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US President Donald Trump on Sunday (local time) claimed he warned about al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden a year before the September 11, 2001, attacks, asserting that "he wanted to take little credit". He insisted that he had predicted the 9/11 attacks and could have stopped the carnage if anyone had heeded his warnings.
Trump also said that he had asked authorities to keep track of Osama bin Laden a year before the 9/11 attacks, and asserted that the "fake news would never let me get away with that statement unless it was true".
"Please remember I wrote about Osama bin Laden exactly one year before he blew up the World Trade Centre. And I said, 'You got to watch Osama bin Laden'," he said. "But I said one year before that I saw somebody named Osama bin Laden and I didn't like it. And you got to take care of him," the US President said in a speech at Norfolk, Virginia, during a special celebration to mark the US Navy's 250th birthday.
Notably, Trump did not predict the 9/11 attacks, contrary to his claims. In early 2000, over 18 months before the carnage, Trump wrote a book titled, 'The America We Deserve' that had a brief mention of Osama bin Laden. However, the book identified the al-Qaeda leader as a danger to American national security.
"They didn't do it. A year later, he blew up the World Trade Centre. So, (I) got to take a little credit, because nobody else is going to give it to me. You know the old story, they don't give you credit. Just take it yourself," Trump said.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed when al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked jetliners and separately crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. It was the deadliest terror attack on US soil.
Trump, during his speech, praised the US Navy SEALs, saying that history will never forget that it was this special American force that stormed into Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan and "put a bullet in his head".
"History will never forget that it was the SEALs who stormed the compound (of) Osama bin Laden and put a bullet in his head," he said.
The US President also said it was the US Navy that "dumped" Osama bin Laden's "wretched corpse off the decks" of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson "to sink into the dark abyss".
In May 2011, US Navy SEALs carried out an operation that killed Osama bin Laden and his aides, who were hiding in a safe house in the military town of Abbottabad in Pakistan.
The raid was carried out after it was authorised by then US President Barack Obama, who then announced the killing of Osama bin Laden during the operation.
- Ends
(with inputs from agencies)
Published On:
Oct 6, 2025
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