by Home home
in Jalalabad, Afghanistan in late November 2001, a second
video, dated November 9th, was also released as evidence of
Osama bin Laden's confession. In it, OBL is heard to discuss
the planning of the attacks with his close associate Sheikh
Khaled al-Harbi. The video was reportedly made during a CIA
sting operation carried out in late September 2001, about
two weeks after 9/11. However, the CIA have been vague
about its origins and no government official has ever verified
how the video was filmed.
The conspiracy theorists ask, if the CIA could operate a sting
operation on OBL two weeks after 9/11 why didn't they
arrest him? Also, seeing as OBL was left-handed, why was
he right-handed in the video? Why was his skin a different
colour and his beard very much shorter than it was seen to
be in a confirmed video shot by professional journalist just 6
weeks later? Why was he about 30 pounds heavier, with full
177
A Dangerous Ideology
mobility, a shorter, fatter nose and different shaped ears?
Finally, if this video was shot a few weeks before the verified
footage, why did he look about 10 years younger?
OBL allegedly suffered from kidney disease.[180] But even a
rapid deterioration in his health, wouldn't appear to account
for all the differences between the videos. If the claimed
dates were accurate.
The official explanation for the anomalies states they use the
PAL video format in Afghanistan, which distorts and
compresses the image in comparison to the NTSC format
favoured in the U.S. Though PAL is used in Europe. This
allegedly accounts for the much shorter beard and different
shaped facial features. Skin colour variations were simply a
result of different video quality and lighting conditions.
Ultimately OBL wasn't held responsible for planning the
attacks anyway. He was seen by the 9/11 Commission more
as an inspiration for, and the director of, the operation. The
mastermind who planned the attacks was named as Khalid
Sheikh Mohammad
Following his 2003 arrest in the Pakistan city of Rawalpindi
by the CIA and Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI),
Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM) was identified as the
ultimate architect of the 9/11 atrocity by the 9/11
Commission. KSM was taken to a number of secret military
bases, called 'Black Sites,' in Afghanistan, Thailand then
Poland, before ending his extraordinary rendition in the
Guantánamo Bay detention centre.
After months of torture, he admitted to being the tactical
mind behind a string of terrorist attacks, including 9/11. In
fact, he admitted to pretty much anything and everything.
[104]
He later withdrew his statements saying he simply told his
CIA interrogators what he thought they wanted to hear to
stop them torturing him. Some elements of his confessions
were proven to be false. For example, he confessed to
robbing the Plaza bank in Washington in 2003. However, the
bank didn't exist until 2006.[105]
178
A Dangerous Ideology
KSM's disclosures, extracted through torture, were key to
many of the 9/11 Commissions findings. For example, the
commission credited the following statement to the
'interrogation of KSM:'
“Bin Ladin . . . finally decided to give the
green light for the 9/11 operation sometime
in late 1998 or early 1999. . . . Bin Ladin
also soon selected four individuals to serve
as suicide operatives. . . . Atta – whom Bin
Ladin chose to lead the group – met with Bin
Ladin several times to receive additional
instructions, including a preliminary list of
approved targets: the World Trade Center,
the Pentagon, and the U.S. Capitol”
Conspiracy theorists point out evidence extracted through
torture is generally useless and inadmissible under
international law, including Article 5 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Though they acknowledge that
recent exceptions have been made, in order to admit 'war on
terror' evidence.[140] They highlight, for reasons we shall
discuss shortly, the Commission's opinion that OBL met
with Atta and 'chose' him to 'lead' the hijackers.
Regardless, on the day itself, the finger was firmly pointed at
OBL. According to the MSM, politicians and the rest of us
who accept the official story, the near instant identification
of bin Laden as the main culprit was an obvious conclusion.
Prior to 9/11, governments and the intelligence agencies had
long warned of the danger he and his network presented. All
the major news networks had run stories and features on
Osama bin Laden and his support for terrorist operations.
He was wanted in connection with several attacks. Therefore
media speculation and intelligence suspicions would
immediately lean towards OBL. The fact that many
accurately identified the culprit, straight away, suggests
nothing other than a well-informed media. Intelligence
agencies surely possessed enough information to be
'confident' about the Saudi's guilt and, as it transpires, they
were right. The evidence proves it. Presumably the FBI
weren't aware of this evidence when they didn't list 9/11 as
179
A Dangerous Ideology
one of OBL's suspected crimes.
That Osama bin Laden was central to the 9/11 horror is not
disputed by anyone, except conspiracy theorists. Every
Western intelligence agency stated OBL was guilty. Every
MSM media outlet, journalist and commentator agreed.
Leading academics and 'think tanks' said he did it and the
vast majority of politicians, across the globe, had no doubt.
