Posted on 09/11/2001 11:04:07 PM PDT by HAL9000
Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, who is accused of masterminding the 1998 bomb attack on the US embassy in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, has denied that he is behind Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.Bin Laden contacted a Pakistani newspaper on Wednesday to say that he supported the attack, but was not involved, reported the BBC.
The denial will no doubt be welcomed by the Taliban government in Afghanistan, who have been sheltering bin Laden. They have denied that bin Laden is capable of launching such a complex operation.
However, US officials had said on Tuesday that the people who conducted attacks on New York and Washington that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon may have had links to Saudi exile bin Laden or his organization.
Names of suspected "terrorists" with possible ties to bin Laden's organization were found on the passenger rosters of the hijacked planes, a government source had said. Throughout Tuesday, US officials have said the massive attacks by hijackers who crashed commercial airplanes into the buildings may be linked to bin Laden. An Arab journalist with access to bin Laden told Reuters in London that the Saudi exile had spoken of an "unprecedented attack" on US interests three weeks ago. US officials, however, said they had no knowledge such an attack was coming. "There was no advance warning of this," one unidentified official said.
Asked if he believed bin Laden was responsible, Senator Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican who is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said: "A lot of things point to him."
"There are indications that people with links to bin Laden and the al Qaeda organization may have been responsible," an unnamed US official told Reuters. "There is reason to believe people with links to him may have been responsible for this."
US is still investigating whether the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen last year was tied to bin Laden.
But some intelligence analysts urged caution in making snap judgements about who was responsible for Tuesday's attacks, saying it could have been the work of other groups tied to the Middle East, angry over a perception that the United States supports Israel to the detriment of the Palestinians.
CNN reports that several groups, including Hamas, in the Middle East have denied responsibility.
President Bush, in the meanwhile, has said he would "make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."
Reuters contributed to this report.
Therefore, if the FOX report is accurate, than the only proper response is to tell Afghanistan, both the current government, specifically the Taliban, as well as counter-governments within Afghanistan which may have sympathy for Bin Laden, that they have two days to turn Osama Bin Laden over to the US authorities or we will declare war on Afghanistan and that their major cities and factories will undergo major air strikes and other military offensives. If the Afghan government, the Taliban, claims it is beyond their power to apprehend Bin Laden, then we strike immediately without waiting the two days.
This warning has probably been issued already. if my understanding of U.S. military protocol under these circumstances is accurate, there have been at least two dozen B-52s in the air at any given moment since the attacks began on Tuesday morning. By definition (because of their mission), this means that they are carrying enough nuclear-tipped cruise missiles to incinerate two continents.
If they cannot coexist in the civilized 21st century world, let's send them straight back to the 12th, where they will not be able to get out and spread their evil poison any more.
China gave intel to sadam, we sent them a cruise missile as our thank you note... and have repeatedly took out their optic fiber command and control systems they sold and installed in Iraq for their little muslim whore... sadaam.
If sadaam is involved, CHINA is too. THIS is their move on TAIWAN coming to a crescendo... I THINK. WE get wrapped up in our own infrastructure problems, focus on the arabs... while they park their subs off our coast, and plan to invade Taiwan... its time folks... and China is ready and practiced up for the big show. The east coast got terrorist planes as bombs... Will the chinese test their new nukes on us here in LA or San Fran? Or Seattle and San Diego subic bases? I dunno, this stinks bigger than osami and afganistan to me.
We better be on our game, when we crystalize these pukes.
China may need a lesson too. I wonder, are we tough enough to do em both?
If Russia aligns with us, yes. If NOT no. I see very great danger. God give W and our military, and our congress the wisdom they need to do the right thing... and do it now.
There is something fishy about all this. While I would not be surprised if Osama Bin Laden was behind this, I'd also not be surprised if some third party (China perhaps?) is trying to push the U.S. into war against the Middle East so that we'll weaken ourselves on that front and be unable to resist an attack from the third party.
These morons are trying to pull a Klinton.
Unfortunately for them they don't have the lip biting thing down and they have really bad facial hair.
Does anyone expect him to come right out and admit it? His days are numbered. We don't want to bring him to justice. We want to bring him to death, and all his scum bag friends, and those who harbor them. We know who harbors them too. I imagine they are already looking to the sky, for a fearsome show of judgement.
Attacking Afghanistan wouldn't stop this widespread group. That would merely appease the anger of the American people. As if they didn't know we'd strike there?? The real war is in espionage and info. Search and destroy. The behind the scenes thankless jobs.
I don't buy this. I'm sure Osama is a bad man. But I need more proof then this before I condone indiscriminate bombing.
Some guy happens to have an Arab name, and he's got ties to Bin Laden now. Where's the evidence?
Our government has utterly failed to protect us (the only mandate it's got is national defense).
We're too busy using our troops as puppets for the U.N. to bother with National Defense. Let's blame some guy who for all we know doesn't even exist in real life.
Why wouldn't he? What fear does he have of being caught? How do you know he actually exists? The FBI says so? "Kilroy was here."
Was there ever a guy named Kilroy? Was there a real Uncle Sam?
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