It’s an interesting statement, but back in 2008 I read a compilation of Laden statements 1994-2004, and one of the interesting things (besides how bin Laden waffled on 9/11 and how he admitted it worked out much better than expected) was how his economic reasoning does not show up until the end—suggesting that he had no such thing in mind. And you see on occasion some pretty weird economic thinking, like this ’97 bit:
Ladin: Correct! This is the right method to throw America out of the Gulf. The United States is beefing up its forces in the Gulf in a bid to control the oil resources. Since 1973, prices of all other items have increased but oil prices did not rise much. Since 1973, the price of petrol has increased only 8 dollars per barrel while the prices of other items have gone up three times. The oil prices should also have gone up three times but this did not happen. Price of American wheat has increased three-fold but the price of Arab oil has not risen three-fold. The increase was not more than a few dollars over a period of 24 years because the United States is dictating to the Arabs at gunpoint. We are suffering a loss of 115 dollars per barrel every day. Only Saudi Arabia produces 10 million barrels oil per day and thus the loss is one billion dollar per day. Total loss is more than 2 billion dollars. In the past 13 years, the United States has caused US a loss of more 1100 billion dollars. We must get this money back from the United States. The total population of Muslims all over the world is more than 1 billion. If every Muslim family is given 11,000 dollars then the 1100 billion dollars will be repaid. Muslims are starving to death and the United States is stealing their oil. It buys oil from US at a low prices and then makes US buy its tanks and fighter airplanes by projecting Israel as a threat. In this manner the United States takes all its money back.
It’s an interesting statement, but back in 2008 I read a compilation of Laden statements 1994-2004, and one of the interesting things (besides how bin Laden waffled on 9/11 and how he admitted it worked out much better than expected) was how his economic reasoning does not show up until the end—suggesting that he had no such thing in mind. And you see on occasion some pretty weird economic thinking, like this ’97 bit: