Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com
Robalini's Note: For those who are unaware, the American Free Press
is the new version of The Liberty Lobby, a right-wing populist
organization who have a deserved reputation for anti-Semitism.
Having said that, noted Zionist underground journalist Barry Chamish
personally stated that for all its faults, "I trust The Liberty Lobby
more than I trust the New York Times."
Whatever the faults of the philosophy of the philosophy of American
Free Press may be - just as, as so many have recent whined, whatever
the faults of the philosophy of the WSWS - this is some of the most
important questions and stories I have seen printed yet about the 911
tragedy. So long as the American Free Press continues to do such
important work, The Konformist will pass on their work without any
reservations.
http://www.americanfreepress.net
Evidence Hard to Come by in WTC Case
Much of the case against the Muslim terrorists in the Trade Center
attacks is based on copies of a letter considered by experts to be a
fraud.
By Christopher Bollyn
It has been exactly one month since four passenger planes were
involved in an atrocious act of terrorism on American soil and yet no
hard evidence has been presented associating the prime suspect, Osama
bin Laden, with the events of Sept. 11.
A case has been built, largely in the media, blaming Muslim
terrorists for hijacking the passenger planes and flying them into
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The much-awaited scientific
evidence from the planes' flight data recorders, the "black boxes,"
has yet to be presented.
An FBI spokesman told American Free Press on Oct. 11 that only two
black boxes had been retrieved from the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania
crash sites but the information they contain has not been released,
although AFP was told that it would be "eventually."
In the eye of the public, much of the government's case against the
19 Muslim Arabs named as suspects rests on copies of a suspicious and
possibly spurious five-page letter, hand-written in Arabic, which has
turned up in three different locations. However, the document itself
raises more questions than it answers, leading one expert to say that
it could be "the greatest falsification in history."
A law enforcement official described the letter to the press as "a
spiritual instruction manual" giving the terrorists step-by-step
instructions for their suicide mission and preparing them spiritually
for death. The document contained a mission checklist and
instructions for mental and spiritual preparation, the official said,
speaking on condition of anonymity, according to USA Today on Oct. 2.
One copy was found in Mohammed Atta's suitcase, which "mysteriously"
was left behind at the airport in Portland, Maine. Another copy was
found in the wreckage in Pennsylvania and a third was found in the
car of one of the suspects.
Muslim scholars and specialists question the authenticity of the
letter saying the phraseology and style are "un-Islamic." "This is
not the way Muslims speak or think, there is a mysterious element
here, and the FBI knows it for sure," Mohammed Hurub, a Muslim
scholar from Bethlehem said.
There are serious questions and problems with a number of foreign and
peculiar phrases and ideas contained in the text of the letter.
If the letter, which is described as "part theological, part mission
statement" is genuine, "then the men who murdered more than 7,000
innocent people believed in a very exclusive version of Islam-or were
surprisingly unfamiliar with their religion," Middle East expert and
journalist Robert Fisk says.
The problems first arise in the opening lines of the letter, "In the
name of God, the most merciful, the most compassionate . . . in the
name of God, of myself, and of my family." No Muslim would include
his family in such a prayer, Fisk says, but would mention the Prophet
Mohammed immediately after he mentioned God.
Furthermore, the letter lacks any mention whatsoever of the specific
political reasons for the planned actions that could tie the suspects
to the agenda advocated by Osama bin Laden. Why is there no mention
of the political reasons that would compel these men to take such
drastic action?
Although the original letter has not been found, the copied text
reads "remind yourself that in this night you will face many
challenges. But you have to face them and understand it 100
percent . . ."
American scholars raise doubts about the use of "100 percent" noting
that it is "hardly a theological term to be found in a religious
exhortation," according to Fisk.
The letter urges the reader to recite the morning prayer and then
goes on to quote from it. A devout Muslim would hardly need to be
told of his duty to say his prayers and would certainly not need to
be reminded of the text of those prayers. It is as if a Christian
would have to be reminded of The Lord's Prayer.
