The "War on Terror" is largely about War on designated "Thought Criminals" -- a continuation of that sort of conditioning which extends at least as far back here as the Charles Manson Trial and probably as far back in modern history as the Nuremberg Trials. After 9/11, bin Laden became the Thought Criminal du jour, also Jose Padilla (although not of the evil-guru variety) and Awlaki too.
Or maybe more like a devious actor whose role was to ignite a Race War and also to assist in advancing the crazed, newfangled-policy of issuing a death penalty (by trial or not) on the accused for the charge of not mudering anyone themselves but for being an evil-guru mind-controlling others to kill (re: bin Laden -- aka "The Director"; Awlaki).
There've been numerous examples along the way, one of which was Koresh and WACO.
I just read something recently that said he went to Israel and studied the Talmud there. I don't know but wouldn't rule it out that he may have been acting as a psyop role-player too -- so as to manipulate perceptions of draconian Police State actions as deserved or to be expected for cult- figures/loonies like him; to stir-up widespread societal-unrest here over the WACO horror maybe. It's more than possible, imo, that much of what we've taken for granted as shocking and grotesque history "lessons" is an insidious fiction.