In a mid-October 2001 interview with Al Jazeera, Osama bin Laden justified the killing of innocent civilians:
“AL-JAZEERA CORRESPONDENT: How about the Twin Towers?
BIN LADEN: The towers are an economic power and not a children’s school. Those that were there are men that supported the biggest economic power in the world. They have to review their books. We will do as they do. If they kill our women and our innocent people, we will kill their women and their innocent people. …Not all terrorism is cursed; some terrorism is blessed. …America and Israel exercise the condemned terrorism. We practice the good terrorism, which stops them from killing our children in Palestine and elsewhere.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Peter Bergen, Holy War, Inc., Page 233