Did I imagine an assassination attempt on Bin Laden a week or so before 9/11?

Hiya,
This has been on my mind for many years... every now and again I make a cursory search but have never found the proof or evidence that would vindicate my memory. So I thought I'd ask a question to ATS-ers and see if anyone recalls something similar.
On Sept 11 2001 I was in Soho, London when a friend called to say I should watch TV as the World Trade Center was on fire. Not having a TV in our office, me and a friend, Nico, went out to find a TV. We found a screen in the foyer of a TV production company, we were watching through the windows when we saw the live footage of the 2nd plane hit, we thought it was a missile at first.
We quickly hurried to a pub we knew had a TV and got them to turn it on and immediately a crowd gathered to watch the unfolding horror. As the TV showed recorded clips it became horribly obvious this was a terrorist attack.
I remember saying out loud 'I bet it's the Taliban. Al Qaeda. Bin Laden' I remember Nico going 'who?' and I explained why I thought this...
A week or so prior to 9/11 I was working late and had the radio on as I usually do, BBC Radio 5 Live which is a rolling news channel. I would keep the radio on as I went to sleep. I think I heard the story as I was lying down, preparing to sleep... and its this why it seems so similar to a dream. I was listening to a news feature about the Taliban, a terrorist organisation, whom I'd first heard of in March 2001 when they blew up some huge old statues.

Taliban blow apart 2,000 years of Buddhist history

The news story I recall hearing on the radio was about a failed assassination attempt on their leader, Osama bin Laden a day earlier (I believe). The details I remember are these:
Osama bin Laden lived in a secret cave location. He had agreed to a filmed interview with a journalist and his cameraman. But the journalist and cameraman were assassins, and there was a bomb built into the video camera (suicide assassination?), and their intention was to kill Bin Laden. The news report said the attempt failed but offered no further details... not how or why it failed and not who the assassin's worked for.
This story stuck in my head (I am a writer and this had all the elements of a great espionage story) and that is why I instantly thought of Bin Laden and the Taliban when I saw the towers burning just a week or so later.
I never expected those magnificent two towers to topple and still recall the horror I felt watching them fall. The impact of that day and those momentous events pretty much made me forget the 'small story' about the failed assassination and it was only 3 or 4 years later that I brought the story up with some friends and no-one recalled it that I became interested in that again.
I've done many Google searches and read an awful lot about the awful event in 2001 but I've not seen or heard anything about this failed assassination attempt and part of me thinks perhaps i dreamed those details as I went off to sleep... what with my active and fertile imagination.
So that is why I'm asking ATS after all these years... just to see if anyone else remembers this story.

In the light of recent CIA documents that reveal that Bush and the CIA had numerous opportunities to nail Bin Laden prior to 911 which they failed to act on I wondered who might have attempted this assassination... that is if it did even occur.

Thanks for reading.

Whose side are you on is the question.

Osama = 9/11..... wrong site for that. A few members may be along shortly to assure you the OS is accurate, but a boogeyman is a boogeyman. I believe he died in 2001, and believe it or not, I've posted that and I'm not on the "Don't Fly List"

And no, Osama didn't plot 9/11, so no you didn't imagine what someone else imagined.

reply to post by JibbyJedi


I am on the side of truth in general.

I didn't want to start on 'who caused 9/11'... just if anyone remembers this specific assassination attempt.

reply to post by manmental

no i think what you have done is mixed to different stories in your mind, there was a rebel leader who was assassinated by a journalist in disguise. I cant recall his name, but he was not Bin Laden nor did he like his movement in anyway. He was killed a day or two before the attack on the towers. He fought against Russian invasion in the north for years and also other groups from the south.RIP

The Taliban had nothing to do with Bin Laden or Al Qaeda. They just lumped them together after the 'war' started because it was easy.
So no, you are wrong.

reply to post by manmental

You're confusing Bin Laden with Ahmad Shah Massoud. You're also confusing him with Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban (Bin Laden was never leader of the Taliban).

reply to post by manmental

You're confusing Bin Laden with Ahmad Shah Massoud. You're also confusing him with Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban (Bin Laden was never leader of the Taliban).

reply to post by manmental

You're confusing Bin Laden with Ahmad Shah Massoud. You're also confusing him with Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban (Bin Laden was never leader of the Taliban).

Ahmad Shah Massoud was assassinated in the way you described on Sept 9th, 2001.

en.wikipedia.org...

It sounds like you're confusing them.

There were specific mentions in the news weeks before 9/11 on Bin-Laden which is why Bill Cooper did his infamous prediction that happened to come true. Check the video below....

There were specific mentions in the news weeks before 9/11 on Bin-Laden which is why Bill Cooper did his infamous prediction that happened to come true. Check the video below....

reply to post by ancientthunder


thanks... i think you might have nailed it!

reply to post by bg_socalif


Ah... could be this... thank you!