4 ms·

The attacked was backed by Saudis, why would they want to attack their own currency?

• gumby 6y ago
  I don't know what you mean by "backed by Saudis" -- do you mean that the participants (including bin Laden) were mostly Saudis? Certainly, but it was not at all backed by the Haus of Saudi or any other governmental function (to the extent that the two can even be separated). After Afghanistan (and perhaps before, I don't know), Osama Bin Laden's objective was the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy -- despite (or because?) he was part of a large, wealthy family in the upper echelons of Saudi society. This is very clear in his writings and videos, and in particular the ones just before and on the subject of the 2001 attacks. As he became a worldwide figure he broadened his scope (PR is everything, amirite?) but could never let go of the "venomous" house of Saud. It's not like there was a conspiracy to cover up his blathering -- understandably a lot of the English published in the USA focused on the attack on the US and then on the wider "jihad" topic that was important to the government and overall was more important to Americans. It would be surprising if that had not been the case. But academic work, and translations in other countries (Western Europe, Indonesia, likely other places whose translations I could not read), were more comprehensive, presumably as the direct risks seemed less acute than they were felt by the government and general public in the USA.