Who Is Ousmane Bin Laden?
Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), Montréal
Posted 12 September 2001
A few hours after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the
Bush administration concluded without supporting evidence, that "Ousmane bin Laden and
his al-Qaeda organisation were prime suspects". CIA Director George Tenet stated that bin
Laden has the capacity to plan ``multiple attacks with little or no warning.'' Secretary
of State Colin Powell called the attacks "an act of war" and President Bush confirmed in
an evening televised address to the Nation that he would "make no distinction between the
terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them". Former CIA Director James
Woolsey pointed his finger at "state sponsorship," implying the complicity of one or more
foreign governments. In the words of former National Security Adviser, Lawrence
Eagleburger, "I think we will show when we get attacked like this, we are terrible in our
strength and in our retribution."
Meanwhile, parroting official statements, the Western media mantra has approved the
launching of "punitive actions" directed against civilian targets in the Middle East. In
the words of William Saffire writing in the New York Times: "When we reasonably determine
our attackers' bases and camps, we must pulverize them -- minimizing but accepting the
risk of collateral damage" -- and act overtly or covertly to destabilize terror's
national hosts".
The following text outlines the history of Ousmane Bin Laden and the links of the Islamic
"Jihad" to the formulation of US foreign policy during the Cold War and its aftermath.
Prime suspect in the New York and Washington terrorists attacks, branded by the FBI as an
"international terrorist" for his role in the African US embassy bombings, Saudi born
Ousmane bin Laden was recruited during the Soviet-Afghan war "ironically under the
auspices of the CIA, to fight Soviet invaders". 1
In 1979 "the largest covert operation in the history of the CIA" was launched in response
to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in support of the pro-Communist government of
Babrak Kamal.
2: With the active encouragement of the CIA and Pakistan's ISI [Inter Services
Intelligence], who wanted to turn the Afghan jihad into a global war waged by all Muslim
states against the Soviet Union, some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 40 Islamic countries
joined Afghanistan's fight between 1982 and 1992. Tens of thousands more came to study in
Pakistani madrasahs. Eventually more than 100,000 foreign Muslim radicals were directly
influenced by the Afghan jihad.
3 The Islamic "jihad" was supported by the United States and Saudi Arabia with a
significant part of the funding generated from the Golden Crescent drug trade:
In March 1985, President Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive
166,...[which] authorize[d] stepped-up covert military aid to the mujahideen, and it made
clear that the secret Afghan war had a new goal: to defeat Soviet troops in Afghanistan
through covert action and encourage a Soviet withdrawal. The new covert U.S. assistance
began with a dramatic increase in arms supplies -- a steady rise to 65,000 tons annually
by 1987, ... as well as a "ceaseless stream" of CIA and Pentagon specialists who traveled
to the secret headquarters of Pakistan's ISI on the main road near Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
There the CIA specialists met with Pakistani intelligence officers to help plan
operations for the Afghan rebels.
4 The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) using Pakistan's military Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) played a key role in training the Mujahideen. In turn, the CIA
sponsored guerrilla training was integrated with the teachings of Islam:
Predominant themes were that Islam was a complete socio-political ideology, that holy
Islam was being violated by the atheistic Soviet troops, and that the Islamic people of
Afghanistan should reassert their independence by overthrowing the leftist Afghan regime
propped up by Moscow.
5 Pakistan's Intelligence Apparatus
Pakistan's ISI was used as a "go-between". The CIA covert support to the "jihad" operated
indirectly through the Pakistani ISI, --i.e. the CIA did not channel its support directly
to the Mujahideen. In other words, for these covert operations to be "successful",
Washington was careful not to reveal the ultimate objective of the "jihad", which
consisted in destroying the Soviet Union.
In the words of CIA's Milton Beardman "We didn't train Arabs". Yet according to Abdel
Monam Saidali, of the Al-aram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo, bin Laden and the
"Afghan Arabs" had been imparted "with very sophisticated types of training that was
allowed to them by the CIA"
6 CIA's Beardman confirmed, in this regard, that Ousmane bin Laden was not aware of the
role he was playing on behalf of Washington. In the words of bin Laden (quoted by
Beardman): "neither I, nor my brothers saw evidence of American help".
7 Motivated by nationalism and religious fervor, the Islamic warriors were unaware that
they were fighting the Soviet Army on behalf of Uncle Sam. While there were contacts at
the upper levels of the intelligence hierarchy, Islamic rebel leaders in theatre had no
contacts with Washington or the CIA.
With CIA backing and the funneling of massive amounts of US military aid, the Pakistani
ISI had developed into a "parallel structure wielding enormous power over all aspects of
government".
8 The ISI had a staff composed of military and intelligence officers,
bureaucrats, undercover agents and informers, estimated at 150,000.
9 Meanwhile, CIA operations had also reinforced the Pakistani military regime led by
General Zia Ul Haq:
'Relations between the CIA and the ISI [Pakistan's military intelligence] had grown
increasingly warm following [General] Zia's ouster of Bhutto and the advent of the
military regime,'... During most of the Afghan war, Pakistan was more aggressively
anti-Soviet than even the United States. Soon after the Soviet military invaded
Afghanistan in 1980, Zia [ul Haq] sent his ISI chief to destabilize the Soviet Central
Asian states. The CIA only agreed to this plan in October 1984.... `the CIA was more
cautious than the Pakistanis.' Both Pakistan and the United States took the line of
deception on Afghanistan with a public posture of negotiating a settlement while
privately agreeing that military escalation was the best course.
10 The Golden Crescent Drug Triangle
The history of the drug trade in Central Asia is intimately related to the CIA's covert
operations. Prior to the Soviet-Afghan war, opium production in Afghanistan and Pakistan
was directed to small regional markets. There was no local production of heroin.
11 In this regard, Alfred McCoy's study confirms that within two years of the onslaught of the
CIA operation in Afghanistan, "the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands became the world's
top heroin producer, supplying 60 percent of U.S. demand. In Pakistan, the heroin-addict
population went from near zero in 1979... to 1.2 million by 1985 -- a much steeper rise
than in any other nation":
12 CIA assets again controlled this heroin trade. As the Mujahideen guerrillas seized
territory inside Afghanistan, they ordered peasants to plant opium as a revolutionary
tax. Across the border in Pakistan, Afghan leaders and local syndicates under the
protection of Pakistan Intelligence operated hundreds of heroin laboratories. During this
decade of wide-open drug-dealing, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in Islamabad failed to
instigate major seizures or arrests ... U.S. officials had refused to investigate charges
of heroin dealing by its Afghan allies `because U.S. narcotics policy in Afghanistan has
been subordinated to the war against Soviet influence there.' In 1995, the former CIA
director of the Afghan operation, Charles Cogan, admitted the CIA had indeed sacrificed
the drug war to fight the Cold War. `Our main mission was to do as much damage as
possible to the Soviets. We didn't really have the resources or the time to devote to an
investigation of the drug trade,'... `I don't think that we need to apologize for this.
Every situation has its fallout.... There was fallout in terms of drugs, yes. But the
main objective was accomplished. The Soviets left Afghanistan.'
13 In the Wake of the Cold War
In the wake of the Cold War, the Central Asian region is not only strategic for its
extensive oil reserves, it also produces three quarters of the World's opium representing
multibillion dollar revenues to business syndicates, financial institutions, intelligence
agencies and organized crime. The annual proceeds of the Golden Crescent drug trade
(between 100 and 200 billion dollars) represents approximately one third of the Worldwide
annual turnover of narcotics, estimated by the United Nations to be of the order of $500
billion.
14 With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a new surge in opium production has
unfolded. (According to UN estimates, the production of opium in Afghanistan in 1998-99
-- coinciding with the build up of armed insurgencies in the former Soviet republics--
reached a record high of 4600 metric tons.
15 Powerful business syndicates in the former Soviet Union allied with organized crime are competing for the strategic control over the heroin routes.
The ISI's extensive intelligence military-network was not dismantled in the wake of the
Cold War. The CIA continued to support the Islamic "jihad" out of Pakistan. New
undercover initiatives were set in motion in Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Balkans.
Pakistan's military and intelligence apparatus essentially "served as a catalyst for the
disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of six new Muslim republics in
Central Asia."
