DeadCanDance
Senior Member
- May 29, 2007
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Confirming what other middle eastern experts have long said. OBL is laughing his ass off that Bush invaded Iraq.
Author claims US invasion of Iraq 'fulfilled Osama bin Laden's wish'
The only western journalist to interview al Qaeda's leader says the US invasion of Iraq "fulfilled Osama bin Laden's wish."
In a recent interview with Australian television, Al Quds editor Abdul Bari Atwan claimed that the terror leader had sought to draw US troops into a fight in the Middle East.
"He told me personally that he can't go and fight the Americans and their country. But if he manages to provoke them and bring them to the Middle East and to their Muslim worlds, where he can find them or fight them on his own turf, he will actually teach them a lesson," Atwan said. "It seems the invasion of Iraq fulfilled Osama bin Laden's wish. That's why the Americans are losing in Iraq."
Atwan said al Qaeda did not have any connection to Iraq before the US invasion, which destabilized the country and allowed for an influx of foreign fighters who have pledged loyalty to bin Laden's group.
(snip)
Atwan said bin Laden hoped to get the US mired in a war in Somalia after al Qaeda shot down an American helicopter, killing 19 soldiers.
"He regretted that the Clinton Administration decided to pull out their troops from Somalia and run away," Atwan said. "He was so saddened by this. He thought they would stay there so he could fight them there. But for his bad luck, according to his definition, they left, and he was planning another provocation in order to drag them to Muslim soil.
"And it seems President Bush did not actually give him a lot of hard work to plan for this," Atwan continued. "Immediately after the bombardment of Afghanistan - which actually destroyed 85 per cent of Al Qaeda infrastructure, personnel, deprived them of a safe haven - after that huge success against Al Qaeda, President Bush made terrible mistakes when he sent his troop to invade Iraq, one of the most difficult countries to be invaded, to be occupied, the worst land for democracy, human rights. And we can see the outcome."
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Author_claims_US_invasion_of_Iraq_0824.html