On one occasion when al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden visited an Afghan camp , the US Defense Department alleges Hicks questioned bin Laden about the lack of English in training material and subsequently " began to translate the training camp materials from Arabic to English " . Hicks denies this and denies having had the necessary language proficiency , a claim supported by Major Michael Mori and fellow detainee Moazzam Begg . The latter said that Hicks could not speak enough Arabic to be understood . Hicks wrote home that he had met Osama bin Laden 20 times . He later , however , told investigators he had exaggerated , that he had seen bin Laden about eight times and spoken to him only once . There are a lot of Muslims who want to meet Osama Bin Laden but after being a Muslim for 16 months I get to meet him . Prosecutors also allege Hicks was interviewed by Muhammad Atef , an al-Qaeda military commander , about his background and " the travel habits of Australians " . In a memoir that was later repudiated by its author , the Guantanamo detainee Feroz Abbasi claimed Hicks was " Al-Qaedah 's 24 carat Golden Boy " and " obviously the favourite recruit " of their al-Qaeda trainers during exercises at the al-Farouq camp near Kandahar . The memoir made a number of claims , including that Hicks was teamed in the training camp with Filipino recruits from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and that , during internment in Camp X-Ray , Hicks allegedly described his desire to " go back to Australia and rob and kill Jews ... crash a plane into a building " and to " go out with that last big adrenaline rush . " On 9 September 2001 , Hicks travelled from Afghanistan to Pakistan to visit a friend . A US Department of Defense statement claimed that " viewing TV news coverage in Pakistan of the 11 September 2001 attacks against the United States " led Hicks to return to Afghanistan to " rejoin his al-Qaeda associates to fight against U.S. , British , Canadian , Australian , Afghan , and other coalition forces . " Hicks denies this claim in his book . Although the LeT offered to provide documentation to allow him to return to Australia , Hicks feared arrest for using false documents . Hicks returned in order to get his passport and birth certificate back so he could travel home to Adelaide
11 September 2001 attacks
September 11 attacks
David Hicks