16. Meanwhile, Islamic missionaries of the Wahhabi sect from Saudi Arabia had established
themselves in the Muslim republics as well as within the Russian federation encroaching
upon the institutions of the secular State. Despite its anti-American ideology, Islamic
fundamentalism was largely serving Washington's strategic interests in the former Soviet
Union.
Following the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, the civil war in Afghanistan continued
unabated. The Taliban were being supported by the Pakistani Deobandis and their political
party the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI). In 1993, JUI entered the government coalition of
Prime Minister Benazzir Bhutto. Ties between JUI, the Army and ISI were established. In
1995, with the downfall of the Hezb-I-Islami Hektmatyar government in Kabul, the Taliban
not only instated a hardline Islamic government, they also "handed control of training
camps in Afghanistan over to JUI factions..."
17 And the JUI with the support of the Saudi Wahhabi movements played a key role in
recruiting volunteers to fight in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union.
Jane Defense Weekly confirms in this regard that "half of Taliban manpower and equipment
originate[d] in Pakistan under the ISI"
18 In fact, it would appear that following the Soviet withdrawal both sides in the Afghan
civil war continued to receive covert support through Pakistan's ISI.
19 In other words, backed by Pakistan's military intelligence (ISI) which in turn was
controlled by the CIA, the Taliban Islamic State was largely serving American
geopolitical interests. The Golden Crescent drug trade was also being used to finance and
equip the Bosnian Muslim Army (starting in the early 1990s) and the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA). In last few months there is evidence that Mujahideen mercenaries are fighting
in the ranks of KLA-NLA terrorists in their assaults into Macedonia.
No doubt, this explains why Washington has closed its eyes on the reign of terror imposed
by the Taliban including the blatant derogation of women's rights, the closing down of
schools for girls, the dismissal of women employees from government offices and the
enforcement of "the Sharia laws of punishment".
20 The War in Chechnya
With regard to Chechnya, the main rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Al Khattab were
trained and indoctrinated in CIA sponsored camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. According
to Yossef Bodansky, director of the U.S. Congress's Task Force on Terrorism and
Unconventional Warfare, the war in Chechnya had been planned during a secret summit of
HizbAllah International held in 1996 in Mogadishu, Somalia.
21 The summit, was attended by Osama bin Laden and high-ranking Iranian and Pakistani intelligence officers. In this regard, the involvement of Pakistan's ISI in Chechnya "goes far beyond supplying the Chechens with weapons and expertise: the ISI and its radical Islamic proxies are actually calling the shots in this war".
22 Russia's main pipeline route transits through Chechnya and Dagestan. Despite Washington's
perfunctory condemnation of Islamic terrorism, the indirect beneficiaries of the Chechen
war are the Anglo-American oil conglomerates which are vying for control over oil
resources and pipeline corridors out of the Caspian Sea basin.
The two main Chechen rebel armies (respectively led by Commander Shamil Basayev and Emir
Khattab) estimated at 35,000 strong were supported by Pakistan's ISI, which also played a
key role in organizing and training the Chechen rebel army:
[In 1994] the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence arranged for Basayev and his trusted
lieutenants to undergo intensive Islamic indoctrination and training in guerrilla warfare
in the Khost province of Afghanistan at Amir Muawia camp, set up in the early 1980s by
the CIA and ISI and run by famous Afghani warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
In July 1994, upon graduating from Amir Muawia, Basayev was transferred to Markaz-i-Dawar camp in Pakistan to undergo training in advanced guerrilla tactics. In Pakistan, Basayev met the highest ranking Pakistani military and intelligence officers: Minister of Defense General Aftab
Shahban Mirani, Minister of Interior General Naserullah Babar, and the head of the ISI
branch in charge of supporting Islamic causes, General Javed Ashraf, (all now retired).
High-level connections soon proved very useful to Basayev.
23 Following his training and indoctrination stint, Basayev was assigned to lead the assault
against Russian federal troops in the first Chechen war in 1995. His organization had
also developed extensive links to criminal syndicates in Moscow as well as ties to
Albanian organized crime and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). In 1997-98, according to
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) "Chechen warlords started buying up real estate
in Kosovo... through several real estate firms registered as a cover in Yugoslavia"
24 Basayev's organisation has also been involved in a number of rackets including narcotics,
illegal tapping and sabotage of Russia's oil pipelines, kidnapping, prostitution, trade
in counterfeit dollars and the smuggling of nuclear materials (See Mafia linked to
Albania's collapsed pyramids, 25 Alongside the extensive laundering of drug money, the
proceeds of various illicit activities have been funneled towards the recruitment of
mercenaries and the purchase of weapons.
