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Osama bin Laden's our man, right?

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The *MIGHTY* (yet modest) Two Tub Man

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Oct 4, 2001, 5:40:58 PM10/4/01
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Osama bin Laden's our man, right?

by Stephen Gowans
Now that everyone's sure that Osama bin Laden's our man, it might be
time to take a step back and ask, How do we know?

And the answer is, we "know" because Washington says that who's behind
the September 11th attacks.

But given Washington's track record on telling the truth --especially
when it comes to reasons for initiating wars -- a sane person might
treat this claim with a healthy dollop of scepticism.

Ask yourself, What evidence is there available to the average person
on the street, people like you and me, that bin Laden is responsible?

The answer, if you think about it for a moment, is that there is no
evidence. Just innuendo, circumstantial indication, and
possibilities. And appeals to "trust us." But nothing firm or
concrete.

Washington can't even advance a lame case for bin Laden's
involvement, let alone a compelling one. Secretary of State Colin
Powell reneges on his promise to present the evidence, the best Deputy
Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz can do is contend that "the
evidence is there for the whole world to see" and NATO chief Lord
Robertson opines that allies don't need to see any evidence. The
Toronto Globe and Mail says, "The United States said it is certain
that Mr. bin Laden is the mastermind behind the attacks. But after
three weeks, the information revealed about ties between Mr. bin
Laden and the 19 hijackers is tenuous and circumstantial." The
newspaper might have added, tenuous and circumstantial at best.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose frequent dalliances with
prevarication, equivocation, and paltering with the truth, make him a
dubious poster boy for the virtues of truth-telling, says
reassuringly, "I have seen absolutely powerful, incontrovertible
evidence of (bin Laden's) link to the events of September 11." Of
course, Blair can't share it with us. We're supposed to trust him.

That Washington has incontrovertible, powerful evidence, or that Blair
has seen it, seems doubtful. Consider: Prior to the attacks, the US
intelligence community said there were seven states of concern that
sponsor terrorism: Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Cuba, Syria and North
Korea. Somehow they missed Afghanistan, which, if you believe the
stories, is now, and was ,the world's largest breeding ground of
terrorists. So how is it that this vaunted intelligence apparatus can
miss the world's largest hotbed of terrorism, yet in the space of
three weeks amass compelling and powerful evidence linking bin Laden
to the attacks? And how is it that an intelligence community that can
assemble powerful evidence implicating bin Laden in just three weeks,
was so spectacularly unsuccessful in anticipating the attacks?

And there's the question, Why has no one claimed responsibility for
the terror? Isn't that the point of terror attacks? To make plain
who's behind them, and why? So why does bin Laden keep saying he
wasn't the guy?

Still, if bin Laden won't step forward to take responsibility,
pointing to reason x, y and z for arranging terror attacks on
thousands of innocent people, others have. Washington's conveniently
filled in the blanks on who (bin Laden) and others are conveniently
filling in the blanks on why (bin Laden's pissed off over Israeli
repression of Palestinians, the Gulf War, the US military presence in
Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq.) What's significant here is
the alleged perpetrator isn't providing any of the answers. Others
are. So while bin Laden's involvement is a possibility, and while he
may have a motive, all we know is that a whole lot of other people
think he did it, but don't seem to wonder why bin Laden isn't claiming
responsibility.

More frightening to contemplate is the hypothesis that the US or
allied governments were involved --- also a possibility. If you ask
the question, Who benefits from the attacks? and consider the history
of Washington engineering numerous casus belli, while still
frightening to contemplate, the hypothesis is far from outlandish. The
Gulf of Tonkin affair -- a phoney attack on the USS Maddox -- was the
sole basis for Washington's decision to initiate a war in Vietnam that
left close to 50,000 American GIs dead, and ushered three million
inhabitants of Indochina into early graves. Lying in the service of
war-making has happened so often in the past it might as well be
called a Washington tradition.

Still, the analysis surrounding the events of September 11 is
unfolding much as the analysis around Yugoslavia did, and before that,
the Vietnam War: that is, without consideration of the possibilities,
and without the healthy dollop of scepticism the situation calls for,
or recognition that most of the claims advanced so far rest on a weak
evidentiary foundation, if any at all.

In the case of the NATO air war against Yugoslavia, the media said
Milosevic, then the country's president, was a dictator, a brute, a
murderer. They pointed to the Racak massacre, the alleged killing of
dozens of ethnic Albanians by Serb police at the Kosovar village of
Racak, to justify the bombing of Yugoslavia. And yet French press
reports at the time cast doubt on whether the massacre actually
happened, pointing to the possibility that it was staged by the KLA,
with the involvement of Washington. OECD observers, present at Racak
on the day of the alleged massacre, made no mention of it. And
forensic pathologists who investigated the massacre on behalf of the
EU later said there was no evidence that a massacre had actually
occurred, but that the US official present at the scene, William
Walker, was quick to conclude that one had indeed occurred.

Walker's case was helped along by the chattering classes, who, almost
to a person, condemned the Racak attack, thereby establishing the
event as fact. Few questioned it. This was true, too, of the
administration's fiercest critics, who disagreed with Washington's
decision to bomb Yugoslavia, but conceded that Racak was terrible.
Accordingly, the claims that formed the basis of the rationale for
intervention were accepted as true, by both critics and supporters of
the administration.

