Al Qaeda second-in-command “Ayman al Zawahiri said that the jihadi movement caused the U.S. [economic] crisis in an August [5] 2009 interview released by al Qaeda’s media company, Al Sahab Establishment for Media Production. He explained, ‘The economic recession today, caused by the battles and raids against America, was solved by the central bank through a huge decrease in interest, which increased fluidity and competition to lend, which pushed the public to borrow more than they can pay back. That caused incapability by the public to pay back, so the financial institution fell, and that was followed by a disastrous economic crisis.’ He did not, however, argue that terrorist strikes against the United States represented the sole cause of the crisis. Rather, he stated that ‘America held the burden of huge losses in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia,’ thus giving a nod to the manner in which the country’s draining wars bled the economy.”
– Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Pages 167-168