Osama bin Laden Hype Misled Public

“If what the government has told us about 9/11 is a lie,” said William Rodriguez, a fireman who survived the WTC attack, “somebody has to take action to reveal the truth.”

(BOSTON, Mass.) - A National Public Radio rehashing of the 1999 Egypt Air crash made me uneasy.

It seemed like an effort to indoctrinate listeners to believe that Muslims would commit suicide by deliberately crashing passenger jets. I wondered what was coming.

The sky was blue and deceptively cheerful in New Jersey a few weeks later on September 11, 2001, when I heard about the attack on the World Trade Center.

My husband called and told me to turn on the television.  As soon as I saw the flames and explosions, I recognised a professional made-for-TV event.

As I watched the endless repetition of dramatic camera shots, I perceived an attempt to hypnotise the public with a list of suspects that had emerged before any serious investigation could possibly have begun.

One ridiculous news story claimed that Mohammed Atta had left behind a handwritten note at the airport that began, “In the Name of Allah, my family, and myself!” No Muslim would ever use such a construction.

Grandiose spectacles like 9/11 have not typically characterised Islamic militants. The Taleban used to kill a handful of Russian occupation soldiers a day.  In the years since the WTC fell, there has never been any repeat attack on American soil.

Reuters reported on September 13th, 2001, that Osama bin Laden told Taleban officials he had no role in the terror attacks in the United States.

Bin Laden may be a lot of things, but he is not known to be a liar. “We asked from him, (and) he told (us) we don’t have any hand in this action,” stated Taleban ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef. Rather than provide evidence against bin Laden, the US imprisoned Zaeef in Guantanamo. He now lives under house arrest in Kabul.

On September 18, 2001, the Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli officials had warned Washington beforehand that “large-scale terrorist attacks on highly visible targets on the American mainland were imminent,” and specifically linked the plot to bin Laden.

Problems in the official version soon developed. Some of the TV photographs were faked, at least 7 of the alleged hijackers were alive, and one had died before 2001. Bin Laden videotapes aired on TV were proven fraudulent and mistranslated.

On June 5, 2006 Rex Tomb, Chief of Investigative Publicity for the FBI told Muckraker Report that bin Laden “has not been formally indicted and charged in connection with 9/11 because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11.” Robert Dreyfuss reported that former CIA officials claimed Department of Defense officials were “producing their own unverified intelligence reports to justify war.” Political analyst Eric Margolis notes, “Such ‘experts’ echoed the White House party line and all were dead wrong. Yet amazingly, many are still on air, continuing to misinform the public.”

A man whose nine children were killed when the US bombed his home told Yvonne Ridley, “There has been a lot of fighting around here between the Taleban and the Americans. They are searching for Osama bin Laden but everyone knows he is not here.”

The Pentagon has used the bin Laden hype for years to justify stationing warships and submarines off the Pakistani coast; kidnapping and torturing prisoners such as Abu Zubaydah and his uncle Khalid Sheikh Mohammad based on hearsay by anonymous sources; and testing new hi-tech weapons like Predator unmanned drones and air-sucking thermo-baric bombs on a defenseless population. The US government arrested thousands of Muslims and deported hundreds. Not a single one of them has ever been convicted on terrorism charges.

In February 2009, 9/11 widow Beverly Eckert died in a plane crash days after she voiced her concerns to President Obama about the 9/11 investigation. Eckert was suing the Federal government to force testimony about what went wrong that day. She formed a Family Steering Committee to address the 9/11 Commission with questions like why on September 9th the president already had a war plan on his desk to go into Afghanistan; how the passports of two alleged hijackers survived the inferno; why Mayor Rudy Giuliani had the metal from the collapsed towers sold as scrap for recycling overseas.

“That metal was evidence which could have helped explain the collapse,” Eckert believed. She asked why high-ranking Pentagon officials cancelled travel plans for the morning of September 11 “apparently because of security concerns?” What are the names of the individuals and the financial institutions that bought “puts” on American Airlines and United Airlines during the three weeks prior to 9/11? Who profited? Why didn’t F-16s intercept the hijacked airliners? Why was protocol not followed on 9/11? Why did Dick Cheney hinder CIA and FBI investigations?

“If what the government has told us about 9/11 is a lie,” said William Rodriguez, a fireman who survived the WTC attack, “somebody has to take action to reveal the truth.”

Karin Friedemann is a Boston-based writer on the Middle East affairs and US politics

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Henry Ruark May 6, 2009 6:24 pm (Pacific time)

Re Shamus: Shame on you, "shamus", as boastful bad-mouther who can do nothing but threaten in face of factual statements from trained journalist. See other threads for more cantankerous caterwaulings. Shamus is Irish slang for paid-assassin type of low fellow masquerading as muscle for Lord of lands, known for fleeing showdown when faced with real Irishmen. It is insult among real Irish,reveals shamus ignorance by name choice alone. His stuff sounds much like what the GOP noise machine might set up for open, honest, democratic channel, don't you think ? Content-level of comment is about right, too...with never an independent-source/fact and nasty neocon/cant in couple of threads here. You pays your money and this is what you sometimes get from such as shamus: Abuse of right to free speech, rant/rave re personal proliferations, but nothing substantive worth time, attention, and space. We deserve better and also deserve protection from such rave/rant/revealing-stuff as this...