During his training in Afghanistan, Shamil Basayev linked up with Saudi born veteran
Mujahideen Commander "Al Khattab" who had fought as a volunteer in Afghanistan. Barely a
few months after Basayev's return to Grozny, Khattab was invited (early 1995) to set up
an army base in Chechnya for the training of Mujahideen fighters. According to the BBC,
Khattab's posting to Chechnya had been "arranged through the Saudi-Arabian based
[International] Islamic Relief Organisation, a militant religious organisation, funded by
mosques and rich individuals which channeled funds into Chechnya".
26 Concluding Remarks
Since the Cold War era, Washington has consciously supported Ousmane bin Laden, while at
same time placing him on the FBI's "most wanted list" as the World's foremost terrorist.
While the Mujahideen are busy fighting America's war in the Balkans and the former Soviet
Union, the FBI --operating as a US based Police Force- is waging a domestic war against
terrorism, operating in some respects independently of the CIA which has --since the
Soviet-Afghan war-- supported international terrorism through its covert operations.
In a cruel irony, while the Islamic jihad --featured by the Bush Adminstration as "a
threat to America"-- is blamed for the terrorist assaults on the World Trade Centre and
the Pentagon, these same Islamic organisations constitute a key instrument of US
military-intelligence operations in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the truth must prevail
to prevent the Bush Adminstration together with its NATO partners from embarking upon a
military adventure which threatens the future of humanity.
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Endnotes
Hugh Davies, International: `Informers' point the finger at bin Laden; Washington on
alert for suicide bombers, The Daily Telegraph, London, 24 August 1998.
See Fred Halliday, "The Un-great game: the Country that lost the Cold War, Afghanistan,
New Republic, 25 March 1996):
Ahmed Rashid, The Taliban: Exporting Extremism, Foreign Affairs, November-December 1999.
Steve Coll, Washington Post, July 19, 1992.
Dilip Hiro, Fallout from the Afghan Jihad, Inter Press Services, 21 November 1995.
Weekend Sunday (NPR); Eric Weiner, Ted Clark; 16 August 1998.
Ibid.
Dipankar Banerjee; Possible Connection of ISI With Drug Industry, India Abroad, 2
December 1994.
Ibid
See Diego Cordovez and Selig Harrison, Out of Afghanistan: The Inside Story of the Soviet
Withdrawal, Oxford university Press, New York, 1995. See also the review of Cordovez and
Harrison in International Press Services, 22 August 1995.
Alfred McCoy, Drug fallout: the CIA's Forty Year Complicity in the Narcotics Trade. The
Progressive; 1 August 1997.
Ibid
Ibid.
Douglas Keh, Drug Money in a changing World, Technical document no 4, 1998, Vienna UNDCP,
p. 4. See also Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 1999,
E/INCB/1999/1 United Nations Publication, Vienna 1999, p 49-51, And Richard Lapper, UN
Fears Growth of Heroin Trade, Financial Times, 24 February 2000.
Report of the International Narcotics Control Board, op cit, p 49-51, see also Richard
Lapper, op. cit.
International Press Services, 22 August 1995.
Ahmed Rashid, The Taliban: Exporting Extremism, Foreign Affairs, November- December,
1999, p. 22.
Quoted in the Christian Science Monitor, 3 September 1998)
Tim McGirk, Kabul learns to live with its bearded conquerors, The Independent, London, 6
November1996.
See K. Subrahmanyam, Pakistan is Pursuing Asian Goals, India Abroad, 3 November 1995.
Levon Sevunts, Who's calling the shots?: Chechen conflict finds Islamic roots in
Afghanistan and Pakistan, 23 The Gazette, Montreal, 26 October 1999..
Ibid
Ibid.
See Vitaly Romanov and Viktor Yadukha, Chechen Front Moves To Kosovo Segodnia, Moscow, 23
Feb 2000.