There's a psychology that grips us in these circumstances. Rally
around the flag. Rally around our leaders. Now's the time to support
our country -- "country" and "government" being mistakenly conflated.
And even those who reject this dangerous chauvinism soon find
themselves in the grips of another psychology -- herd thinking.
Everyone says "x," so you go along. You say, "I don't remember seeing
anything that proves "x" but maybe I wasn't paying attention. Maybe
the evidence is staring me in the face and I'm too stupid to see it.
But everyone else seems to see it so I guess it must be true."

Of course, everyone else is thinking exactly the same thing, too, so
"x" comes to be widely accepted, not on the basis of any evidence, but
simply because it's widely accepted. People like Wolfowtiz can then
say, "What do you need evidence for? It's staring you in the face."
And, for good measure, anyone who questions the received wisdom is
dismissed as a nut case, a conspiracy theorist -- epithets most people
will bend over backwards to avoid

Not surprisingly, in the aftermath of September 11th, the same
processes that led the American people into the disasters of the
Vietnam war, into supporting the bombing of Yugoslavia, are at work
again. Washington says bin Laden is responsible, and before you know
it, everyone says bin Laden's responsible, including the
administration's most energetic critics. And yet the stories that hold
bin Laden responsible are all as tenuous as the stories about the
Racak massacre, or the Gulf of Tonkin affair. Even people who know
about how the American people have been duped by their governments
over and over again, stretching back to the stealing of California
from Mexico, immediately put out of their minds the possibilities that
their government is lying, or worse, is involved. The latter claim is
too terrible to contemplate. But is it so outlandish that governments
would commit horrific acts that ordinary people consider too wicked,
too depraved, too unconscionable to credit?

Hitler said that you could safely tell huge lies to ordinary people,
because they themselves would never tell lies so huge, and therefore
wouldn't believe that their government could. He could have said that
governments could commit acts so despicable that ordinary people would
never believe the acts had really been committed, because they could
never commit such wicked acts themselves, and therefore wouldn't
believe their governments could.

But think of our history. One may have thought the dropping of atomic
bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was too terrible to contemplate, but
it happened. The firebombing of Tokyo was too terrible to contemplate,
but it happened, too. And also the carpet-bombing of Korea and
Indochina , the death through sanctions of over a million Iraqis, and
the Gulf War. And one might have thought the idea of engineering
terror attacks on American targets and pinning the blame on the Cubans
to justify an invasion of Cuba would be too terrible to contemplate,
but that, apparently, was contemplated in 1962 by the five Joint
chiefs, according to James Bradford's study of the National Security
Agency, Body of Secrets (Doubleday). Nothing it seems -- and this is
the frightening part -- has ever been too terrible for Washington to
contemplate.

But try as you might to keep a clear head, it's hard to resist the
insidious lure of the lies. There are traps lurking in everything you
read. A glaring example: A newspaper I read reported that many Muslims
point to, what the newspaper described as, "the unsubstantiated rumor"
that Israeli intelligence was behind the attacks. To be sure, the
claim is unsubstantiated, and has the character of a claim that would
be comforting for some to believe. But the newspaper didn't point out
that bin Laden being behind the attacks is just as much an
unsubstantiated rumor, and equally, has the character of a claim
that's comforting for some people to believe. Instead, the report
treats bin Laden's involvement as fact, as substantiated (despite bin
Laden's own denials and Washington's failure to produce any evidence)
and treats all alternative explanations as unsubstantiated.

In a similar vein, The New York Times deals with demands from US
allies to produce evidence that bin Laden was involved with this line,
"But administration officials are still debating how much information
to make public since much of it rests on secret communications
intercepts," thus implicitly declaring that the administration does
have evidence, and dismissing the equally tenable hypothesis that it
has none at all, and is hiding behind "security considerations."

Perhaps even more disconcerting than possibilities that are too
terrible to contemplate, is the absence of explanation, the admission
that we don't know who's behind the September 11th attacks, and that
the answers Washington offers may be no more than what Washington
produces in abundance: lies, in the service of something else
Washington produces in abundance: violence.

I'm not saying bin Laden isn't involved. Nor am I saying that
Washington is. And neither am I ruling out the possibility that both
bin Laden and Washington are involved, or aren't. What I am saying,
though, is that we've been lied to before, over and over. To accept
Washington at its word again, without asking questions, to believe
what the media and everyone else seems to believe simply because
everyone seems to believe it, would be a mistake. Our willingness to
rally around the flag, to suspend our scepticism, to avoid asking
questions for fear of being unpatriotic, has led us into disaster
before. It will again.

As American historian Howard Zinn says, "The most patriotic act in
times of war is to ask questions." It's time for patriots to ask
questions.

Mr. Steve Gowans is a writer and political activist who lives in
Ottawa, Canada.

KC

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Oct 4, 2001, 5:50:01 PM10/4/01
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04 October 2001
Text: U.K. Documentation of Case Against Bin Laden in Sept. 11 Attacks
(Released Oct. 4 in conjunction with Blair statement to Parliament)
(4690)

When Prime Minister Tony Blair addressed the Parliament of the United
Kingdom October 4 on the subject of the terrorist attacks in the
United States, he said that he would "put in the Library of the House
of Commons a document detailing the basis for our conclusions."

