Osama bin Laden was interviewed in Afghanistan by Palestinian journalist Jamal Ismail on December 22, 1998. He said: ” ‘If the Israelis are killing the small children in Palestine and the Americans are killing the innocent people in Iraq, and if the majority of the American people support their dissolute president [Bill Clinton], this means the American people are fighting us and we have the right to target them. Muslim scholars have issued a fatwa [a religious order] against any American who pays taxes to his government. He is our target, because he is helping the American war machine against the Muslim nation.’ ”
– “I Am Not Afraid of Death,” Newsweek, Jan. 10, 1999