In some respects similar to the suspicious "diaries" of Lee Harvey
Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan, there are many other problems with this
letter which is now being used as "evidence" to tie the suspects
together in a religiously-motivated conspiracy.
*****
STILL ALIVE? FBI Mixed Up on True Identities of Perpetrators
Some of the men the FBI claims hijacked planes on Sept. 11 and
crashed them into hubs of U.S. finance and defense are still alive.
Exclusive to American Free Press
By Christopher J. Petherick
At least six men the FBI says were part of the ring of 19 hijackers
who seized passenger jets with box cutters on Sept. 11 and crashed
them into the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon
are "alive and well," report Mideast officials.
Information Times, an on-line publication, reported that Saudi
Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal told the Arabic Press
after meeting with President George W. Bush on Sept. 20: "It was
proved that five of the names included in the FBI list had nothing to
do with what happened."
According to The Orlando Sentinel, the Saudi Arabian embassy
confirmed that four of the five mentioned by Al-Faisal -Saeed
Alghamdi, Mohand Alshehri, Abdul aziz Alo mari and Salem Alhazmi-are
not dead and had nothing to do with the heinous terror attacks in New
York and Washington.
Saudi officials at the embassy were un able to verify the whereabouts
of the fifth accused hijacker, Khalid Al-Mihdhar. However, Arab
newspapers say Al-Mihd har is still alive.
NUMBER SIX
A sixth person on the FBI's list, Saudi national Waleed Alshehri, is
living in Casablanca, according to an official with the Royal Air
Moroc, the Moroccan commercial airline.
According to the unnamed official, Alshehri lived in Dayton Beach,
Fla., where he took flight training at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University. Now he works for a Moroccan airline.
On Sept. 22, Associated Press reported that Alshehri had spoken to
the U.S. embassy in Morocco.
The FBI acknowledges that the identities of some of the purported
hijackers are still in question because some of the suspects' names
on flight rosters had been reported stolen months before the attacks
took place.
Why the FBI still lists these men as suspected hijackers who were
killed during the terrorist assault remains a mystery.
The following contains the FBI's list of suspected hijackers:
American Airlines No. 77, Boeing 757
1) Khalid Almihdhar-Possible Saudi national
Possible resident of San Diego, California, and New York
Alias: Sannan Al-Makki; Khalid Bin Muhammad; Addallah Al-Mihdhar;
Khalid Mohammad Al-Saqaf
2) Majed Moqed-Possible Saudi national
Alias: Majed M.GH Moqed; Majed Moqed, Majed Mashaan Moqed
3) Nawaf Alhazmi-Possible Saudi national
Possible resident of Fort Lee, New Jersey; Wayne, New Jersey; San
Diego, California
Alias: Nawaf Al-Hazmi; Nawaf Al Hazmi; Nawaf M.S. Al Hazmi
4) Salem Alhazmi-Possible Saudi national
Possible resident of Fort Lee, New Jersey; Wayne, New Jersey
5) Hani Hanjour
Possible resident of Phoenix, Arizona, and San Diego, California
Alias: Hani Saleh Hanjour; Hani Saleh; Hani Hanjour, Hani Saleh H.