The document, Blair said, "covers the history of Usama Bin Laden, his
relations with the Taleban, what we know of the acts of terror he has
committed; and some of what we know in respect of 11 September. I
enter a major caveat, much of the evidence we have is intelligence and
highly sensitive. It is not possible without compromising people or
security to release precise details and fresh information is daily
coming in."

Following is the text of the document as it appeared on the British
prime minister's Web site, 10 Downing Street
(http://www.number-10.gov.uk):

(begin text)

10 Downing Street
Newsroom
London
4 October 2001

This document does not purport to provide a prosecutable case against
Usama Bin Laden in a court of law. Intelligence often cannot be used
evidentially, due both to the strict rules of admissibility and to the
need to protect the safety of sources. But on the basis of all the
information available HMG is confident of its conclusions as expressed
in this document.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE TERRORIST ATROCITIES IN THE UNITED STATES, 11
SEPTEMBER 2001

INTRODUCTION

1. The clear conclusions reached by the government are:

- Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida, the terrorist network which he heads,
planned and carried out the atrocities on 11 September 2001;

- Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida retain the will and resources to carry
out further atrocities;

- the United Kingdom, and United Kingdom nationals are potential
targets; and

- Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida were able to commit these atrocities
because of their close alliance with the Taleban regime, which allowed
them to operate with impunity in pursuing their terrorist activity.

2. The material in respect of 1998 and the USS Cole comes from
indictments and intelligence sources. The material in respect of 11
September comes from intelligence and the criminal investigation to
date. The details of some aspects cannot be given, but the facts are
clear from the intelligence.

3. The document does not contain the totality of the material known to
HMG, given the continuing and absolute need to protect intelligence
sources.

SUMMARY

4. The relevant facts show:

Background

- Al Qaida is a terrorist organisation with ties to a global network,
which has been in existence for over 10 years. It was founded, and has
been led at all times, by Usama Bin Laden.

- Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida have been engaged in a jihad against
the United States, and its allies. One of their stated aims is the
murder of US citizens, and attacks on America's allies.

- Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida have been based in Afghanistan since
1996, but have a network of operations throughout the world. The
network includes training camps, warehouses, communication facilities
and commercial operations able to raise significant sums of money to
support its activity. That activity includes substantial exploitation
of the illegal drugs trade from Afghanistan.

- Usama Bin Laden's Al Qaida and the Taleban regime have a close and
mutually dependent alliance. Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida provide the
Taleban regime with material, financial and military support. They
jointly exploit the drugs trade. The Taleban regime allows Bin Laden
to operate his terrorist training camps and activities from
Afghanistan, protects him from attacks from outside, and protects the
drugs stockpiles. Usama Bin Laden could not operate his terrorist
activities without the alliance and support of the Taleban regime. The
Taleban's strength would be seriously weakened without Usama Bin
Laden's military and financial support.

- Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida have the capability to execute major
terrorist attacks.

- Usama Bin Laden has claimed credit for the attack on US soldiers in
Somalia in October 1993, which killed 18; for the attack on the US
Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998 which killed 224 and
injured nearly 5000; and were linked to the attack on the USS Cole on
12 October 2000, in which 17 crew members were killed and 40 others
injured.

- They have sought to acquire nuclear and chemical materials for use
as terrorist weapons.

In relation to the terrorist attacks on 11 September

5. After 11 September we learned that, not long before, Bin Laden had
indicated he was about to launch a major attack on America. The
detailed planning for the terrorist attacks of 11 September was
carried out by one of UBL's close associates. Of the 19 hijackers
involved in 11 September 2001, it has already been established that at
least three had links with Al Qaida. The attacks on 11 September 2001
were similar in both their ambition and intended impact to previous
attacks undertaken by Usama Bin laden and Al Qaida, and also had
features in common. In particular:

- Suicide attackers

- Co-ordinated attacks on the same day

- The aim to cause maximum American casualties

- Total disregard for other casualties, including Muslim

- Meticulous long-term planning

- Absence of warning.

6. Al Qaida retains the capability and the will to make further
attacks on the US and its allies, including the United Kingdom.

7. Al Qaida gives no warning of terrorist attack.

THE FACTS

Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida

8. In 1989 Usama Bin Laden, and others, founded an international
terrorist group known as "Al Qaida" (the Base). At all times he has
been the leader of Al Qaida.

9. From 1989 until 1991 Usama Bin Laden was based in Afghanistan and
Peshawar, Pakistan. In 1991 he moved to Sudan, where he stayed until
1996. In that year he returned to Afghanistan, where he remains.

The Taleban Regime

10. The Taleban emerged from the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan in
the early 1990s. By 1996 they had captured Kabul. They are still
engaged in a bloody civil war to control the whole of Afghanistan.
They are led by Mullah Omar.

11. In 1996 Usama Bin Laden moved back to Afghanistan. He established
a close relationship with Mullah Omar, and threw his support behind
the Taleban. Usama Bin Laden and the Taleban regime have a close
alliance on which both depend for their continued existence. They also
share the same religious values and vision.

12. Usama Bin Laden has provided the Taleban regime with troops, arms,
and money to fight the Northern Alliance. He is closely involved with
Taleban military training, planning and operations. He has
representatives in the Taleban military command structure. He has also
given infrastructure assistance and humanitarian aid. Forces under the
control of Usama Bin Laden have fought alongside the Taleban in the
civil war in Afghanistan.

