bandar considers himself an american hamiltonian conservative. before the 2000 u.s. presidential election was decided, he invited george h. w. bush to go pheasant shooting on his english estate in a "desert storm reunion". after the september 11 attacks in 2001, in an interview in the "new york times", he stated, "bin laden used to come to us when "america" through the cia and saudi arabia, were helping our brother mujahideen in afghanistan, to get rid of the communist secularist soviet union forces. osama bin laden came and said 'thank you. thank you for bringing the americans to help us.' at that time, i thought he couldn’t lead eight ducks across the street."