Osama bin Laden Called His Mother to Say He Wouldn’t Be Able to Get in Touch

Key Points:

• On September 10, 2001, Osama bin Laden warned his mother of an impending major event that would sever their communications, foreshadowing the 9/11 attacks the next day.
• Bin Laden, born in 1957 to a wealthy Saudi construction magnate, became radicalized after joining the Muslim Brotherhood and later supporting Afghan fighters during the Soviet invasion, though the CIA had no direct contact with him during that time.
• The CIA established a special unit, the Bin Laden Station, in 1993 to focus on intelligence gathering about bin Laden, but despite efforts, the U.S. government failed to eliminate Afghanistan as a safe haven for al-Qaeda before 9/11.
• On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four planes, crashing two into the World Trade Center towers, one into the Pentagon, and one in Pennsylvania after passenger resistance, resulting in 2,977 deaths and marking the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history.
• The attacks led to the U.S. launching the “war on terror,” invading Afghanistan to dismantle al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and implementing significant changes in aviation security and counterterrorism policies.