According to a top secret report from Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet on March 19, 2004: “None of Bin Ladin’s and al-Qa’ida’s extensive terrorist plotting, planning, recruiting, and training in the late 1990s would have been possible without the Taliban sanctuary in Afghanistan.”
– CIA, “DCI Report: The Rise of UBL and Al-Qa’ida and the Intelligence Community Response,” (Draft, CIA Analytic Report), The Central Intelligence Agency’s 9/11 File:, The National Security Archive, March 19, 2004