You are right, Natalia, there is no evidence that Usama bin Laden carried out or planned the September 11 attacks. There is considerable circumstantial evidence that he did not.
There is evidence that after the attacks, Usama bin Laden and key al-Qaida leaders, already accused of carrying out the attacks, decided in a number of ways to embrace and exploit the accusation to advance their general purposes. There was tremendous and understandable pressure on the US intelligence agencies to identify the culprit. Usama bin Laden and al-Qaida were obvious suspects, had already engineered comparable attacks in the past, and made for plausible culprits. Some of the people who pointed the finger at al-Qaida privately felt that if it was not responsible for September 11, it deserved on the basis of its previous attacks to be nailed for September 11. Others felt that it would be useful to correctly identify the real culprits, and yet others who agreed that it was not al-Qaida felt that it would not be useful -- for any of several reason -- to identify the real culprits. I offer no speculation as to who did it, nor have I studied the myriad conspiracy theories that do so. I guess that the myth will control the public history of the matter. Cheers, Lawry On Aug 2, 2012, at 2:58 PM, D & N wrote: > Mike, > > As mentioned at the end of my reply to Keith, I was drawing attention to the > Al Qaeda/US associations of convenience and inconvenience, which is > conspiratorial in nature. > > I have never believed, nor have I read nor seen anything one could call > incontrovertible evidence of Bin Laden's guilt. I agree with your point > below, and would add that I find it particularly annoying that all media > sources these days make the same presumption based on popular belief derived > from propaganda. The acceptance of this single fabrication gave licence to > all other lies around 9/11 and the two oil wars that followed. > > Natalia > > On 01/08/2012 10:24 PM, Mike Spencer wrote: >> Natalia wrote: >> >>> Conspiracy theory debunkers-- cover your eyes. >> Maybe I haven't been paying attention. After all, there's been >> gigabytes of stuff written and said about 9/11 in the last decade, >> much of it obviously totally crackpot in character. I haven't read >> most of it and I haven't watched dozens (or hundreds) of hours of TV >> "news" and punditry. >> >> But remind me: just when was it conclusively established the bin Laden >> was responsible for the attack? Immediately after the attack, he was >> quoted in the press as saying [1]: >> >> I was not involved in the September 11 attacks in the United >> States nor did I have knowledge of the attacks. There exists a >> government within a government within the United States. The >> United States should try to trace the perpetrators of these >> attacks within itself; to the people who want to make the >> present century a century of conflict between Islam and >> Christianity. That secret government must be asked as to who >> carried out the attacks. ... The American system is totally in >> control of the Jews, whose first priority is Israel, not the >> United States. -- Osama bin Laden (Reported by BBC) >> >> I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September >> attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to >> avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of these attacks, nor >> do I consider the killing of innocent women, children and other >> humans as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing >> harm to innocent women, children and other people. Such a >> practice is forbidden even in the course of a battle. >> -- Osama bin Laden (Sep 2001) >> >> AFAIK, he never contradicted that position. >> >> The usual rule is that the perpetrators of political violence, whether >> terror, assassination or whatever, seek credit for the victory over the >> hated foe. >> >> So: was there ever anything conclusive that fingered ObL? Or is "ObL >> done it" something that Everybody Knows [2] and I should just feel, >> you know, humiliated and inadequate because I don't know it also? >> >> >> - Mike >> >> >> [1] I don't have exact references to cite. You can probably google key >> phrases and find them. >> >> [2] A case of epistemological engineering? >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
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