13. Omar has provided Bin Laden with a safe haven in which to operate,
and has allowed him to establish terrorist training camps in
Afghanistan. They jointly exploit the Afghan drugs trade. In return
for active Al Qaida support, the Taleban allow Al Qaida to operate
freely, including planning, training and preparing for terrorist
activity. In addition the Taleban provide security for the stockpiles
of drugs.

14. Since 1996, when the Taleban captured Kabul, the United States
government has consistently raised with them a whole range of issues,
including humanitarian aid and terrorism. Well before 11 September
2001 they had provided evidence to the Taleban of the responsibility
of Al Qaida for the terrorist attacks in East Africa. This evidence
had been provided to senior leaders of the Taleban at their request.

15. The United States government had made it clear to the Taleban
regime that Al Qaida had murdered US citizens, and planned to murder
more. The US offered to work with the Taleban to expel the terrorists
from Afghanistan. These talks, which have been continuing since 1996,
have failed to produce any results.

16. In June 2001, in the face of mounting evidence of the Al Qaida
threat, the United States warned the Taleban that it had the right to
defend itself and that it would hold the regime responsible for
attacks against US citizens by terrorists sheltered in Afghanistan.

17. In this, the United States had the support of the United Nations.
The Security Council, in Resolution 1267, condemned Usama Bin Laden
for sponsoring international terrorism and operating a network of
terrorist camps, and demanded that the Taleban surrender Usama Bin
Laden without further delay so that he could be brought to justice.

18. Despite the evidence provided by the US of the responsibility of
Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida for the 1998 East Africa bombings,
despite the accurately perceived threats of further atrocities, and
despite the demands of the United Nations, the Taleban regime
responded by saying no evidence existed against Usama Bin Laden, and
that neither he nor his network would be expelled.

19. A former Government official in Afghanistan has described the
Taleban and Usama Bin Laden as "two sides of the same coin: Usama
cannot exist in Afghanistan without the Taleban and the Taleban cannot
exist without Usama."

Al Qaida

20. Al Qaida is dedicated to opposing 'un-Islamic' governments in
Muslim countries with force and violence.

21. Al Qaida virulently opposes the United States. Usama Bin Laden has
urged and incited his followers to kill American citizens, in the most
unequivocal terms.

22. On 12 October 1996 he issued a declaration of jihad as follows:

"The people of Islam have suffered from aggression, iniquity and
injustice imposed by the Zionist-Crusader alliance and their
collaborators . . .

It is the duty now on every tribe in the Arabian peninsula to fight
jihad and cleanse the land from these Crusader occupiers. Their wealth
is booty to those who kill them.

My Muslim brothers: your brothers in Palestine and in the land of the
two Holy Places [i.e. Saudi Arabia] are calling upon your help and
asking you to take part in fighting against the enemy - the Americans
and the Israelis. They are asking you to do whatever you can to expel
the enemies out of the sanctities of Islam."

Later in the same year he said that

"terrorising the American occupiers [of Islamic Holy Places] is a
religious and logical obligation."

In February 1998 he issued and signed a 'fatwa' which included a
decree to all Muslims:

". . . the killing of Americans and their civilian and military allies
is a religious duty for each and every Muslim to be carried out in
whichever country they are until Al Aqsa mosque has been liberated
from their grasp and until their armies have left Muslim lands."

In the same 'fatwa' he called on Muslim scholars and their leaders and
their youths to

"launch an attack on the American soldiers of Satan."

and concluded:

"We - with God's help - call on every Muslim who believes in God and
wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill Americans and
plunder their money whenever and wherever they find it. We also call
on Muslims . . . to launch the raid on Satan's US troops and the
devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are
behind them."

When asked, in 1998, about obtaining chemical or nuclear weapons he
said

"acquiring such weapons for the defence of Muslims [was] a religious
duty."

In an interview aired on Al Jazira (Doha, Qatar) television he stated:

"Our enemy is every American male, whether he is directly fighting us
or paying taxes."

In two interviews broadcast on US television in 1997 and 1998 he
referred to the terrorists who carried out the earlier attack on the
World Trade Center in 1993 as "role models". He went on to exhort his
followers "to take the fighting to America."

23. From the early 1990s Usama Bin Laden has sought to obtain nuclear
and chemical materials for use as weapons of terror.

24. Although US targets are Al Qaida's priority, it also explicitly
threatens the United States' allies. References to "Zionist-Crusader
alliance and their collaborators," and to "Satan's US troops and the
devil's supporters allying with them" are references which
unquestionably include the United Kingdom.

25. There is a continuing threat. Based on our experience of the way
the network has operated in the past, other cells, like those that
carried out the terrorist attacks on 11 September, must be assumed to
exist.

26. Al Qaida functions both on its own and through a network of other
terrorist organisations. These include Egyptian Islamic Jihad and
other north African Islamic extremist terrorist groups, and a number
of other jihadi groups in other countries including the Sudan, Yemen,
Somalia, Pakistan and India. Al Qaida also maintains cells and
personnel in a number of other countries to facilitate its activities.

27. Usama Bin Laden heads the Al Qaida network. Below him is a body
known as the Shura, which includes representatives of other terrorist
groups, such as Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader Ayman Zawahiri and
prominent lieutenants of Bin Laden such as Abu Hafs Al-Masri. Egyptian
Islamic Jihad has, in effect, merged with Al Qaida.

