Journalist Peter Bergen interviewed bin Laden’s friend Khaled Batarfi on September 5, 2005. Batarfi said bin Laden gave “warnings about Saddam to a salon of intellectuals in Mecca [Saudi Arabia] six months before his armies invaded Kuwait on August 1, 1990. Bin Laden told the group, ‘We should train our people, our young, and increase our army and prepare for the day when eventually we are attacked. This guy [Saddam] can never be trusted.’ “
– Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 133