The agents of chaos benefited. The intent was to provoke a response that would likely cause some sort of uprising against the House of Saud or whatever. The plotters considered the House of Saud to be the illegitimate guardians of Mecca. In history, Mecca was essentially independent. It was very controversial when the Sauds captured Mecca in 1924. Bin Laden's main beef was the presence of US forces in Saudi Arabia following the first Gulf War; its considered a holy kingdom. Its a lot of sky fairy cobblers, but its what they believe. Bin Laden, believed (incorrectly it proved) that it wouldn't take much for their to be an uprising. I imagine he thought the American response would be cruise missiles etc, as in Sudan Barry the Convert summed up the plan in his version. Broadly similar to Bin Laden's strategy, which was probably more along the lines of; bomb the Americans, Americans bomb a mosque/wedding/funeral/whatever, radicalising the moderates, the Umma rises up, it all kicks off. Yeah, half baked plans, and they, to paraphrase the Irish Republican Army terrorists, got lucky, but they f**ked up, because they had no say in the consequent events.
