“In mid-June 2001 bin Laden and his top military commander, Mohammed Atef…dropped broad hints that a major attack was in the works, during a meeting they held in Kandahar [Afghanistan] with Bakr Atyani, a correspondent for the Middle East Broadcasting Corporation. Atef said that ‘in the next few weeks we will carry out a big surprise and we will strike or attack American and Israeli interests.’ Atyani asked bin Laden, ‘Would you please confirm that?’ The al-Qaeda leader responded only with one of his slight, enigmatic smiles.”
– Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 4