Hanjour
American Airlines No. 11, Boeing 767
1) Satam M.A. Al Suqami-Possible Saudi national
Dates of birth used: June 28, 1976; Last known address: United Arab
Emirates
2) Waleed M. Alshehri-Possible Saudi national
Dates of birth used: Sept. 13, 1974; Jan. 1, 1976; March 3, 1976;
July 8, 1977; Dec. 20, 1978; May 11, 1979; Nov. 5, 1979
Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida; Orlando, Florida;
Daytona Beach, Florida
Believed to be a pilot
3) Wail M. Alshehri
Date of birth used: Sept. 1, 1968
Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida; Newton, Massachusetts
Believed to be a pilot
4) Mohamed Atta-Possible Egyptian national
Date of birth used: Sept. 1, 1968
Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida; Coral Springs, Florida;
Hamburg, Germany
Believed to be a pilot
Alias: Mehan Atta; Mohammad El Amir; Muhammad Atta; Mohamed El
Sayed; Mohamed Elsayed; Muhammad Muhammad Al Amir Awag Al Sayyid
Atta; Muhammad Muhammad Al-Amir Awad Al Sayad
5) Abdulaziz Alomari-Possible Saudi national
Dates of birth used: Dec. 24, 1972 and May 28, 1979
Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida
Believed to be a pilot
United Airlines No. 175, Boeing 767
1) Marwan Al-Shehhi
Date of birth used: May 9, 1978
Possible residence(s): Hollywood, Florida
Believed to be a pilot
Alias: Marwan Yusif Muhammad Rashid Al-Shehi; Marwan Yusif Muhammad
Rashid Lakrab Al-Shihhi; Abu Abdullah
2) Fayez Rashid Ahmed Hassan Al Qadi Banihammad
Possible residence(s): Delray Beach, Florida
Alias: Fayez Ahmad; Banihammad Fayez Abu Dhabi Banihammad; Fayez
Rashid Ahmed; Banihammad Fayez; Rasid Ahmed Hassen Alqadi; Abu Dhabi
Banihammad; Ahmed Fayez; Faez Ahmed
3) Ahmed Alghamdi
Alias: Ahmed Salah Alghamdi
4) Hamza Alghamdi
Possible residence(s): Delray Beach, Fla.
Alias: Hamza Al-Ghamdi; Hamza Ghamdi; Hamzah Alghamdi;Hamza
Alghamdi Saleh
5) Mohand Alshehri
Possible residence(s): Delray Beach, Fla.
Alias: Mohammed Alshehhi; Mohamd Alshehri; Mohald Alshehri
United Airlines No. 93, Boeing 757
1) Saeed Alghamdi
Possible residence: Delray Beach, Florida
Alias: Abdul Rahman Saed Alghamdi; Ali S Alghamdi; Al- Gamdi; Saad
M.S. Al Ghamdi; Sadda Al Ghamdi; Saheed Al-Ghamdi; Seed Al Ghamdi
2) Ahmed Ibrahim A. Al Haznawi - Possible Saudi national
Date of birth used: Oct. 11, 1980
Possible residence: Delray Beach, Fla.
Alias: Ahmed Alhaznawi
3) Ahmed Alnami
Possible residence: Delray Beach, Fla.
Alias: Ali Ahmed Alnami; Ahmed A. Al-Nami; Ahmed Al- Nawi
4) Ziad Samir Jarrah
Believed to be a pilot
Alias: Zaid Jarrahi; Zaid Samr Jarrah; Ziad S. Jarrah; Ziad Jarrah
Jarrat, Ziad Samir Jarrahi H
*****
What Does Bin Laden Really Want?
While the U.S. government and mainstream media refuse to discuss the
foreign policies that breed resentment against America in the Islamic
world, ignoring these fundamental issues can only per petuate the
conflict.
Exclusive to American Free Press
By Christopher Bollyn
It was late on Sunday morning when President George W. Bush began
his "war against terrorism" by launching 50 cruise missiles and
bombing raids on Taliban targets in Afghanistan.
Within hours, Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind behind the
terror attacks of Sept. 11, responded with an effective counter-
offensive in the war of words. Bin Laden spoke to the world through a
taped message broadcast by Al Jazeera, the most widely watched
television news channel in the Arab world.
The American mass media portrays bin Laden as "consumed by hatred for
the West" and misrepresents his primary political goals of restoring
integrity to Saudi Arabia and confronting American abuses in the
Middle East.
"Bush and Blair may tell the world they are going to win the 'war
against terrorism' but in the Middle East, where Osama bin Laden is
acquiring almost mythic status among Arabs, they have already lost,"
Robert Fisk of The Indepen dent said on Oct. 10.