The European, 13 February 1997, See also Itar-Tass, 4-5 January 2000.
BBC, 29 September 1999).
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SOME HOME TRUTHS ABOUT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER DISASTER
FROM AN AMERICAN WHO CAN SEE BEYOND THE VEIL
Dear friends,
I was supposed to fly today on the 4:30 PM American Airlines flight from LAX to JFK. But
tonight I find myself stuck in L.A. with an incredible range of emotions over what has
happened on the island where I work and live in New York City.
My wife and I spent the first hours of the day -- after being awakened by phone calls
from our parents at 6:40am PT -- trying to contact our daughter at school in New York and
our friend JoAnn who works near the World Trade Center.
I called JoAnn at her office. As someone picked up, the first tower imploded, and the
person answering the phone screamed and ran out, leaving me no clue as to whether or not
she or JoAnn would live.
It was a sick, horrible, frightening day.
On December 27, 1985 I found myself caught in the middle of a terrorist incident at the
Vienna airport -- which left 30 people dead, both there and at the Rome airport. (The
machine-gunning of passengers in each city was timed to occur at the same moment.)
I do not feel like discussing that event tonight because it still brings up too much
despair and confusion as to how and why I got to live- a fluke, a mistake, a few feet on
the tarmac, and I am still here, there but for the grace of---
Safe. Secure. I'm an American, living in America. I like my illusions. I walk through a
metal detector, I put my carry-ons through an x-ray machine, and I know all will be well.
Here's a short list of my experiences lately with airport security:
* At the Newark Airport, the plane is late at boarding everyone. The counter can't find
my seat. So I am told to just "go ahead and get on" -- without a ticket!
* At Detroit Metro Airport, I don't want to put the lunch I just bought at the deli
through the x-ray machine so, as I pass through the metal detector, I hand the sack to
the guard through the space between the detector and the x-ray machine. I tell him "It's
just a sandwich." He believes me and doesn't bother to check. The sack has gone through
neither security device.
* At LaGuardia in New York, I check a piece of luggage, but decide to catch a later
plane. The first plane leaves without me, but with my bag -- no one knowing what is in
it.
* Back in Detroit, I take my time getting off the commuter plane. By the time I have come
down its stairs, the bus that takes the passengers to the terminal has left -- without
me. I am alone on the tarmac, free to wander wherever I want. So I do. Eventually, I flag
down a pick-up truck and an airplane mechanic gives me a ride the rest of the way to the
terminal.
* I have brought knives, razors; and once, my traveling companion brought a hammer and
chisel. No one stopped us.
Of course, I have gotten away with all of this because the airlines consider my safety SO
important, they pay rent-a-cops $5.75 an hour to make sure the bad guys don't get on my
plane. That is what my life is worth -- less than the cost of an oil change.
Too harsh, you say? Well, chew on this: a first-year pilot on American Eagle (the
commuter arm of American Airlines) receives around $15,000 a year in annual pay.
That's right -- $15,000 for the person who has your life in his hands. Until recently,
Continental Express paid a little over $13,000 a year. There was one guy, an American
Eagle pilot, who had four kids so he went down to the welfare office and applied for food
stamps -- and he was eligible!
Someone on welfare is flying my plane? Is this for real? Yes, it is.
So spare me the talk about all the precautions the airlines and the FAA is taking. They,
like all businesses, are concerned about one thing -- the bottom line and the profit
margin.
Four teams of 3-5 people were all able to penetrate airport security on the same morning
at 3 different airports and pull off this heinous act? My only response is -- that's all?
Well, the pundits are in full diarrhea mode, gushing on about the "terrorist threat" and
today's scariest dude on planet earth -- Osama bin Laden. Hey, who knows, maybe he did
it. But, something just doesn't add up.
Am I being asked to believe that this guy who sleeps in a tent in a desert has been
training pilots to fly our most modern, sophisticated jumbo jets with such pinpoint
accuracy that they are able to hit these three targets without anyone wondering why these
planes were so far off path?
Or am I being asked to believe that there were four religious/political fanatics who JUST
HAPPENED to be skilled airline pilots who JUST HAPPENED to want to kill themselves today?
Maybe you can find one jumbo jet pilot willing to die for the cause -- but FOUR? Ok,
maybe you can -- I don't know.
