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.
the chinese would not lose any sleep at all for killing their own to further their cause.
Everybody keeps saying how this required a large organization of support. I just don't believe that for a minute. As far as plane routes and schedules? Have you checked the internet lately? How many weeks or months would it take for you to check the schedules of all major airlines flying into and out of major airports for intra-continental flights? Oh, excuse me, how many minutes?
And building engineering experience? It doesn't take a masters degree in structural engineering to know that a crash into one of those towers (they're very heavy, by the way) would create explosions and fires that would affect the structural integrity of the steel supports. And once the support of one level goes, if it were far enough from the top, the weight of the structure above it as it collapsed, would create enough momentum to accordion the floors below...which appears to be what happened.
I just don't believe this took such a large organization...just a bunch of zealots with the seed having been planted for them to meet Allah. This whole thing could have been hatched by Muhammar Quadafi of Lybia following our attack on his headquarters years ago. There's been ample time for him to have indoctrinated young men and/or women who may, as young children or teenagers at the time, have been victims of our attack. The only mistake we made then, was not following up when we found out he had not been hurt. That kind of hate builds and builds, and it makes the individual more objective - and quiet,not wishing to telegraph one's moves - about his goals. He or Saddam Hussein is the number one suspect in my book. Hussein, specifically, to get back at the Bush family. But I don't deny the possibility that others may have masterminded it, either. They're too many possibilities, when considering all the ones we've let get away in the past, due to our idiotic appeasement policies.
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Plausible deniability: Osama learned well from his enabler, Bill Clinton.
It's time to make Afghanistan into a parking lot. Maybe send a few "strays" into Palestinian centers as well. I hope those celebrating mother f**kers see the Flag on the bombs before they incinerate them.
Only one answer to both: DEATH.
The American Jihad against cowardly Islamic terrorists.
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We will consider any country that helps them, even if it is through inaction, to be associated with these individuals. This was an act of WAR. We Americans will treat this as WAR.
The individuals whom did this directed this operation from a patch of land. Every patch of land is defined by a country. Once we identify that country, that country will experience the entire consequences of our anger. We will engage that country and the inhabitants of that country as enimies of the United States.
Because the United States is a member of NATO, all NATO allies are bound to participate with the United States against this country. If Congress determines that a state of war exists, the American people will support full operational activation of the nuclear weapons at our disposal.
The Premier of Russia has conviened with the President and has agreed to support the United States actions without question.
Is this shocking? haven't you heard this? Perhaps it is because you (any one not understanding the rage we Americans feel) do not understand the real consequences of this action. I don't know one American, not one, (and I live in Boston - Liberal Mecca of the Nation) who does not support Nuclear confliguration.
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Osama Bin Laden resides in Afghanistan.
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.
We strike without even demanding that they give up Bin Laden. We will make no distinction between the terrorist and the country that harbors them. If the country of Afghanistan had done this, we would not pussy foot around and demand that they give us something or else. We would bomb them back in retaliation. That's what Bush meant. There is NO distinction. If a terrorist was harbored by you, you will pay the price as surely as the terrorist...or you will pay the price first and then we'll hunt down the terrorist.
That would be typical terrorist behavior.
I don't think that they expected nearly all of the hijacked planes to make it. I think they thought they would be extremely successful if they could merely hijack one plane, much less hijack all four and be able to crash three of them at targets.
I know we are all angry, but there will be NO NUKES
used by us period.
Make your time.
We have no neutron bombs in our arsenal, thanks to Jimmy Carter
He considered them to be just too awful.
Of course all our likely enemies have them.
No,it's not. The object of terror is to terrorize. This destabalizes gooberments that are the objects of that terror because their citizens lose faith in their ability to protect them.
The object/purpose of claiming "credit" for a terrorist act is to attract recruits,money,and political power. bin Laden already has all this.
Sadly though, it is not as hard as you might think. The "news" programs have been running "how-to" shows about getting onto airplanes unobserved and unchallenged months ago. A higher-up said Tom Clancy wrote about this very scenario. Actually, the fact that it was kept a secret so well pretty much indicates that it was a relatively small scale operation, or that most participants were kept in the dark. The only real difficulty would be ensuring that the flights were not delayed, because simultaneity would be required for maximal "success" (a bad word in this case) and that is simply a matter of buying tickets on westward flights out of Boston from several carriers. They obviously had the trained pilots, as there is no American pilot who would aim his plane at a building, no matter what was being held to his head.
I don't doubt that Arafat, Hussein and other were, or would sorely loved to have been, part of this cowardice, but don't think that its being carried out required their participation. I hold them partly responsible though as accomplices.
Nobody took responsibility for the bombing of the World Trade Center. Nobody took responsibility for the recent embassy bombings. Nobody took responsibility for Oklahoma City. Nobody took responsibility for the attack on the Cole.
Terrorism has changed. In recent years, it's become common to deny responsibility.
Now you do. Me.
Good enough for me. Nuke him and everyone who supports him now.
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