Journalist Peter Bergen wrote: “The first such [bin Laden] statement surfaced on October 7, 2001–the very night the United States launched its initial cruise missile attacks and bombing raids on Taliban and al-Qaeda targets. At the very moment that tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of people around the world were glued to the grainy green nightscope picture of the bombing raids in Afghanistan, the world’s most wanted man popped up in the middle of the coverage to revel in al-Qaeda’s success. ‘America is struck by God Almighty in one of its vital organs. So that its greatest buildings are destroyed. Grace and gratitude to God. America has been filled with horror from north to south and from west to east,’ he intoned.”
– Peter Bergen, Holy War, Inc., Page 232