What I do know is that all day long I have heard everything about this bin Laden guy
except this one fact -- WE created the monster known as Osama bin Laden!
Where did he go to terrorist school? At the CIA!
Don't take my word for it -- I saw a piece on MSNBC last year that laid it all out. When
the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, the CIA trained him and his buddies in how to
commits acts of terrorism against the Soviet forces. It worked! The Soviets turned and
ran. Bin Laden was grateful for what we taught him and thought it might be fun to use
those same techniques against us.
We abhor terrorism -- unless we're the ones doing the terrorizing.
We paid and trained and armed a group of terrorists in Nicaragua in the 1980s who killed
over 30,000 civilians. That was OUR work. You and me. Thirty thousand murdered civilians
and who the hell even remembers!
We fund a lot of oppressive regimes that have killed a lot of innocent people, and we
never let the human suffering THAT causes to interrupt our day one single bit.
We have orphaned so many children, tens of thousands around the world, with our
taxpayer-funded terrorism (in Chile, in Vietnam, in Gaza, in Salvador) that I suppose we
shouldn't be too surprised when those orphans grow up and are a little whacked in the
head from the horror we have helped cause.
Yet, our recent domestic terrorism bombings have not been conducted by a guy from the
desert but rather by our own citizens: a couple of ex-military guys who hated the federal
government.
From the first minutes of today's events, I never heard that possibility suggested. Why
is that?
Maybe it's because the A-rabs are much better foils. A key ingredient in getting
Americans whipped into a frenzy against a new enemy is the all-important race card. It's
much easier to get us to hate when the object of our hatred doesn't look like us.
Congressmen and Senators spent the day calling for more money for the military; one
Senator on CNN even said he didn't want to hear any more talk about more money for
education or health care -- we should have only one priority: our self-defense.
Will we ever get to the point that we realize we will be more secure when the rest of the
world isn't living in poverty so we can have nice running shoes?
In just 8 months, Bush gets the whole world back to hating us again. He withdraws from
the Kyoto agreement, walks us out of the Durban conference on racism, insists on
restarting the arms race -- you name it, and Baby Bush has blown it all.
The Senators and Congressmen tonight broke out in a spontaneous version of "God Bless
America." They're not a bad group of singers!
Yes, God, please do bless us.
Many families have been devastated tonight. This just is not right. They did not deserve
to die. If someone did this to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of
people who DID NOT VOTE for him! Boston, New York, DC, and the planes' destination of
California -- these were places that voted AGAINST Bush!
Why kill them? Why kill anyone? Such insanity!
Let's mourn, let's grieve, and when it's appropriate let's examine our contribution to
the unsafe world we live in.
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September 11, 2001
A MESSAGE FOR GEORGE W. BUSH
AND ALL THOSE WHO CONTROL HIM,
SPOKEN IN HIS OWN WORDS TODAY:
"This enemy hides in shadows and has no regard for human life.
This is an enemy who preys on innocent and unsuspecting people, then runs for cover, but
it won't be able to run for cover forever. This is an enemy that tries to hide, but it
won't be able to hide forever. This is an enemy that thinks its harbors are safe, but
they won't be safe forever..
This will be a monumental struggle of good versus evil but good will prevail."
Believe it George and co, believe it, because you have never spoken a truer word about
yourselves. Despite the horrors that the force that controls your minds may have
perpetrated this terrible week, that is indeed how this story will end, I assure you, and
far sooner than you could possibly imagine
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The Next Casualty: Bill of Rights?
Absolutely. That is the Goal of this entire henious affair.
Tuesday's onslaughts on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon are being likened
to Pearl Harbor. The comparison is just.
The attacks were near miracles of logistical
calculation, timing, execution and
devastation inflicted on the targets.
There may be another similarity. The
possibility of a Japanese attack in early
December 1941 was known to U.S. naval
intelligence and to President Roosevelt. On
Tuesday, derision at the failure of U.S.
intelligence was widespread. The
Washington Post quoted an unnamed top
official at the National Security Council as saying, "We don't
know anything here. We're watching CNN too." Are we to
believe that the $30-billion annual intelligence budget, immense
electronic eavesdropping capacity, thousands of agents around the
world, produced nothing in the way of a warning?
