Following are excerpts from excerpts from an interview with Abdul Salam Zaeef, former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on July 14, 2010.

Abdul Salam Zaeef: Personally, I believe that the 9/11 incident was a conspiracy against the Muslims, and especially against Afghanistan and Iraq, in order to bring the US forces into this region, into South Asia, and into [other] strategic areas. Osama Bin Laden, terrorism, and so on were used as a pretext. But Allah be praised, their plan has failed. Today, they want to withdraw from Afghanistan, but they don’t know how.

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