Osama bin Laden was a follower of Wahhabism. It is a pious
form of Islam, built upon Salafi traditions, which advocates a
return to ancient Islamic practices and laws. The Wahhabi
faith is most widely practised in Saudi Arabia and is taught
in Saudi financed religious centres, called Madrassas, across
the world. It stems loosely from Sunni Muslim beliefs, but
differs from Sunni theology and is fiercely opposed to Shi'ah
interpretation of Islam.
Most Muslims, including the vast majority of Sunnis,
consider it extremist and, in return, many Wahhabists
consider any Muslim, who doesn't practice the rigorous
austerity and barbaric 'justice' they advocate, to be 'Kafirs'
(unbelievers.) This may go some way to explaining why the
vast majority of people killed by Islamist extremists are
Muslims. Everyone else is a Kafir as far as they are
concerned.[107] This fervent extremism's potential to inspire
acts of despicable violence has long been recognised as a
useful tool by the those who seek power.
In the 18th century the emir of Najd, Muhammad ibn Saud,
head of the al Saud tribal family, formed an alliance with
Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, the founder of Wahhabism,
and his ferocio
us fighters. The Wahhabi part of the deal was
to fight and pay their taxes to bolster the al Saud coffers. In
return they received land and title, pay and a commitment to
fund the expansion of their faith.
In the 19th century, this partnership resulted in the
Wahhabi 'Muslim brothers' of the Ikhwan capturing Riyadh
to return the house of Saud to power. By 1925, with the
fierce Wahhabi troops under his command, Abd Al-Aziz ibn
Saud had seized both Mecca and Medina and was well on his
way to establishing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.[108]
180
A Dangerous Ideology
However, his mercenary warriors wanted to create a
Wahhabi caliphate across the entire Middle East. Realising
this would pit him against other regional potentates, and
jeopardise his personal ambitions, Abd al-Aziz slaughtered
the fighters who brought him to power.
In 1931 OBL's father Mohammad bin Laden emigrated to the
fledgling Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from Yemen. An astute
business man, he built strong relationships with the future
Kings Abdul al Aziz and King Faisal.
In 1933 the young Kingdom granted the Rockefeller owned
'U.S. Standard Oil' exclusive oil exploration rights. Just over
a decade later, in 1945, the dying U.S. President, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, met with King Abdul al Aziz and they made a deal
that would underpin U.S. Saudi relations for the rest of the
century. The Saudis agreed to sell their oil to the U.S. and,
reciprocally, the U.S. pledged its military might to protect the
rule of al Saud.
King Abdul al Aziz stipulated another condition of the deal.
In return for oil the U.S. would also protect the Saudi faith,
Wahhabism.[109]
Osama bin Laden was born into wealth, in Riyadh, in 1957.
One of 54 children, his family's construction empire and
their shrewd political acumen placed them amongst the
world’s wealthiest. They had reached the upper echelons of
the world power elite and their Saudi Binladin Group had
investments across the globe.
In 1976, Salem bin Laden (Osama's half-brother) co-founded
Arbusto Energy with George W Bush and his close associate
James R. Bath.[110] The bin Laden's also had extensive
business ties with the multinational, private equity firm, the
Carlyle Group. George H.W. Bush was the company's senior
advisor and a major shareholder.[111] On the morning of
9/11, another bin Laden brother, Shafig, was a guest at a
Washington meeting of the Carlyle Group. George H.W. Bush
was also in attendance.
The Binladin Group supposedly disowned their wayward
son, Osama, in a statement in 1994.[112] However,
conspiracy theorists draw attention to Yeslam bin Laden's
181
A Dangerous Ideology
admission, in 2004, that the family shared a joint Swiss
bank account with Osama until at least 1997.[113]
Furthermore, the French intelligence agencies issued a
report, two days after 9/11, stating their opinion that the
family continued to fund OBL's terrorist activities.[114] This
was something both Vincent Cannistraro, the former head of
the CIA Counter Terrorism centre, and Michael Scheuer, the
former head of the CIA 'Alec Unit,' also acknowledged.
Odd then, say the conspiracists, that in the first few days
after 9/11 two dozen members of the bin Laden family were
transported to assembly points in Texas and Washington
before being quietly flown out of the country.[115] Even
stranger that Abdullah and Omar bin Laden (who were
suspected of funding terrorism) were 'allowed' to make their
own way home by the FBI, only days after 9/11, without
even being interviewed.[116]
The brothers had been under investigation since 1996 for
their connections to a suspected terrorist recruitment
organisation called the 'World Assembly of Muslim Youth.'
