Robert Fisk Quotes About Bin Laden

Quotes about: Bin Laden

• At the end of the day, bin Laden's interest is not Washington and New York, it's the Middle East. He wants Saudi Arabia. He wants to get rid of the House of Saud.

  Robert Fisk

  New York, House, The End Of The Day

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. November 30, 2001.

• Individuals in various countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia listen to the tapes of bin Laden. They gather in groups of four or five. They feel they want to do something to express their support for what they've heard. The idea that they were taking orders is a particularly Western idea.

  Robert Fisk

  Country, Egypt, Order

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. December 1, 2001.

• If it is bin Laden, he's a very intelligent guy. He's been planning his war for a long time. I remember the last time I met him in 1997 in Afghanistan. And bin Laden said to me "From this mountain, Mr. Robert, upon which you are sitting, we beat the Russian army and helped break the Soviet Union. And I pray to God that he allows us to turn America into a shadow of itself." When I saw the pictures of New York without the World Trade Center, New York looked like a shadow of itself.

  Robert Fisk

  War, Army, Intelligent

  Source: progressive.org

• Osama bin Laden is very shrewd. But he struck me, even in 1997, as being remarkably out of touch. I remember thinking this does not look like the type of guy who walks to the top of a mountain with a mobile phone and says, "Operation B, attack."Now he is America's number one enemy. He's always wanted to be that.

  Robert Fisk

  Thinking, Guy, Enemy

  Source: progressive.org

• When you have a crime against humanity that is so awesome in scale and death, it is more than permissible to look around and say, who recently has been declaring war on the United States? Of course, the compass points straight to bin Laden.

  Robert Fisk

  War, Humanity, United States

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. December 1, 2001.

• At the end of the day, Osama bin Laden's interest is not Washington and New York, it's the Middle East. He wants Saudi Arabia. He wants to get rid of the House of Saud. There's a great deal of resentment, even inside the royal family, at the continued military presence of the United States there.

  Robert Fisk

  Military, House, Resentment

  Source: progressive.org

• Bin Laden is not well read and he's not sophisticated, but he will have worked out very coldly what America would do.

  Robert Fisk

  America, Sophisticated, Bin Laden

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. November 30, 2001.

• I've lived in the Middle East for twenty-five years. I know exactly how these issues come up. Even my landlord, who is a moderate Lebanese guy, says, "But bin Laden says what we think." These people believe that Osama bin Laden is being targeted not because of the World Trade Center and Washington; they are not convinced by the evidence that has been produced. They believe he's being targeted because he tells the truth.

  Robert Fisk

  Believe, Thinking, People

  Source: progressive.org

• Bin Laden was constantly revolving in his mind the fact that he had got rid of the Russians; therefore, the Americans can be got rid of, too. And where better than in the country where he knows how to fight?

  Robert Fisk

  Country, Fighting, Mind

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. December 1, 2001.

• Even my landlord, who is a moderate Lebanese guy, says, "But bin Laden says what we think." These people believe that bin Laden is being targeted not because of the World Trade Center and Washington; they are not convinced by the evidence that has been produced. They believe he's being targeted because he tells the truth.

  Robert Fisk

  Believe, Thinking, People

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. November 30, 2001.

• I was very struck by the fact that Colin Powell said he would produce evidence of Osama bin Laden fault and then never produced it. Then Tony Blair produced a document of seventy paragraphs, but only the last nine referred to the World Trade Center, and they were not convincing. So we have a little problem here: If they're guilty, where is the evidence? And if we can't hear the evidence, why are we going to war?

  Robert Fisk

  War, World, Problem

  Source: progressive.org

• Bin Laden was very keen to point out to me that his forces had fought the Americans in Somalia. He also wanted to talk about how many mullahs in Pakistan were putting up posters saying, "We follow bin Laden." He even produced a sort of Kodak set of snapshots of graffiti supporting him.

  Robert Fisk

  Graffiti, Pakistan, Snapshots

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. November 30, 2001.

• The bin Laden I met each time was in a simple Saudi white robe, with a simple, cheap kafiya and very cheap plastic sandals. But a videotape released before September 11, which I saw on Lebanese television, had him in a gold embroidered robe. When I saw this, I thought, whoa, has this guy changed? I wouldn't have imagined him ever appearing in such golden robes when I met him.

  Robert Fisk

  Simple, White, Guy

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. November 30, 2001.

• Osama Bin Laden is not well read and he's not sophisticated, but he will have worked out very coldly what America would do in response to this attack 9/11. I'm sure he wanted America to attack Afghanistan. Once you do what your enemy wants, you are walking into a trap, whether you think it's the right thing to do or not.

  Robert Fisk

  Thinking, Enemy, Osama Bin Laden

  Source: progressive.org

• Saudi Arabia is the most fragile of all Arab states, though we're not saying so. And, unfortunately, bin Laden puts his finger on the other longstanding injustices in the Arab world: the continued occupation of Palestinian land by the Israelis; the enormous, constant Arab anger with the tens of thousands of Iraqi children who are dying under sanctions; the feelings of humiliation of millions of Arabs living under petty dictators, almost all of whom are propped up by the West.

  Robert Fisk

  Children, Land, Feelings

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. December 1, 2001.

• I don't know what happens if they get bin Laden. I'm much more interested in what happens if they don't get bin Laden.

  Robert Fisk

  Bin Laden, Happens, Knows

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. December 1, 2001.

• Unfortunately, Osama bin Laden puts his finger on the other longstanding injustices in the Arab world: the conying so. And, tinued occupation of Palestinian land by the Israelis; the enormous, constant Arab anger with the tens of thousands of Iraqi children who are dying under sanctions; the feelings of humiliation of millions of Arabs living under petty dictators, almost all of whom are propped up by the West.

  Robert Fisk

  Children, Feelings, Dying

  Source: progressive.org

• Why is it that we go to immense lengths getting the Serbs who were responsible for the massacre of 7,000 at Srbrenica - that's slightly more than the total figure for New York - and we take them to a tribunal in The Hague, and one after another, we arraign them, try them, convict them, and punish them in front of the world, but no plans have been brought forward to get bin Laden and his friends and put them on trial?

  Robert Fisk

  New York, Trying, Trials

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. November 30, 2001.

• Whether Osama bin Laden is doing it cynically and has no interest in these matters, or whether he's doing it out of genuine conviction, his voice has a tremendous resonance throughout the Arab world. One editorial in a Lebanese paper said it is a matter of great humiliation for the Arabs that the only man who can outline, truthfully, what our humiliations are is an Arab who has to say it from a cave in a foreign country.

  Robert Fisk

  Country, Men, World

  Source: progressive.org

• Why is it that we go to immense lengths getting the Serbs who were responsible for the massacre of 7,000 at Srbrenica-that's slightly more than the total figure for New York 9/11-and we take them to a tribunal in The Hague, and one after another, we arraign them, try them, convict them, and punish them in front of the world, but no plans have been brought forward to get Osama bin Laden and his friends and put them on trial.

  Robert Fisk

  Trying, World, Osama Bin Laden

  Source: progressive.org

• We live in a society in the West, where, when men do violent things, they do them under orders. They are soldiers carrying out orders or mafia men carrying out killings for bosses. But the way things happen in the Middle East is not the same as in the West. Look, international capital has been globalized, so Osama bin Laden is globalized. It's not surprising to find followers of bin Laden in all these countries.

  Robert Fisk

  Country, Men, Boss

  Source: progressive.org

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