9/11 retaliation surprised Bin Laden, claims former terrorist
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/retaliation-surprised-bin-laden-claims-former-terrorist/story-e6frf7lf-1225859108843OSAMA bin Laden did not expect the United States to strike back at al-Qaeda as hard as it did, a former terrorist has claimed.
Noman Benotman, who was the head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in 2000 and a former associate of Bin Laden, told a US radio station: “What happened after the 11th of September (2001) was beyond their imagination.”
He said that al-Qaeda was overly confident, based on the US response to the terror group’s attacks on embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Following the attacks on America on September 11, 2001, President George Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan, where Bin Laden had been a guest of the country's Taliban rulers.
“I’m 100 per cent sure they had no clue about what was going to happen,” he said.
A former CIA official, on the condition of anonymity, backed up his claims.
He said several captured terrorists had stated publicly that al-Qaeda never expected the World Trade Centre towers to fall.
"Their goal was to frighten people and impact the US economy, so they really didn't plan for the massive response the US launched," the official said.
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