Osama Bin Laden wasn’t the fearless creature he had his people believe. According to his notes, Bin Laden never thought America would wage a war on terror—surprised? I was. I mean, what do he expect would happen after he order a merciless attack on American soil? I nasty letter?
During a recent conversation on “60 Minutes,” Islamic scholar and author Nelly Lahoud, who spent years reading every line of bin Laden’s papers, broke down what was in them. Most interesting in my humble opinion is that the terrorist mastermind never though America would destroy his terror network through a massive war.
“Al Qaeda did not anticipate that the United States would go to war,” Lahoud explained on “60 Minutes.” When asked what kind of response bin Laden anticipated, she explained, “A limited airstrike, but they didn’t think that they would go beyond that.”
Letters were the only way Osama bin Laden communicated with al Qaeda associates for nearly a decade because he was trying to evade capture.
Bin Laden had television in his compound, but didn’t have access to the internet or phone, so everything was written by hand or on computers, and encrypted on flash drives that were given to couriers to deliver. All the letters were backed up on hard drives.
Nelly Lahoud: We see in the letters diminutive bin Laden, somebody who is very different from this powerful figure that we were reading about daily in the newspapers for over a decade. And the disconnect between his ambitions and between his capabilities is confounding.
That “disconnect” was clear immediately after the 9/11 attacks.
Nelly Lahoud: Al Qaeda did not anticipate that the United States would go to war.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What did they think was going to happen?
Nelly Lahoud: A limited airstrike, but they didn’t think that they would go beyond that.
Nelly Lahoud: He thought that the American people would take to the streets, replicate the anti-Vietnam war protests and they would put pressure on their government to withdraw from Muslim majority states.
Sharyn Alfonsi: A large miscalculation.
Nelly Lahoud: Huge miscalculation.
He believed that Americans would protest the war? What in the actual?
Watch
“Al Qaeda did not anticipate the United States would go to war.”
Bin Laden’s letters indicate he was surprised by America’s reaction to 9/11 says, author Nelly Lahoud, who has studied the documents. She says bin Laden didn’t expect the US to go to war. https://t.co/UEEtYQnXTa pic.twitter.com/pxFV5dDk4n
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 24, 2022
A huge and ignorant miscalculation, in my opinion. I was a little shocked to learn the kingpin terrorist thought the US would protest a war against his terrorist organization that murdered 3,000 Americans and destroyed thousands of families and killed first responders—some of who died in the after-effects.
I think, to people outside of the US, Americans come off a lot softer than we actually are. Especially now, under Biden. They forget that we’re a nation built on war with an economy geared towards our military.
Erica Carlin is an independent journalist, opinion writer and contributor to several news and opinion sources. She is based in Georgia.