In an interview conducted by journalist Hamid Mir that appeared in the March 18, 1997, edition of Pakistan, Osama bin Laden said: ” ‘During the past twenty-four years the price of oil has not increased more than a few dollars, because the U.S. is holding a gun against the forehead of the Arab countries. …Muslims around the world are dying from hunger and the U.S. is stealing our oil. The U.S. buys cheap oil from us and then sells us its own tanks and aircraft with the threat of Israel. This is how the U.S. takes its own money back from us.’ ”
– Michael Scheuer, Through Our Enemies’ Eyes, Pages 52-53