It was no secret that Osama bin Laden was plotting violence against the United States, according to CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen.

Why didn't anyone see it coming?

"The problem was not a lack of information but a lack of imagination, myself included," Bergen said during a speech Tuesday at Pennsylvania State University's Shenango Campus in Sharon. "This group (al-Qaida) couldn't be clearer about its intentions. They kind of talked about it ad nauseum."

Bergen interviewed bin Laden in 1997 before he was a household name. At that time, bin Laden was talking about starting a war with the United States. Bergen said bin Laden told him about plans for the future and said, "You'll read about them and see about them in the media, God willing."

At the time, Bergen said, he thought bin Laden may have been a "blow hard" and certainly didn't envision anything like the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

Bin Laden's effort to terrorize and kill Americans started with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Bergen said. "This was the beginning of something, not the end of something," he said.

The men who executed the first attack were tied to al-Qaida, Bergen said.

Only 200 to 300 people were actually sworn members of al-Qaida and had pledged their allegiance to death to bin Laden, Bergen said. He said a few thousand more are followers, and thousands more would probably work with al-Qaida if the situation were right.

Bergen said bin Laden made it clear in 1997 that he is against the United States' military occupation in Saudi Arabia and is, in general, opposed to the U.S.'s policies in the Middle East.

Bin Laden also said he was fighting the American military but if civilians got in the way that was their problem, Bergen said. He said, clearly bin Laden changed his philosophy over the years since he killed a mass amount of citizens on Sept. 11.

Al-Qaida has a very strong interest in nuclear weapons but members' scientific knowledge didn't match their desire to possess those weapons, Bergen said.

One point Bergen made very clear is that there are no ties between Iraq and al-Qaida. Investigations have shown no connection, and Bergen said bin Laden told him that Saddam Hussein is a bad leader who went into Kuwait for selfish reasons.

"Saddam had no role in 9/11. None. Zero," he said.

Bergen said he thinks the United States is safer now than before Sept. 11. The country is more secure and al-Qaida has been "severely disrupted," he said.

"Terrorism is never going to be abolished," Bergen said. He added that it can be managed, which is sort of a victory, though not a perfect one.

"It's a kind of victory when we can return to our lives as they were before Sept. 11," he said.