Replies

According to Bodansky's reading of Osama bin Laden's mind-set, after the elaborate attacks of 9/11 there was no need for the "bin Ladens of the world" to carry out a second major attack in the US, both because the target audience of the attacks – the Arab and Islamic world – had gotten the message that America could be penetrated, and because a second attack would necessarily have to be more grandiose.

The 9/11 attacks were neither elaborate nor involved sophisticated weapons. They were simple and well co-ordinated. The only expenditure was the lives of 19 men willing to committ suicide. An everyday form of transport was used to maximum effect. No guns, bombs or other weapons were used apart from the box-cutters used to overrun the aircraft. Simplicity itself.

The MO which the terrorists use in Israel is simple, crude bombs detonated in areas where maximum damage will ensue.

The bin Ladens of this world are blood-thirsty men. He has no qualms about shedding blood on a grand scale. I have zero belief in the theory that he is waiting for the green light from Islamic scholars. This is propaganda designed to give a theological face and justification to the mayhem he has perpetrated and to cover the fact that right now, he's living in a hole in the ground and only comes out at night.