Shamus May 6, 2009 10:48 am (Pacific time)

It will be a good day when we totally elimanate all our enemies foreign and domestic, but the domestic enemies will be especially sweet! Time is coming and there will be no place to hide for the enemies of my country, the United States of America.

Tim King: Are you staring in a mirror at yourself as you say that? Are you happy about the 4,000 plus of my brothers and sisters that have been killed on the battlefield in Bush's ego war in Iraq? Are you good with that? Are you good with how much all of our forces in Afghanistan got screwed in terms of military resources by the war in Iraq? You sound like a little punk and I think you're about done around here. Veiled threats are the work of men parading as little girls.

Dorsett Bennett May 5, 2009 10:54 pm (Pacific time)

The government often does stupid things and then often lies about doing them. After Pearl Harbor, FDR locked up in concentration camps Japanese-Americans on the mainland despite knowing that they were no threat to the country. No such actions were taken against the thousands of members of the pro-Hitler/German Bunds that were created in areas where there were large concentrations of German-Americans. Racism? In 1947 a rancher brought into Roswell, New Mexico some materials he found. The local Air Force Base issued a report to the Roswell paper that they were there remains of an outer space craft. The next day the government said they were simply a weather balloon. That was a lie! Decades later the government finally admitted that it was not a weather balloon, but the remains were from highly classified Project Mogul, and attempt to use long-range balloons to monitor the Soviet nuclear program. This did not stop the conspiracy theorists regarding ‘the aliens.’ It seemed to foster that instead, apparently because since the government admitted to lying, they must still be lying! The Bush administration lied to us for years regarding the reasons we went to war and denying that we were torturing people. Condoleezza Rice apparently dismissed the warnings of an imminent attack by Al Qaeda on US soil, and then denied it. Hundreds of other examples could be brought to light. Barack Obama was elected for a number of reasons; disgust with the Bush administration and the belief Obama was a person of principle, and not just programs. It is now becoming apparent that he is much more concerned with his programs than the principle of cleaning up the festering sore of the Bush/Cheney torture program that was clearly illegal under both US and international law. Therefore I can understand and sympathize with those that believe that the Al Qaeda attack on 9/11 was a government conspiracy. My harsh comment made previously was uncalled for, and I apologize for it. But at the end of the day Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK, and a group of Al Qaeda terrorists (mostly Saudi Arabians) hijacked four airplanes and attacked us. RIP

mary May 4, 2009 8:05 pm (Pacific time)

http://wingnutprophet.blogspot.com/2008/01/who-killed-john-oneil.html quite a piece of work on the subject of 911 I highly reccomend a thoughtful viewing

stephen May 4, 2009 6:56 pm (Pacific time)

Rumsfeld on September 10, 2001.. How convenient sept 11 came along... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGl0sisd4Bc If you care about truth, investigate like I did. AE911truth.org. TO Daniel: dream on. WTC #7 fell freefall.. That cant happen. The NIST had to change their documentation when AE911truth.org confronted them. Yes, I threw up for days when I learned this, so I understand why others dont want to believe it. But I am better now, and glad I went thru the pain.

stephen May 4, 2009 6:44 pm (Pacific time)

OBL was a CIA operative 1980's. I blogged and wrote congress/ senate in July 2001 because of William Cooper and this short 2 minute video. Where were you? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8Hk1-BpXO8 Also: Credible scientists worldwide are now confirming this: Thermite found at WTC: http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/06/341238.shtml Both Bush and Rice said "we never knew something like this could happen.. in reality, NORAD was doing drills the same day for this exact scenario.. USA TODAY: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-04-18-norad_x.htm

Dorsett Bennett May 4, 2009 1:31 pm (Pacific time)

I have known any number of Moslems from India, Pakistan, various Arab countries and Iran. My experiences with them have almost always been positive. I have no hatred of the Moslim world. But there are hateful fanatics in every religion. Islam is no exception to that rule. I also understand that many Moslems are rightfully angry with the USA's interference in their affairs, such as the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953. But the writer's claim that it was not planned and executed by Al Qaeda is as lame and ridiculous as the claims of the conspiracy theorists who believe that 21 hijackers, of whom 19 were Saudi Arabian attendees of the Wahhabist Madrasahs of the Saudi kingdom was a lie, and the buildings were actually destroyed by bombs planted inside them by the US government. Both theories are patently ridiculous. GOOD GRIEF!

Daniel Johnson May 4, 2009 10:12 am (Pacific time)

Now that the Bush cabal is out of power it is possible, just possible, to uncover the truth about a lot of events of the last eight years or so--particular 9/11. Barry Zwicker is a Canadian journalist and media critic. He argues that 9/11 was an "inside job", and a "false flag operation". He produced an eight part series "The Great Conspiracy: the 9/11 documentary you never saw". Here's the first part on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OVn89Ly0nk If you find it of interest the remaining parts are easy to find. He also wrote a book on 9/11 titled: "Towers of Deception: The Media Cover-up of 9/11"

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Osama bin Laden Hype Misled Public

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