
The fact that bin Laden was carrying a handful of cash raised obvious questions about the al-Qaeda chief was preparing to fly to Europe; US dollars was the apparent choice currency to take if he intended to change it in countries that surrounds Pakistan.
CIA’s anxiousness about the raid and not informing the Pakistani authorities about the details of the attack shows that they fear that bin Laden would be tipped off.
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