The FBI later released documents which showed they were
pressured by the Bush administration to cease the
investigation. It was reopened a week after 9/11, once the
brothers were safely returned to Saudi Arabia. They flew
home while all U.S. commercial flights remained grounded.
[117]
Furthermore, the conspiracists add, there is little doubt the
U.S. were aware the family had profited from Osama's
terrorism. Osama had taken credit for inspiring the 1996
bombing of a U.S. Air Force base in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Nineteen U.S. service personnel died in the attack on the
Khobar Towers. The Clinton administration awarded the
contract to rebuild the base to the Saudi Binladin Group.
[118]
The mainstream response is that this is all circumstantial
and meaningless. Just because the bin Laden's were well-
connected, that doesn't mean the black sheep Osama had
any association with the Western powers.
During the 1980s the CIA ran 'Operation Cyclone' to arm,
train and equip Afghan Mujahideen fighters in their war
182
A Dangerous Ideology
against the occupying forces of the USSR. The CIA
superficially made efforts to distance themselves from the
jihadis and liaised with Pakistan's ISI to funnel funds to the
extremists.[120] A significant proportion of the estimated
$5Bn investment was administered by Maktab al Khidamat
(MAK.) The CIA had grown tired of the tribal infighting that
plagued the Afghan fighters and looked towards foreign
extremists as a better option. MAK was run by Osama bin
Laden, among others.
Its purpose was to coordinate the movement of money, arms
and fighters from the outside world into the Afghan conflict.
[121] OBL supplemented MAK funds through his close
association with the Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
and his international drugs empire.
Following the 1985 publication of National Security Decision
Directive 166 (NSDD 166,)[129] which 'stepped up covert
military aid to the Mujahideen,' the U.S. Assistant
Undersecretary of Defense, Michael Pillsbury, flew to the
Afghan border to meet with Hekmatyar and reviewed his
military training operations.
Pillsbury was the chair of an inter-agency White House
policy group tasked with advising Operation Cyclone. At his
meeting with Hekmatyar, Pillsbury asked if direct funding of
OBL's Arab fighters would be helpful. However, the Afghan
drug lord wanted the money to continue flowing into his own
operations and warned against it. [122]
Unconvinced, CIA director William Casey made an agreement
with the Pakistani ISI to increase funding to the Arab
fighters. Following this agreement, in 1986, Osama bin
Laden established his first training camp which he named
Maasada (the Lion's Den.) The camp was precariously close
to a Soviet military base and was opposed by other Islamists
who felt its scale and expense were unnecessary. Nor did
they want to divide their forces by nationality. A split
emerged which later sh
aped events in Iraq and elsewhere.
MAK ran up to 30 fundraising and recruitment offices in the
U.S. Though the first office opened in Tucson (Arizona) it was
the New York office, the 'Al Kifah Refugee Center,' which
became its most significant. It was the place where the so
183
A Dangerous Ideology
called 'Arab-Afghan foreign legion' (the future al Qaeda), was
initially conceived.[137]
Based in Brooklyn, the office served as a hub for Arab
immigrant and American born Islamist recruits to be sent to
Afghanistan. It was also a rallying point for Afghan fighters
flying into the States. Their passage facilitated with CIA
supplied passports.[123]
In 1989 Michael Springmann (head US consular official in
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) was fired after repeatedly complaining
about being overruled by his superiors every time he refused
to issue Islamist extremists with visas to enter the U.S. On
one occasion, Springmann reported that he declined the
applications of two individuals who said they were visiting a
trade show in the U.S. The men didn't know what it was
called or where it was. Having rejected them Springmann
said he received “an almost immediate call from a CIA case
officer, hidden in the commercial section [of the consulate],
that I should reverse myself and grant these guys a
visa.” [153]
The original founder of MAK was Sheikh Abdullah Azzam,
OBL's mentor. Azzam made numerous visits to the U.S.
during the 1980s and, while building financial support for
MAK's U.S. based operations, ran into conflict with his pupil
Osama. Azzam was against the expansionist ambitions of
OBL and his Egyptian comrade (and one time physician) Dr
Ayman al Zawahiri.
Al Zawahiri eventually co-founded al Qaeda with Osama. He
was pivotal, according to official accounts, in convincing OBL
to expand the jihad globally. Azzam strongly disagreed with
the pair's idea to move operations beyond Afghan borders.
Following The Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan in
1989, Osama and al Zawahiri formed a fighting force whose
aim was to use terror to take jihad to these foreign 'enemies.'
Abdullah Azzam continued his objections, resulting in
Ayman al Zawahiri accusing him of spying for the CIA.
Azzam died in a car bombing later that same year and an
unrestrained Osama and al Zawahiri forged ahead with their
plan. Al Qaeda began to form and Osama took leadership of
