"I am not afraid of death. I came here to die. Some of my supporters followed me here just to die for the cause of Islam. They are ready to defend me and to kill anyone who thinks of attacking our positions or sites." Osama Bin Laden

"If the Israelis are killing the small children in Palestine and the Americans are killing the innocent people in Iraq, and if the majority of the American people support their dissolute president, this means the American people are fighting us and we have the right to target them. Muslim scholars have issued a fatwa [a religious order] against any American who pays taxes to his government. He is our target, because he is helping the American war machine against the Muslim nation." Osama Bin Laden

“If you’re going to declare war on bin Laden, you better be prepared to kill him. Otherwise, more Americans are going to die.” Neil C. Livingstone, a Washington expert on terrorism who supports the use of force against bin Laden.

"... while the improved aviation security measures in certain countries have certainly deterred and prevented many attacks, it is clear that the major international terrorist players have the resources, sophistication and ruthlessness to find the weaknesses in global aviation security and to commit mass murder on the airways on a scale we have not seen before." Paul Wilkinson, Professor of International Relations, University of St Andrews

"The likelihood of an attack on American soil, using either a chemical or biological or, indeed, a nuclear weapon, is quite, not only possible, but probable."
US Secretary of Defense William Cohen

"Bin Laden has biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. The nuclear weapons include suitcase bombs acquired through Chechniyan rebels and received technical help from Iraq. As far as decision-making in Washington is concerned, we should assume that he has them. Most of them have been transferred through Pakistan." Yosef Bodansky, a researcher of the House Task Force for Counterterrorism and Author