28. In addition to the Shura, Al Qaida has several groups dealing with
military, media, financial and Islamic issues.

29. Mohamed Atef is a member of the group that deals with military and
terrorist operations. His duties include principal responsibility for
training Al Qaida members.

30. Members of Al Qaida must make a pledge of allegiance to follow the
orders of Usama Bin Laden.

31. A great deal of evidence about Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida has
been made available in the US indictment for earlier crimes.

32. Since 1989, Usama Bin Laden has conducted substantial financial
and business transactions on behalf of Al Qaida and in pursuit of its
goals. These include purchasing land for training camps, purchasing
warehouses for the storage of items, including explosives, purchasing
communications and electronics equipment, and transporting currency
and weapons to members of Al Qaida and associated terrorist groups in
countries throughout the world.

33. Since 1989 Usama Bin Laden has provided training camps and guest
houses in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Sudan, Somalia and Kenya for the
use of Al Qaida and associated terrorist groups. We know from
intelligence that there are currently at least a dozen camps across
Afghanistan, of which at least four are used for training terrorists.

34. Since 1989, Usama Bin Laden has established a series of businesses
to provide income for Al Qaida, and to provide cover for the
procurement of explosives, weapons and chemicals, and for the travel
of Al Qaida operatives. The businesses have included a holding company
known as 'Wadi Al Aqiq', a construction business known as 'Al Hijra',
an agricultural business known as 'Al Themar Al Mubaraka', and
investment companies known as 'Ladin International' and 'Taba
Investments'.

Usama Bin Laden and previous attacks

35. In 1992 and 1993 Mohamed Atef travelled to Somalia on several
occasions for the purpose of organising violence against United States
and United Nations troops then stationed in Somalia. On each occasion
he reported back to Usama Bin Laden, at his base in the Riyadh
district of Khartoum.

36. In the spring of 1993 Atef, Saif al Adel, another senior member of
Al Qaida, and other members began to provide military training to
Somali tribes for the purpose of fighting the United Nations forces.

37. On 3 and 4 October 1993 operatives of Al Qaida participatedin the
attack on US military personnel serving in Somalia as part of the
operation 'Restore Hope.' Eighteen US military personnel were killed
in the attack.

38. From 1993 members of Al Qaida began to live in Nairobi and set up
businesses there, including Asma Ltd, and Tanzanite King. They were
regularly visited there by senior members of Al Qaida, in particular
by Atef and Abu Ubadiah al Banshiri.

39. Beginning in the latter part of 1993, members of Al Qaida in Kenya
began to discuss the possibility of attacking the US Embassy in
Nairobi in retaliation for US participation in Operation Restore Hope
in Somalia. Ali Mohamed, a US citizen and admitted member of Al Qaida,
surveyed the US Embassy as a possible target for a terrorist attack.
He took photographs and made sketches, which he presented to Usama Bin
Laden while Bin Laden was in Sudan. He also admitted that he had
trained terrorists for Al Qaida in Afghanistan in the early 1990s, and
that those whom he trained included many involved in the East African
bombings in August 1998.

40. In June or July 1998, two Al Qaida operatives, Fahid Mohammed Ali
Msalam and Sheik Ahmed Salim Swedan, purchased a Toyota truck and made
various alterations to the back of the truck.

41. In early August 1998, operatives of Al Qaida gathered in 43, New
Runda Estates, Nairobi to execute the bombing of the US Embassy in
Nairobi.

42. On 7 August 1998, Assam, a Saudi national and Al Qaida operative,
drove the Toyota truck to the US embassy. There was a large bomb in
the back of the truck.

43. Also in the truck was Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al 'Owali, another
Saudi. He, by his own confession, was an Al Qaida operative, who from
about 1996 had been trained in Al Qaida camps in Afghanistan in
explosives, hijacking, kidnapping, assassination and intelligence
techniques. With Usama Bin Laden's express permission, he fought
alongside the Taleban in Afghanistan. He had met Usama Bin Laden
personally in 1996 and asked for another 'mission.' Usama Bin Laden
sent him to East Africa after extensive specialised training at camps
in Afghanistan.

44. As the truck approached the Embassy, Al 'Owali got out and threw a
stun grenade at a security guard. Assam drove the truck up to the rear
of the embassy. He got out and then detonated the bomb, which
demolished a multi-storey secretarial college and severely damaged the
US embassy, and the Co-operative bank building. The bomb killed 213
people and injured 4500. Assam was killed in the explosion.

45. Al 'Owali expected the mission to end in his death. He had been
willing to die for Al Qaida. But at the last minute he ran away from
the bomb truck and survived. He had no money, passport or plan to
escape after the mission, because he had expected to die.

46. After a few days, he called a telephone number in Yemen to have
money transferred to him in Kenya. The number he rang in Yemen was
contacted by Usama Bin Laden's phone on the same day as Al 'Owali was
arranging to get the money.

47. Another person arrested in connection with the Nairobi bombing was
Mohamed Sadeek Odeh. He admitted to his involvement. He identified the
principal participants in the bombing. He named three other persons,
all of whom were Al Qaida or Egyptian Islamic Jihad members.

