On October 21, 2001, Osama bin Laden was interviewed by Taysir Allouni of Al Jazeera. “The interview began with bin Laden acknowledging al Qaeda’s culpability [for 9/11] but insisting that the attacks were a form of self-defense, designed to defend the Palestinian people and religious sites in Saudi Arabia. He continued, ‘And if inciting for this is terrorism, and if killing the ones who kill our sons is terrorism, then let history witness that we are terrorists.’ ”
– Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Page 37