A resident of Cairo told Fisk that Arabs believe America "is trying
to kill the one man ready to tell the truth."
Bin Laden, who "is hardly a madman," according to experts, despises
the Saudi royal family, which he regards as corrupt surrogates of
American rule. In 1998, bin Laden said he expects "for the ruler of
Riyadh the same fate as the shah of Iran." Because the Saudi royal
family "sells the interests of its own people and betrays the
nation," bin Laden said,
"They shall all be wiped out."
"The United States is committed to defending the House of Saud
against any internal political movement that might want to get rid of
it, or perhaps even reform it," Writes Said K. Aburish, author of The
Rise, Corruption, and Coming Fall of the House of Saud.
The American troops in Saudi Arabia are seen as protecting the royal
family, which "is becoming less acceptable by the day," Aburish says.
The House of Saud is not unlike the regime of Saddam Hussein,
according to Aburish, "People still disappear in the middle of the
night in Saudi Arabia; people are imprisoned without being charged;
people have no voice in the running of the government, and they have
squandered the country's wealth . . . the country is not only broke,
they are heavily in debt.
"Saudi Arabia operates in very mysterious ways. . . . We are talking
about a closed society ," he said. The royal family is dedicated to
keeping the kingdom closed because "outside influences would include
calls for human rights, equality, democracy and things of this sort
that the House of Saud is not about to tolerate," Aburish said.
The oppressive conditions in the country are causing massive unrest,
although due to suppression by the government, Islamic fundamentalism
provides the only vehicle for political reform movements-and these
are becoming increasingly violent. "Osama bin Laden is the prophet of
these movements," Aburish says, whose "number one issue" is that
American troops should leave Saudi Arabia, and secondly that "there
should be a Muslim Jerusalem where Islamic holy places are
protected."
Bin Laden has "developed a stunningly deceptive regional war calculus
that stands a reasonable chance of success," according to Paul M.
Wihbey of the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies
in Washington.
"His strongest belief is that Saudi Arabia can be brought to its
knees, the House of Saud deposed," Wihbey says. His "overriding goal"
is to return to Saudi Arabia in triumph and put an end to the
existing regime.
Support for bin Laden's political program to reform Saudi Arabia
comes from all levels of society, Aburish says, including from
members of the House of Saud who belong to Islam ic fundamentalist
groups.
There is an ongoing power struggle between two competing factions in
the Saudi royal family over how to deal with American requests to
neutralize bin Laden, Wihbey said. One week after the terror attacks
it was reported that the ailing Saudi king, Fahd, had flown to Geneva
with a massive entourage and is now in seclusion.
If bin Laden survives and returns to Saudi Arabia, his supporters
will greet him as a Mahdi (messiah). This would mark "a dramatically
new geopolitical landscape," Wihbey said.
Bin Laden today stands accused by the U.S. government of
masterminding the kamikaze terror attacks in New York and Washington
although evidence linking him to the crimes has not been presented to
the public.
"Neither I nor my organization Al-Qaida is involved in the attacks
and the U.S. has traced the attackers within America," bin Laden told
the Karachi daily Ummat. "The attackers could be anybody, people who
are part of the American system yet rebel against it, or some group
that wants to make this century a century of confrontation between
Islam and Christianity."
Bin Laden has always carefully denied involvement in terror attacks
such as the U.S. embassy bombings saying it is not his job to
organize such attacks. His role is "to create awareness about the
injustices done by the U.S. to Muslims." He rails against
the "corrupting influence of the West" on the Muslim world. "What has
the West given the world? A lust for power and a license to loot and
plunder the poorer countries," he said in a recent interview with an
Arab journalist, as reported in The Washington Times.
"We are against the American system but not the Ameri can people.
Islam does not allow killing of innocent people, men, women and
children even in the event of war," he said to Ummat.