48. In Dar es Salaam the same day, at about the same time, operatives
of Al Qaida detonated a bomb at the US embassy, killing 11 people. The
Al Qaida operatives involved included Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil and
Khaflan Khamis Mohamed. The bomb was carried in a Nissan Atlas truck,
which Ahmed Khfaklan Ghailani and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, two Al
Qaida operatives, had purchased in July 1998, in Dar es Salaam.

49. Khaflan Khamis Mohamed was arrested for the bombing. He admitted
membership of Al Qaida, and implicated other members of Al Qaida in
the bombing.

50. On 7 and 8 August 1998, two other members of Al Qaida disseminated
claims of responsibility for the two bombings by sending faxes to
media organisations in Paris, Doha in Qatar, and Dubai in the United
Arab Emirates.

51. Additional evidence of the involvement of Al Qaida in the East
African bombings came from a search conducted in London of several
residences and businesses belonging to Al Qaida and Egyptian Islamic
Jihad members. In those searches a number of documents were found
including claims of responsibility for the East African bombings in
the name of a fictitious group, 'the Islamic Army for the liberation
of the Holy Places.'

52. Al 'Owali, the would-be suicide bomber, admitted he was told to
make a videotape of himself using the name of the same fictitious
group.

53. The faxed claims of responsibility were traced to a telephone
number, which had been in contact with Usama Bin Laden's cell phone.
The claims disseminated to the press were clearly written by someone
familiar with the conspiracy. They stated that the bombings had been
carried out by two Saudis in Kenya, and one Egyptian in Dar es Salaam.
They were probably sent before the bombings had even taken place. They
referred to two Saudis dying in the Nairobi attack. In fact, because
Al 'Owali fled at the last minute, only one Saudi died.

54. On 22 December 1998 Usama Bin Laden was asked by Time magazine
whether he was responsible for the August 1998 attacks. He replied:

"The International Islamic Jihad Front for the jihad against the US
and Israel has, by the grace of God, issued a crystal clear fatwa
calling on the Islamic nation to carry on Jihad aimed at liberating
the holy sites. The nation of Mohammed has responded to this appeal.
If instigation for jihad against the Jews and the Americans . . . is
considered to be a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a
criminal. Our job is to instigate and, by the grace of God, we did
that, and certain people responded to this instigation."

He was asked if he knew the attackers:

". . . those who risked their lives to earn the pleasure of God are
real men. They managed to rid the Islamic nation of disgrace. We hold
them in the highest esteem."

And what the US could expect of him:

". . . any thief or criminal who enters another country to steal
should expect to be exposed to murder at any time . . . The US knows
that I have attacked it, by the grace of God, for more than ten years
now . . . God knows that we have been pleased by the killing of
American soldiers [in Somalia in 1993]. This was achieved by the grace
of God and the efforts of the mujahideen . . . Hostility towards
America is a religious duty and we hope to be rewarded for it by God.
I am confident that Muslims will be able to end the legend of the
so-called superpower that is America."

55. In December 1999 a terrorist cell linked to Al Qaida was
discovered trying to carry out attacks inside the United States. An
Algerian, Ahmed Ressam, was stopped at the US-Canadian border and over
100 lbs of bomb making material was found in his car. Ressam admitted
he was planning to set off a large bomb at Los Angeles International
airport on New Year's Day. He said that he had received terrorist
training at Al Qaida camps in Afghanistan and then been instructed to
go abroad and kill US civilians and military personnel.

56. On 3 January 2000, a group of Al Qaida members, and other
terrorists who had trained in Al Qaida camps in Afghanistan, attempted
to attack a US destroyer with a small boat loaded with explosives.
Their boat sank, aborting the attack.

57. On 12 October 2000, however, the USS Cole was struck by an
explosive-laden boat while refuelling in Aden harbour. Seventeen crew
were killed, and 40 injured.

58. Several of the perpetrators of the Cole attack (mostly Yemenis and
Saudis) were trained at Usama Bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan. Al
'Owali has identified the two commanders of the attack on the USS Cole
as having participated in the planning and preparation for the East
African embassy bombings.

59. In the months before the September 11 attacks, propaganda videos
were distributed throughout the Middle East and Muslim world by Al
Qaida, in which Usama Bin Laden and others were shown encouraging
Muslims to attack American and Jewish targets.

60. Similar videos, extolling violence against the United States and
other targets, were distributed before the East African embassy
attacks in August 1998.

Usama Bin Laden and the 11 September attacks

61. Nineteen men have been identified as the hijackers from the
passenger lists of the four planes hijacked on 11 September 2001. At
least three of them have already been positively identified as
associates of Al Qaida. One has been identified as playing key roles
in both the East African embassy attacks and the USS Cole attack.
Investigations continue into the backgrounds of all the hijackers.

62. From intelligence sources, the following facts have been
established subsequent to 11 September; for intelligence reasons, the
names of associates, though known, are not given.

- In the run-up to 11 September, Bin Laden was mounting a concerted
propaganda campaign amongst like-minded groups of people - including
videos and documentation - justifying attacks on Jewish and American
targets; and claiming that those who died in the course of them were
carrying out God's work.

- We have learned, subsequent to 11 September, that Bin Laden himself
asserted shortly before 11 September that he was preparing a major
attack on America.

- In August and early September close associates of Bin Laden were
warned to return to Afghanistan from other parts of the world by 10
September.

