Middle East Broadcasting Centre reporter Baker Atyani was invited to meet with bin Laden near Kandahar, Afghanistan. As he reported on June 23, 2001, “bin Laden specified in his invitation that he would discuss his latest pledge of loyalty to [Taliban leader] Mullah [Mohammad] Omar. When Atyani arrived, the script changed. ‘In the next few weeks we will carry out a big surprise, and we will strike or attack American and Israeli interests,’ [al Qaeda military commander] Abu Hafs told Atyani. When Atyani asked bin Laden to confirm the plan, he smiled but did not speak. Atyani spent three hours interviewing the top al Qaeda leadership. None would be quoted on film, but the camera panned over to bin Laden, [second-in-command Ayman al] Zawahiri, and Abu Hafs sitting together on a couch as irrefutable proof that the reporter had been with them.”
– Roy Gutman, How We Missed the Story, Pages 250-251