On October 7, 2001, as the United States launched its bombing campaign in Afghanistan, “bin Laden made a surprise appearance in a videotape shown around the world. It was the first time he had been seen publicly since the 9/11 attacks. In an uncharacteristically brief statement, the al-Qaeda leader, dressed in a camouflage jacket with a submachine gun propped at his side, said that the attacks were revenge for the long-standing Western humiliation of the Muslim world, consistently his most important theme.”
– Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Pages 59-60