Some financing for al-Qaeda in the 1990s came from the personal wealth of Osama bin Laden.
[51] By 2001 Afghanistan had become politically complex and mired. With many financial sources for al-Qaeda Bin Laden's financing role may have become comparatively minor. Sources in 2001 could also have included
Jamaa Al-Islamiyya and
Islamic Jihad, both associated with Afghan-based Egyptians.
[52] Other sources of income in 2001 included the
heroin trade and donations from supporters in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries.
[51] A
WikiLeaks released memo from the United States Secretary of State sent in 2009 asserted that the primary source of funding of Sunni terrorist groups worldwide was Saudi Arabia.
[53]
…………………………….
According to
Peter Bergen, known for conducting the first television interview with bin Laden in 1997, the idea that "the CIA funded bin Laden or trained bin Laden ...[is] a folk myth. There's no evidence of this. ... Bin Laden had his own money, he was anti-American and he was operating secretly and independently. ... The real story here is the CIA didn't really have a clue about who this guy was until 1996 when they set up a unit to really start tracking him."
[272] But as Bergen himself admitted, in one "strange incident" the CIA
did appear to give visa help to mujahideen-recruiter
Omar Abdel-Rahman.
[273]
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September 11 attacks
Main article:
September 11 attacks
See also:
Responsibility for the September 11 attacks

Aftermath of the September 11 attacks
The September 11, 2001 attacks were the most devastating terrorist acts in American history, killing approximately 3,000 people. Two commercial airliners were deliberately flown into the
World Trade Center towers, a third into
The Pentagon, and a fourth, originally intended to target the
United States Capitol, crashed in a field in
Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The attacks were conducted by al-Qaeda, acting in accord with the
1998 fatwa issued against the U.S. and its allies by military forces under the command of bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and others.
[176] Evidence points to suicide squads led by al-Qaeda military commander
Mohamed Atta as the culprits of the attacks, with bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri,
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and
Hambali as the key planners and part of the political and military command.
Messages issued by bin Laden after September 11, 2001 praised the attacks, and explained their motivation while denying any involvement.
[177] Bin Laden legitimized the attacks by identifying grievances felt by both mainstream and Islamist Muslims, such as the general perception that the U.S. was actively oppressing Muslims.
[178]
Bin Laden asserted that America was massacring Muslims in '
Palestine,
Chechnya,
Kashmir and Iraq' and that Muslims should retain the 'right to attack in reprisal'. He also claimed the 9/11 attacks were not targeted at women and children, but 'America's icons of military and economic power'.
[179]
Evidence has since come to light that the original targets for the attack may have been nuclear power stations on the east coast of the U.S. The targets were later altered by al-Qaeda, as it was feared that such an attack "might get out of hand".
[180][181]