Reply #8: I read that in Greg Palast's latest book.

[John Gauger]

Armed Madhouse. It was in the chapter about oil. He cited Osama's own website. I was going to check it out myself to confirm, but I figured the government might be watching and I would end up in Gitmo. UBL supposedly made the comment in 1998, when oil prices were at an all-time low. The royal family of Saudi Arabia owed UBL's family billions of dollars for construction work in Mecca and elsewhere. He announced his intentions to overthrow the Saudi government and place himself as heir to Muhammed (I'm not clear as to whether he thinks he is has been chosen for this post by God or if he just thinks it belongs to anyone who is strong enough to take it. Either way, that's what he's after.) His plan next included expelling the Americans from Saudi soil, exterminating the Shiites, and then eliminating Israel. All three of those groups challenge his control of the region's oil. I don't suppose too many other al Qaeda members are interested in this, though. I think they're just in it because they want to destroy America. They join al Qaeda because they are supposedly the biggest danger to us. I guess that could be wrong, but that's the most plausible explaination I've heard so far.