Although bin Laden denied personal responsibility for the terror
attacks, in the taped speech, broadcast as Bush began the bombing of
Afghanistan, he accused the United States of hypocrisy, murder, and
occupation of Islamic lands, articulating widely held grievances
which resonate throughout the Islamic and Arab world.
Bin Laden said that the suffering America is "tasting now" is
insignificant compared to the humiliation and degradation the Islamic
world has suffered for more than 80 years. "Its sons are killed, its
blood is shed, its sanctuaries are attacked, and no one hears and no
one heeds.
"Millions of innocent children are being killed as I speak. They are
being killed in Iraq without committing any sins," bin Laden said
about the human toll of the 11 years of U.S.-led sanctions on Iraq.
"Israeli tanks infest Palestine," bin Laden said, "in Jenin,
Ramallah, Rafah, Beit Jalla, and other places in the land of Islam,
and we don't hear anyone raising his voice or moving a limb.
"To America, I say only a few words to it and its people," bin Laden
concluded. "I swear by God, who has elevated the skies without
pillars, neither America nor the people who live in it will dream of
security before we live it in Palestine, and not before all the
infidel armies leave the land of Mohammed, peace be upon him.
"The enmity between us and the Jews," bin Laden said in 1998, "goes
far back in time and is deep rooted. There is no question that war
between the two of us is inevitable. The leaders in America and in
other countries as well have fallen victim to Jewish Zionist
blackmail," he said, "They have mobilized their people against Islam
and against Muslims.
"Our mothers and daughters and sons are slaughtered every day with
the approval of America and its support," he said. "And, while
America blocks the entry of weapons into Islamic countries, it
provides the Israelis with a continuous supply of arms allowing them
thus to kill and massacre more Muslims.
"The American government is leading the country toward hell. We say
to the Americans as people and to American mothers, if they cherish
their lives and if they cherish their sons, they must elect an
American patriotic government that caters to their interests, not the
interests of the Jews."
Al Jazeera, often called the CNN of the Arab world, reaches 35
million viewers and is the only news organization with a
correspondent and direct satellite link in Kabul, the Afghan capital.
Secretary of State Colin Powell appealed to the emir of Qatar, where
Al Jazeera is based, to stop the flow of information the network was
sending from Afghanistan.
Al Jazeera resisted American censorship saying that in order to be
seen as credible by its viewers it must show both sides of the
conflict. Bin Laden is a party to the conflict and has a point of
view that deserves to be heard, a spokesman for the network said.
The Voice of America, however, pulled an interview with Mullah Omar
Mohammed, the Taliban leader, following objections from the U.S.
deputy secretary of state and senior officials of the National
Security Council.
"America controls the governments of the Islamic countries . . . they
are in the grip of the United States," Omar said. "America has
created the evil that is attacking it. The evil will not disappear
even if I die and Osama dies and others die. The U.S. should step
back and review its policy. It should stop trying to impose its
empire on the rest of the world, especially on Islamic countries."
Iran's supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the
American-led attack on Afghanistan as cruelty and a major mistake for
the United States and Britain. The government of Iran is opposed to
the Taliban but is not assisting in the U.S.-led attack on
Afghanistan.
Khamenei said that it was not true that the strikes are part of a
campaign against terrorism. "Their real purpose is to expand their
[U.S. and U.K.] power and domination," he told a meeting of clerics
in Tehran the day after the bombing began.
"What can justify this oppression that will lead to the killing and
wounding of people and forcing many innocent Afghans to leave their
homes?
"The Americans must know that they might be able to achieve their
short-term goals with military strikes," he said. "But they will be
hurt in the long run. Without doubt, their acts will bring
instability for them."
Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi condemned the attacks and
expressed Iran's concerns that such military operation could "provoke
extremist reactions."
"We stressed from the beginning that terrorism cannot be eradicated
through military actions," he said at a news conference the day after
the bombing began. "Its causes must be identified and eliminated."
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