In an interview with Osama bin Laden on November 10, 2001, in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, journalist Hamid “Mir asked bin Laden if he could justify the deaths of ‘innocent people,’ including hundreds of Muslims, in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Mr. bin Laden called this a ‘major point of jurisprudence,’ replying that, ‘America and its allies are massacring us in Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir and Iraq. The Muslims have the right to attack America in reprisal.’ He said, ‘The Sept. 11 attacks were not targeted at women and children. The real targets were America’s icons of military and economic power.”
– Tim Weiner, “Bin Laden Asserts He Has Nuclear Arms,” The New York Times, Nov. 10, 2001