Posted on 09/11/2001 7:51:56 AM PDT by Kate22
Within minutes of the horrific plane crash at the World Trade Centre, information began emerging suggesting it was not a terrible accident but a terrorist attack.
The FBI had already been investigating reports of a plane hijacking before the first plane hit the building.
Then came the attack on the Pentagon in Washington - removing any remaining doubt.
Middle Eastern terrorism is likely to be central to the inquiry.
A caller claiming to represent a Palestinian group, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, told Abu Dhabi television it had carried out the attack, in the first claim of responsibility to be received.
However, the claim was subsequently denied by a senior official from the group.
Terrorist attacks frequently attract several claims from groups which were not involved, and more can be expected, says regional expert Abdul Bari Atwan, chief of London Arab daily newspaper Al-Quds.
It is not the first time the World Trade Centre has been the target of a terrorist attack.
Earlier attacks
In February 1993 a bomb went off in the basement car park, killing six people and injuring hundreds of others.
Blind Muslim cleric Sheik Omar Abdul-Rahman was jailed for in 1995 for plotting the attack on the centre and on the United Nations, also in New York.
But the man blamed for ultimately being behind the campaign was the US's most notorious and most wanted suspect - Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden.
He will feature heavily in early speculation about responsibility for today's attack.
US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were blown up in 1998, in attacks also blamed on followers of Bin Laden.
The trial of four men accused of the attacks heard that they were part of an international conspiracy led by Bin Laden to kill Americans.
In October 2000, an attack on the USS Cole warship in Yemen was also attributed to Bin Laden supporters. No link has been found, but the dissident has been quoted as praising the attack.
In March 1997, in an interview with US news channel CNN, Bin Laden warned that if Amercian Government was serious about avoiding explosions inside the US, it should "stop provoking the feelings" of Muslims.
But Americans have frequently been hit by Middle Eastern terrorism from other sources.
Gadaffi
When Pan-Am flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, the trail led back to Colonel Gadaffi's Libya.
However, investigators may also focus their attention closer to home.
When the Oklahoma City bomb went off, Bin Laden was everyone's favourite suspect.
But it became clear that attack was the work not of a Middle Eastern extremist, but a disaffected young American man, Timothy McVeigh.
He was one of hundreds of Americans who see the federal government as an enemy of individual freedom, and have vowed to fight against it.
Whoever is responsible for the latest attack, they clearly knew that they were attacking one of the highest profile buildings in the world.
President George W Bush said there would be "a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this attack".
He added: "Terrorism against this nation will not stand."
I agree. Keep an eye on the Far East for the next few days.
That's to be expected...and is probably part of the plan. I have little doubt that the real perps have planned it this way....as people are programmed to think this way.
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