- Immediately prior to 11 September some known associates of Bin Laden
were naming the date for action as on or around 11 September.

- Since 11 September we have learned that one of Bin Laden's closest
and most senior associates was responsible for the detailed planning
of the attacks.

- There is evidence of a very specific nature relating to the guilt of
Bin Laden and his associates that is too sensitive to release.

63. Usama Bin Laden remains in charge, and the mastermind, of Al
Qaida. In Al Qaida, an operation on the scale of the 11 September
attacks would have been approved by Usama Bin Laden himself.

64. The modus operandi of 11 September was entirely consistent with
previous attacks. Al Qaida's record of atrocities is characterised by
meticulous long term planning, a desire to inflict mass casualties,
suicide bombers, and multiple simultaneous attacks.

65. The attacks of 11 September 2001 are entirely consistent with the
scale and sophistication of the planning which went into the attacks
on the East African Embassies and the USS Cole. No warnings were given
for these three attacks, just as there was none on 11 September.

66. Al Qaida operatives, in evidence given in the East African Embassy
bomb trials, have described how the group spends years preparing for
an attack. They conduct repeated surveillance, patiently gather
materials, and identify and vet operatives, who have the skills to
participate in the attack and the willingness to die for their cause.

67. The operatives involved in the 11 September atrocities attended
flight schools, used flight simulators to study the controls of larger
aircraft and placed potential airports and routes under surveillance.

68. Al Qaida's attacks are characterised by total disregard for
innocent lives, including Muslims. In an interview after the East
African bombings, Usama Bin Laden insisted that the need to attack the
United States excused the killing of other innocent civilians, Muslim
and non-Muslim alike.

69. No other organisation has both the motivation and the capability
to carry out attacks like those of the 11 September - only the Al
Qaida network under Usama Bin Laden.

Conclusion

70. The attacks of the 11 September 2001 were planned and carried out
by Al Qaida, an organisation whose head is Usama Bin Laden. That
organisation has the will, and the resources, to execute further
attacks of similar scale. Both the United States and its close allies
are targets for such attacks. The attack could not have occurred
without the alliance between the Taleban and Usama Bin Laden, which
allowed Bin Laden to o
perate freely in Afghanistan, promoting, planning and executing
terrorist activity.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)


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CAB

unread,
Oct 4, 2001, 6:16:30 PM10/4/01
to
All the major news are carring the story, stop posting your bullshit!!

