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).