September 11 attacks
Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda's origins can be traced to 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Soon after the invasion, Osama bin Laden traveled to Afghanistan and helped organize Arab mujahideen (the " Afghan Arabs ") to resist the " Communist invaders" (Soviets) until their exit from the country in 1989. In 1984, bin Laden, along with Islamic scholar Abdullah Azzam, formed the Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK), an organization to support Arab mujahideen who came to join the jihad in Afghanistan.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) funnelled several billion dollars worth of weapons to the indigenous Afghan mujahideen resistance, a portion of which bled to the Arab volunteers. However, no direct evidence of U.S. aid to bin Laden or any of his affiliates was ever uncovered.

In 1996, bin Laden issued his first fatwā, which declared war against the United States and demanded the expulsion of all American soldiers from the Arabian Peninsula. In a second 1998 fatwā, bin Laden outlined his objections to American foreign policy with respect to the State of Israel, as well as the continued presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War. Bin Laden maintained that Muslims are obliged to attack American targets until the aggressive policies of the U.S. against Muslims were reversed. According to bin Laden, Islamic jurists had "throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries".

The Hamburg cell in Germany included Islamists who eventually came to be key operatives in the 9/11 attacks. Mohamed Atta; Marwan al-Shehhi; Ziad Jarrah; Ramzi bin al-Shibh; and Said Bahaji were all members of Al-Qaeda's Hamburg cell. Bin Laden asserted that all Muslims must wage a defensive war against the United States and combat American aggression. He further argued that military strikes against American assets would send a message to the American people, attempting to force the U.S. to re-evaluate its support to Israel, and other aggressive policies. In a 1998 interview with American journalist John Miller, bin Laden stated:

We do not differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians; they are all targets in this fatwa. American history does not distinguish between civilians and military, not even women and children. They are the ones who used bombs against Nagasaki. Can these bombs distinguish between infants and military? America does not have a religion that will prevent it from destroying all people. So we tell the Americans as people and we tell the mothers of soldiers and American mothers in general that if they value their lives and the lives of their children, to find a nationalistic government that will look after their interests and not the interests of the Jews. The continuation of tyranny will bring the fight to America, as Ramzi yourself and others did. This is my message to the American people: to look for a serious government that looks out for their interests and does not attack others, their lands, or their honor. My word to American journalists is not to ask why we did that but to ask what their government has done that forced us to defend ourselves.
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