cab

--
~~~~"'Let's Roll'". Last words of passenger Todd Beamer as heard by GTE
operator Lisa D. Jefferson. Moments later United Airlines Flight 93,
crashes in Somerset County, Pennsylvania killing all 44 on board.~~~~

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit
it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can
excercise their constitutional right of amending it, or excercise their
revolutionary right to overthrow it."
-Abraham Lincoln

CAB

unread,
Oct 4, 2001, 6:37:53 PM10/4/01
to
not you KC, meant to post directly to asshole :)

cab

The *MIGHTY* (yet modest) Two Tub Man

unread,
Oct 4, 2001, 6:39:13 PM10/4/01
to
On Thu, 04 Oct 2001 21:50:01 GMT, "KC" <kette...@home.com> wrote:

>
>04 October 2001
>Text: U.K. Documentation of Case Against Bin Laden in Sept. 11 Attacks
>(Released Oct. 4 in conjunction with Blair statement to Parliament)
>(4690)

<big snip>

I already posted that, bubby.

Tub

KC

unread,
Oct 4, 2001, 7:35:56 PM10/4/01
to
I catch on quickly Dude
As W.C. Fields once said
See Yha, Would want ta be Yha

KC
KCtheKat
I Killed your sick ass plan
; )
And just in time for Dinner


"The *MIGHTY* (yet modest) Two Tub Man" <arch...@catholic.org> wrote in
message news:acpprt4f63tbe4a80...@4ax.com...

Alex W.

unread,
Oct 4, 2001, 8:48:34 PM10/4/01
to

"CAB" <hotpot...@nospamkscable.com> wrote in message
news:3BBCE4C9...@nospamkscable.com...

> not you KC, meant to post directly to asshole :)
>

And did you mean to re-post his crap....twice?


KC

unread,
Oct 4, 2001, 9:03:28 PM10/4/01
to
See how junk mail kills capacity

Thanks Alex,
KC

"Alex W." <ing...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:9pj00v$j1e31$1...@ID-50767.news.dfncis.de...

Ken

unread,
Oct 4, 2001, 9:28:04 PM10/4/01
to

"The *MIGHTY* (yet modest) Two Tub Man" <arch...@catholic.org> wrote in
message news:acpprt4f63tbe4a80...@4ax.com...


Soon the bill for the World Trade Center and Pentagon will come due. I think
the major source of funding for the attack (IRAQ) may get to see the bill
collector.

PREDICTION:

By November 1, NO TALIBAN

By December 31, NO SADDAM HUSSEIN!

(Only a deep crater where he last stood.)

Ken

unread,
Oct 4, 2001, 9:25:23 PM10/4/01
to

"The *MIGHTY* (yet modest) Two Tub Man" <arch...@catholic.org> wrote in
message news:irlprtkodf23h3458...@4ax.com...

> http://216.71.207.129/mmn/gowans28.html
>
> Osama bin Laden's our man, right?
>
> by Stephen Gowans
> Now that everyone's sure that Osama bin Laden's our man, it might be
> time to take a step back and ask, How do we know?
'
Gee, let me guess..... BECAUSE HE SAID SO HIMSELF????
Are you literate enough to know what a "FATWAH" is?


KC

unread,
Oct 4, 2001, 9:50:52 PM10/4/01
to
Are you Talking about the proposed Sea of Afghanistan?
KC ; )

"Ken" <k...@atlantic.net> wrote in message
news:HX7v7.372$e%3.12...@news1.atlantic.net...

CAB

unread,
Oct 4, 2001, 11:53:51 PM10/4/01
to
I'm a sorry sir, I dit mean to do that. Please...PLease don't lock me in the basement with
the naked chickens. I be good I promise.

cab

--

Rich.

unread,
Oct 5, 2001, 1:21:22 AM10/5/01
to

"CAB" <hotpot...@nospamkscable.com> wrote in message
news:3BBD2EC1...@nospamkscable.com...

> I'm a sorry sir, I dit mean to do that. Please...PLease don't lock me in
the basement with
> the naked chickens. I be good I promise.
>
> cab
>

Naked chickens? I'll bet you dream some weird shit when you're sleeping,
don't you? :-)

--
Rich

The answers are always there,
you just have to look for them.


KC

unread,
Oct 5, 2001, 1:34:10 AM10/5/01
to
You do know I wasn't referring to you right.
Hay, did you get a good laugh away?
You know the laugh of the day

KC

"CAB" <hotpot...@nospamkscable.com> wrote in message

news:3BBD2EC1...@nospamkscable.com...

CAB

unread,
Oct 5, 2001, 2:06:37 AM10/5/01
to
No I was bad, I didn't clip the crap man, gotta clip the crap!!

cab

KC

unread,
Oct 5, 2001, 2:33:23 AM10/5/01
to
It's all right cab,
You didn't know, but he did, and that's why he was doing it.
Did you see that one at 142KB
What a punk


"CAB" <hotpot...@nospamkscable.com> wrote in message

news:3BBD4DF5...@nospamkscable.com...

The *MIGHTY* (yet modest) Two Tub Man

unread,
Oct 5, 2001, 2:47:18 AM10/5/01
to

Uh, did you bother to *read* the article that you commented on?

Or is that no longer necessary now that "the world has changed"?

Tub

Alex W.

unread,
Oct 5, 2001, 8:13:35 AM10/5/01
to

"Ken" <k...@atlantic.net> wrote in message
news:9V7v7.371$e%3.12...@news1.atlantic.net...

Fat-Arsed Terrorist With A Hard-on.
Finally A Target Worth Allah's Hatred.
Fuck All Terrorists With A Haddock.
Fanatic Arabs Terrorise Wantonly America's Heart.
Find And Terminate With All Haste

John Suzuki

unread,
Oct 7, 2001, 10:23:16 PM10/7/01
to
If he is innocent then let him clear his name in the world court. He should
be a man of God and trust God to prove him innocent instead of risking the lives
and health of many innocents when he calls followers of Islam to war, this to
protect his butt. Why is he hiding behind the skirts of Islam? Because he is
probably involved and might even be guilty of the crime.

Said another way.

ObL says that he is not responsible and what you say makes sense however, he is
the primary suspect and until he can clear his name from the list of those
involved, he is the man. If ObL is innocent of any involvement then, who is
involved ? Would a trial bring out these truths ? Probably. It would be
another step in the direction of substantial fact finding.

On Thu, 04 Oct 2001 21:40:58 GMT, "The *MIGHTY* (yet modest) Two Tub Man"
<arch...@catholic.org> wrote:

>http://216.71.207.129/mmn/gowans28.html
>
>Osama bin Laden's our man, right?
>
>by Stephen Gowans
>Now that everyone's sure that Osama bin Laden's our man, it might be
>time to take a step back and ask, How do we know?
>

The more I know, the more I know - - - I don't know.

{:>)=

http://www.spiced.com

gle...@edge.net

unread,
Oct 8, 2001, 1:33:09 PM10/8/01
to
On Sun, 07 Oct 2001 16:23:16 -1000, John Suzuki <sa...@spiced.com>
wrote:

> If he is innocent then let him clear his name in the world court. He should
>be a man of God and trust God to prove him innocent instead of risking the lives
>and health of many innocents when he calls followers of Islam to war, this to
>protect his butt. Why is he hiding behind the skirts of Islam? Because he is
>probably involved and might even be guilty of the crime.
>
>Said another way.
>
>ObL says that he is not responsible and what you say makes sense however, he is
>the primary suspect and until he can clear his name from the list of those
>involved, he is the man. If ObL is innocent of any involvement then, who is
>involved ? Would a trial bring out these truths ? Probably. It would be
>another step in the direction of substantial fact finding.
>

I have an alternative... Bring the SOB to the court, give him a fair
trial and then hang him without delay. Much more effective.

Lee

The *MIGHTY* (yet modest) Two Tub Man

unread,
Oct 9, 2001, 9:34:32 AM10/9/01
to

That would embarrass the Americans when too many facts came out in an
open court that was beyond their direct control. It'd never happen.

And the civilized world does not believe in capital punishment.

Tub

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