In fact, the editor of the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi
newspaper, said he heard three weeks ago that Osama bin Laden,
now the prime suspect, planned "very, very big attacks against
American interests." The lust for retaliation traditionally outstrips
precision in identifying the actual assailant. By early evening
Tuesday, the U.S. national security establishment was calling for
removal of all impediments on the assassination of foreign
leaders. Led by President Bush, they were endorsing the prospect
of attacks not just on the perpetrators but on those who might
have harbored them. From the nuclear priesthood comes the
demand that mini-nukes be deployed on a preemptive basis
against the enemies of America.
The targets abroad will be all the usual suspects--the Taliban or
Saddam Hussein, who started off as creatures of U.S.
intelligence. The target at home will be the Bill of Rights.
Less than a week ago the FBI raided Infocom, the Texas-based
Web host for Muslim groups such as the Council on Islamic
Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, the Islamic
Assn. for Palestine and the Holy Land Foundation. Palestinians
have been denied visas, and those in this country can, under the
terms of the counterterrorism policy during the Clinton years, be
held and expelled without due process.
Tuesday's explosions were not an hour old before terror pundits
such as Anthony Cordesman, Wesley Clark, Robert Gates and
Lawrence Eagleburger were saying that these attacks had been
possible "because America is a democracy," adding that now
some democratic perquisites might have to be abandoned. What
might this mean? Increased domestic snooping by U.S. law
enforcement and intelligence agencies? Ethnic profiling? A
national ID card system?
Tuesday did not offer a flattering exhibition of America's leaders.
President Bush gave a timid and stilted initial reaction in Sarasota,
Fla., then disappeared for an hour before resurfacing in at a base
in Barksdale, La., where he gave another flaccid address with
every appearance of being on tranquilizers. He was then flown to
a bunker in Nebraska, before someone finally had the wit to
suggest that the best place for the U.S. president at time of
national emergency is the Oval Office.
One certain beneficiary of the attacks is Israel. Polls had been
showing popular dislike here for Israel's recent tactics, which may
have been the motivation for Colin Powell's few bleats of reproof
to Israel. We will be hearing no such bleats in the weeks to come,
as Israel's leaders advise the U.S. how exactly to deal with
Muslims.
"Freedom," said Bush in Sarasota, "was attacked this morning by
a faceless coward." That properly represents the stupidity and
blindness of almost all of Tuesday's mainstream political
commentary. By contrast, the commentary on economic
consequences was informative and sophisticated. Worst hit: the
insurance industry. Likely outfall in the short term: higher energy
prices, a further drop in global stock markets. Bush will have no
trouble in raiding the famous lock-box, using Social Security trust
funds to give more money to the Defense Department.
Three planes are successfully steered into three of America's most
conspicuous buildings and America's response will be to put more
money in missile defense as a way of bolstering the economy.
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White House Rejects Taliban
Request for Evidence
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the United States pushed ahead with war preparations, the White
House on Friday rejected requests rom Afghanistan (news - websites)'s ruling Taliban to show
proof Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) was responsible for the deadly Sept. 11 attacks.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) rejected a call by the Taliban
Islamic movement, which allows bin Laden to stay in Afghanistan as a ``guest,'' to provide evidence
of the Saudi-born militant's involvement in the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York
and the Pentagon (news - websites) outside Washington.
``The president's message to the Taliban today is the same message that he gave last night; that there
will be no negotiations and no discussions,'' Fleischer said. ``He expects the Taliban to honor the
demands that he made in his speech last night.''
In a hard-hitting address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday, President Bush (news - web sites)
blamed bin Laden and the al Qaeda network for the attacks that left more than 6,800 people dead or missing.
Bush issued an ultimatum to leaders of the Taliban to turn over bin Laden and his lieutenants or ``share in
their fate.''
Fleischer said Bush had put the Taliban ``on notice'' and was ''preparing to do what must inevitably come
next.''
Dozens of White House staffers cheered and waved American flags on the South Lawn as Bush and his wife
Laura departed for the Camp David presidential retreat aboard a Marine One helicopter.
NO 'LOOSE LIPS'
Bush will lead a meeting of his National Security Council by teleconference from the retreat in the
Catoctin Mountains in Maryland on Saturday. The following day, he will take part in a ceremony raising
the American flag to full staff for the first time since Sept. 11.
Fleischer refused to give any details of the proof the government had regarding bin Laden and his
lieutenants, saying ''to reveal that would be to provide information to the al Qaeda organization, to Osama bin
Laden, to any other enemies of this country that they would love to have. And I will not do that.''
``I think, frankly, the American people take encouragement from the fact that this government will
not have loose lips.''
A day after his nationally televised address Bush pushed forward with war preparations, meeting with his
national security advisers.
``The president has made it abundantly clear that this nation is preparing for war, because war has been
declared against the United States,'' Fleischer said.
``Suffice it to say, the reason the president met with his National Security Council this
morning, that he will do so again tomorrow, is because the planning is active and under way,'' he
added.
A large U.S. military deployment was gathering in the region.
Bush spent part of Friday working on other complications triggered by the attacks.
He met insurance executives about the problems arising from the deaths aboard hijacked airplanes and on the
ground. He also attended a ``domestic consequences'' meeting, which focused on a $15 billion bailout for the
airline industry.
DOZENS OF CALLS
Fleischer said Bush, who has already made dozens of calls over the past 10 days to world leaders to seek their
support, pushed ahead with that effort on Friday morning, speaking to Turkish President Ahmet Necdet
Sezer, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Oman's Sultan Qaboos.
He then held a 20-minute meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan in his attempt to build a global
coalition against terrorism.
``The president reiterated his determination to fight terrorism and said he looked
forward to his trip in October,'' NSC spokesman Sean McCormack said. U.S.
plans were going ahead for Bush's scheduled visit to China, South Korea (news -
web sites) and Japan next month.
After a meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) on Thursday
Tang said China was ready to enhance cooperation with the United States.
But several Chinese officials have warned that when actions are taken against
international ``terrorists'' they should be based on solid evidence and care should
be taken to reduce collateral damage and loss of civilian life.
Bush has called for international support as he vowed to use every resource to
disrupt and defeat the ``global terror network.''
``Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with
us or you are with the terrorists,'' he said on Thursday night.
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien will meet Bush for a working visit on
Monday and Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit on Tuesday.
So, if there truly are "Terrorist's" that are responsible for this horrible deed,
why won't Bush supply the evidence to support such a claim? The answer is
simple - said evidence leads DIRECTLY back to the White House, that is why!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
another anomaly...
The man who designed the WTC was interviewed on a news broadcast.
He was clearly puzzled that the buildings collapsed. He said that
steel encased in concrete would take about three hours to reach a
dangerously high temperature, yet the buildings collapsed within
an hour and a half.
Also, what happened to the sprinkler system? Anyone who has poured
water on a camp fire knows that great clouds of steam are produced.
I did not see any steam whatsoever emanating from the WTC fire.
Just thick black smoke. Is it possible the sprinklers were disabled,
or the reservoirs were drained prior to the attack?
Pointman USA wrote:
>
> You are correct here too.......we had jet fires on aircraft carriers all the
> time... it won't melt the steel..
>
> one night at 3 AM I was watching the news and they cranked up the volume...
> I heard all kinds of explosions on the film footage, they never did it again.
>
>
> Subject: A dreaded thought about 9-11
>
> > A dreaded thought just occurred to me...
> >
> > Whenever you see workmen cutting through steel at a construction
> > site, what are they using? I believe it's an oxy-acetylene torch.
> >
> > To get a flame hot enough to melt steel, the fuel (acetylene) has
> > to be mixed with pure oxygen. Just acetylene won't do it.
> >
> > My guess is that the same is true for jet fuel. When it burns in
> > the ordinary atmosphere we all breath, it doesn't get that hot.
> >
> > I don't think jet fuel burns much hotter than ordinary gasoline.
> > Certainly not hot enough to melt, or even soften steel. Our
> > automobile engines don't melt when we drive down the road. Even
> > after a terrible car fire, the engine is always intact.
> >
> > Remember back in Philly there was a high rise building that
> > caught fire? It was so old it had no sprinklers. The fire
> > raged for days. Yet the building still stood.
> >
> > So, what happened on 9-11?
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